Austen delivers a haunting electronic pop sound in her latest track Anthem. Think a darker Ellie Goulding. She was named in triple j unearthed’s Top 40 Most Played Artists last year and ‘Artist to Watch‘ by Pilerats. The Australian artist debuted with the single ‘Faded’ which clocked over 500,000 Spotify streams and has shared the stage with The Kite String Tangle, Nicole Millar, KLP, and Running Touch. Check out her performance at Curious Music Festival in Brisbane on 3/30.

Mark Hill and Nat Slater release Happy Without Me. Yes, it’s another electro pop track in a crowded market but it stands out with it’s raw garage production and its bold chorus. Slater tells Kings, “The songs speaks for itself really – it’s about moving on from a relationship gone wrong…”. Mark Hill notes, “Nat is a brilliant young writer. In Happy Without Me she taps into a universal truth. Most of us know what it’s like to yearn for someone, be left out in the cold. This lyric embodies that completely.” Check out the video here.

I’m liking the melodic-dancey track Opening Up by CRUISR. Think 1975 meets Two Door Cinema Club. The band tells Kings, “Opening Up is a song about our relationship with love. In our youth we usually embrace our first loves, unknowingly exposing ourselves to harm. As we grow wiser, many people try to control or avoid love, for the sake of self-preservation. By doing this, we end up missing out on so much joy, because we fear the pain that comes with it. Opening Up asks the listener to let go and reacquaint themselves with unrestricted love. Opening Up was directly inspired by Kahlil Gibran’s poem, ‘On Love’.”

In fact, the band’s track All Over has just clocked over 10 million Spotify streams which came off their sophomore EP released on Vagrant Records. Moreover, the band toured with The 1975, Imagine Dragons, and PVRIS. Give it a listen.
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Bite the Buffalo just released a studio album ‘Bad Habits‘. After listening to the full album the track Deez Zees really stood out. Drawing influences from the seventies rock, the duo attracted Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant who invited them to support him at his Manchester Apollo show. They’ve opened for Fat White Family, Happy Mondays, The Growlers and Skindred performed the the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury. Give it a listen!

Kings favorite Young Optimist releases a new single Halos. Like their previous track Voice, it is cleverly produced and has a great melody. The band tells Kings, “Halos will probably have a different meaning for everyone and it should be subjective.” It’ tough to pin the sound of the band down, but they would fit nicely with The Black Keys and Weezer. Consequently, they’re writing better songs than most of their peers.
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