The Ampi

Phenomenal. Angelic. A Musical Maverick. Matt Corby commands your attention.

Routinely selling-out shows and running tracks up the Hottest 100 flagpole (including ARIA-winners "Resolution" and the galling "Brother") – Matt Corby retreated from the limelight after his mega hits to Figure It All Out.

Enter Telluric: the long-awaited debut album of the One and Only, and we’re aching and itching to get this under your skin, live and heard the way it should be.

The funk-inflected soul bounce of "Knife Edge"– with its expansive vocal part, natty drums, and richly-textured guitar tones – weds the Timeless and the Timely, and Corby can't be accused of recycling when it comes to lead single "Monday" – which is all but a capella. Second single  is exactly the kind of haute Sixties futurist style-piece we crave.

Hands up high, eyes to the stage. Matt Corby accepting our invitation to MMVAF16 is a Phenomenon that will create some serious Missing Out vibes should you, indeed, miss out. 

 

Spark up an electro fuse with a twist of house, blend with a galvanizing slowed down beat, and Peking Duk is served. Adam and Reuben are all set to bring their indie electronica to the Ampi with their electrifying live set including award-winning hits High, Take Me Over and their latest release Say My Name. 

Two singles in the Top 5 of the Hottest 100 (an amazing feat for their first entry into the countdown), a sold out national tour, a Rolling Stone Award for Best Video, and their SAFIA collab with ‘Take Me Over’ reaching double platinum sales, what’s left for these ARIA award winning megastars? Just enough time in their schedule to play the likes of Coachella, Lollapalooza and Squamish, while working on an album due to be released this year (in between playing a Vietnamese castle with Client Liaison). A festival highlight for many, all work, all play. Peking Duk are doing it the right way.

Too delectable to not lick your fingers, stay up late and get Sweaty. 

 

 

An art school drop out who left to devote himself full time to creating his melodic and pop-y hip hop jams, Allday’s stock is skyrocketing.

Breaking into the US hip hop scene with the backing of a prominent US label, those in the know Know, with no doubt, that he’s leading a new era in Aus Hip Hop.

Allday’s breakout multiple mixtapes, his entry in to the Hottest 100 with - we have to say it sounds like the soundtrack to an afternoon at MMVAF.

The release of his subsequent debut album Startup Cult saw two huge singles, ” and  again make the cut in the Hottest 100, paving the way for sold out National Tours, supports for Lily Allen and huge festival spots.

We’re pumped to have Allday’s brand of smooth production and thoughtful rhymes wash over us, and get our own taste of the internationally hyped mixtape Soft Grunge Love Rap. Our favourite procrastinator (see: “I Should Be Working On My Album But I’m Doing A Tour” Tour), just as sick with his , we can’t wait to have him all to ourselves September 10. 

Allday’s cult is spreading far. Catch him in the Sweet Spot.

Thought-provoking songwriting, hypnotic stage presence, George Maple is our kind of a girl. For one, the Aussie-born, London-based artist specialises in a fluid, finely tuned blend of between-the-sheets R&B and downtempo dance grooves. 

For another, when Noisey asked her to reflect on the recurring themes in her songs, she responded, “Sex, I guess,” before astutely adding: “It drives us to do the most absurd things. It's intertwined with so many parts of our life without us even realising it: power, money, relationships, love, lust, desire, sin, safety, vulnerability.” 

As a live performer, Maple has sold out shows across Australia, in L.A. and in London, appeared at Coachella, Lollapalooza, and The Warehouse Project, and performed alongside the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and our true-loves: Flight Facilities. George Maple’s captivating performances feature her breathtaking voice accompanied by live electronics, moving from ecstatic, energetic highs, soul shaking bass and moments of honest raw intimacy.Yeow.

With singles “ and  - her monster collaboration with What So Not - her writing and production credits also include artists like Hayden James, , , , and Tkay Maidza, racking up over 70 million Soundcloud plays across the board.

Rocking gold on her knuckles like a baller, George Maple sits comfortably well after dark, a sultry figure to greet you in the pink shade of the Ampi string lights. Get grimey. 

 

Masters of infectious turn-of-the-90s synth pop, informed by the production values of late 80s music television, Harvey Miller and Monte Morgan will be bringing in the good vibes for an absolute party starter.

Client Liaison’s sound plays out like a long lunch followed by a round of cocktails. Describing their sonic palate as ‘dance electric’, ‘new jack swing’ and ‘pop ballad’, this multisensory experience will feed any listeners’ appetite.

Current single “World of our Love” has an unescapable groove, you will know it when you hear it.  Shoulder rolls...

International in flavour, cosmopolitan in style – put it on the company card. Too much is never enough. Think nothing. Feel everything. Pleasure is good. Fantasy is truth.

Experience Client Liaison.

 

A Slow Burn Success Story that delivers and delivers with each glorious slice of City Calm Down.

It seems an age since hearing “Pleasure and Consequence” for the first spin.  The early releases to follow forshadowed big things from the Melbourne four-piece and the release of In a Restless House has certainly packed a punch.  

After "Movements”, “Pavement” and “Speak to No End” the band found progress in good old fashioned band-led jam production.  What they've come up with is one of the most complete album’s of 2015. 

With a string of single’s that continue to come it’s a record that’s rich in textural, full sound.  With strong elements of post-punk and new-wave tethered to one of the most recogniseable drama-inducing baritones around, City Calm Down will not disappoint.

When Gab Strum started Japanese Wallpaper at 13, he never expected to have played the main stage at Falls Festival, delighted crowds at Splendour in the Grass, attracted the admiration of luminaries like Lorde and Gotye, and appeared in cinema soundtracks before he'd even finished high school.

Strum began picking up national and then international attention with his first single 'Breathe In', recorded with good friend Wafia. With Strum providing the arrangements and Wafia on lyrics and vocals, what resulted was breathtaking.

The sparkling production combining bright, spacious melodies with a sparse but rumbling beat, and Wafia's ethereal singing, made 'Breathe In' impossible to resist.

”Between Friends” - a rejection fantasy - followed with upcoming crooner Jesse Davidson. It takes the immortal hook from the Spice Girls' 'Wannabe' and flips it into a kiss off: "If you wanna be my friend / Stop tryin' to be my lover".  You’ve heard it.

Japanese Wallpaper has followed up his stellar self-titled EP with new single “Cocoon” and although being a self-professed collaborator, he has delivered on the new track and vocal.

Big Future for this guy, we think he fits the Ampi just right for an MMVAF afternoon.

Rhymes with Diary. 

Boho-R’n’B- weirdo-dilettante, holding the universe in the palm of her hands.

Without doubt Ngaiire is one of Australia’s most unique, eclectic and fearless artists, as evidenced by her electric shows,  and outrageous costumes.

The PNG-born songstress is another fantastic rep from the neo/future soul talent bank of Melbourne. Releasing Lamentations in 2013 lead to her first ever slot at Glastonbury, and shows with the likes of Alicia Keys and John Legend. 

She has tried her hand at writing music for dance companies, creating crazy sound installations for David Walsh’s MONA FOMA, collaborating with fashion designers and fostering friendships with Blue King Brown and the electro- music don Paul Mac (‘scuse the name dropping), however the new record Blastoma will be her biggest statement to date.

The first single  released in July received a rapturous response and catapulted her onto the festival circuit. “Diggin” hit our souls early this year, a heady groove that’s got us all eagerly awaiting what comes next.

This talented young woman certainly has a lot to say through multiple disciplines, mediums and muses.

Great afternoon vibes, I predict Euphoric Moments will be had.

 

The Adelaide 4 piece BAD//DREEMS are cut from some serious Australian Rock Cloth. 

It’s heart on your sleeve, honest, driving rock and roll and it will be the wakeup call of the afternoon.

The debut LP “Dogs at Bay” was recorded with iconic producers Mark Opitz (AC/DC, The Angels, INXS, Cold Chisel) and Colin Wynne and it features the breakthrough slew of singles “Dumb Ideas”, “Cuffed and Collared” and “Hiding to Nothing”. 

Is fantastic unpretentious song-writing centred on the band’s complicated relationship with their hometown of Adelaide.

“At its best it is an idyllic town, with a temperate climate and beautiful surrounds.  At its worst it is stiflingly conservative, inward looking and somewhat bereft of culture.  The record is about growing upand living in Adelaide, as well as leaving and returning there.  There’s nothing parochial about this though.  It’s just what we know.  I think the experiences are probably common to everyone who has a hometown”.

Great live act, straight-up raw energy, one of the most exciting guitar acts in the country.

 

It takes a bit to tingle our spines, and we make sure that every act on our stages does just that. No room for error here, given our no-clash, you-have-my-full-attention mantra.

Enter Vera Blue. Crystallic, an ethereal presence, her ballads tap-dance up our spines like jumping into a pool with all your clothes on - exhilarating. 

Cutting her teeth as a folk artist in the small town of Forbes before adopting Sydney, Vera Blue found her feet as an electronic siren and guitarist. 

Vera Blue combines a lush and sultry electronica style through her commanding vocals that are both gentle and at times ferocious; combined she a force not to be reckoned with.

In addition to her own sold out national headline tour, this young rising artist has also supported Matt Corby on his Telluric tour and will support BROODS on their forthcoming Australian tour. 

“I’ve always wanted to create something special that’s a blend of folk and cool, heavy thick sounds,” she says. “This is the music I have wanted to make and I feel like I’m unleashing.” 

The live vocal performance of Hold floored Triple J enthusiasts, a performance that amazingly surpassed the recorded version (is that ever possible?). Bring on the chills.

Holding her own with her latest single , go ahead and put the name, the sound and the hype to the face of one of the most promising and heavily touted new talents in Australia. Get in early for this one. 

Queensland rockers Pop Cult have earned a reputation for crafting stomping sing-alongs in the same vein as Primal Scream and The Dandy Warhols. 

The local DIY heroes are brothers Timothy and Elliot Heinrich, Callum Voller and Jordan Adkins.

Elliot is producer to not only their sunny, psyche-pop jams but has also produced for Ayla, Battleships and Tempest.

Tim and Jordan have the band’s visuals under wrap with the and Artwork produced respectively, and Voller’s stage name is John Cutesack, which I guess is self-explanatory.

In less than six months they’ve been on rotation at Triple J, toured the east-coast of Australia, nabbed a slot at Bigsound, supported Loon Lake, The Cairos and even won the approval of Mac Demarco’s mum Agnes. 

The self-produced feel-good gospel jam “Feels Right” with accompanying self-made video is seriously good. Immediate sonic comparisons to Primal Scream and The Dandy Warhols are inevitable; this stuff is way up our alley.

What a great way to begin the Proceedings.