News

✭✭✭✭✩ Almost impossible not to hit ‘repeat’ immediately after it’s done - The Music

✭✭✭✭ A winning neo-soul reinvention… Killer is a striking intersection of style and substance – Rolling Stone

Sultan’s records have showcased one of Australia’s strongest and most essential voices. Killer is its greatest exhibition yet – STACK

Today Dan Sultan releases his fourth studio album, Killer – a collection of songs that marks a significant turning point in a lustrous career spanning over a decade.

Influenced by an innovative pop landscape, Killer takes Sultan’s honest storytelling into uncharted territory and exhibits a sophisticated leap forward in production and instrumentation. Lyrically, Sultan pushes into some of his most personal and political realms yet, though “I don’t consider myself political or preachy” he says. The songs are inward, reflective and painfully honest.

Killer was recorded in Melbourne with long-time friend Jan Skubiszewski. “Having Jan there to push me and hear my ideas was awesome” Sultan says. “We’ve worked together a lot, but never on something as big as this, and I know he’s as proud of it as I am. It was the perfect storm.” Together they introduced synthesizers and drum machines that drive the album’s 11 soulful pop tracks. The sound is embellished with cinematic swirls and layered gospel vocals that heighten emotions.

Premiered this week on Triple R, powerful track ‘Drover’ sees Sultan unearth one of the most important acts of deviance in Australia’s history, reflecting on the Wave Hill walk-off protest in 1966. Sultan self-describes ‘Drover’ as a prequel to Paul Kelly’s ‘From Little Things Big Things Grow’.

“It’s about the lead-up to the walk-off, about what it was like on the ground before the protest really kicked off. The drover in the song has heard murmurs of a walk-off, murmurs of, ‘We’re going to protest and stand up for our land and stand up for our people’” – Dan Sultan

Dan Sultan’s recent appearance at Splendour In The Grass saw him hold an audience in the palm of his hand; unafraid to lay it all on the line. On the Killer Album Tour, Sultan will play some of his largest venues to date in both metro and regional cities, this time backed by a full band. Sultan will also be supporting Midnight Oil on two of their anticipated shows in October. “It’s a whole new show. New music, new band, new vibe. I can’t wait for everyone to see it!”

Killer has been the feature album all this week on Double J. The singles, Kingdom, Hold It Together and Magnetic, have received extensive airplay across triple j, ABC and community radio, with Hold It Together being the #1 most played track on AMRAP’s Reginal Radio Chart for 4 consecutive weeks. Reviews are flowing in, collectively calling Killer Dan’s most accomplished album yet.

Dan Sultan’s last album Blackbird landed at #4 on the ARIA Albums Chart and took out the award for Best Rock Album at the 2014 ARIAs, as well as a handful of NIMA and AIR awards. It’s since been accredited Gold in Australia.

Killer is out now.

As rising artist Vera Blue prepares for her first solo headline performance this afternoon in the Mix Up Tent at Splendour In The Grass Festival, her debut album Perennial which is this week’s triple j feature album is officially released today.

Perennial traces the circular pathways between love and loss and is arranged into three chapters, which chronologically trace the development of Vera Blue; from her very first week writing, raw after the breakdown of a relationship, towards a place of renewed strength and vivacity.

Included on the album is first single ‘Private’, ‘Mended’ and the recently released infectious trackRegular Touch. The new album introduces a fully-formed Vera Blue, seamlessly synthesizing her folk past with a bold, electronic pop future.

Recorded between Los Angeles and Sydney, Perennial was written with longtime collaborators Andy and Thom Mak (Boy & Bear, Bertie Blackman) and produced by Andy Mak and executive producer Grammy-nominated founder of Deep Well Records Adam Anders. The release of Perennial will be celebrated with her National Mended Tour which is selling fast with most shows already  SOLD OUT and extra dates added, with Laykn and Thandi Phoenix supporting nationally.

Sydney band The Preatures announce today their new national tour in support of their second album ‘Girlhood’.

Supporting the tour will be raucaus local duo Polish Club, as well as other special guests Hair Die, Rin McArdle and Boat Show.

Today Vera Blue shares the new video for her current single ‘Mended’. Directed by one of Australia’s most exciting emerging artists Cloudy Rhodes, the powerful ‘Mended’ video is a celebration of love and womanhood. Cloudy explains, ‘I wanted to make a film where we witness the triumph of a young woman rising-up to the experience of love. I wanted Vera to be the protagonist of the film who falls from the night sky, out of the darkness into the light – her falling is a metaphorical representation of ‘falling in love’.  Mended to me is all as about the female experience and that’s what I tried to convey through the visuals in this clip.’

WATCH THE NEW VIDEO HERE

Unstoppable singer-songwriter Vera Blue  has announced today that she will release her debut album, Perennial, on Friday July 21^st.

An intensely personal record, Perennial traces the circular pathways between love and loss across its 12 tracks. The album is arranged into three chapters, which chronologically trace the development of Vera Blue; from her very first week writing, raw after the breakdown of a relationship, towards a place of renewed strength and vivacity.

Included on the album is first single ‘Private’, with currently over 2.2 million streams worldwide, and ‘Mended’. The new album introduces a fully-formed Vera Blue, seamlessly synthesizing her folk past with a bold, electronic pop future.

‘“Perennial” is a term for plants that come back year after year, and I like to relate that to memory, feelings and emotions,’ says Vera Blue. ‘It’s what the record is all about; relationships can be very cyclical, or never-ending, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s just part of life.’

Recorded between Los Angeles and Sydney, Perennial was written with longtime collaborators Andy and Thom Mak (Boy & Bear, Bertie Blackman, Silverchair) as well as engineer Jackson Barclay. It’s the product of countless hours spent crafting songs in the studio as a team and despite its new sonic elements, the album is underpinned by the classic songwriting that has defined Vera Blue’s musical growth.

Produced by Andy Mak, and most recently co-produced with Grammy-nominated founder of Deep Well Records Adam Anders, Perennial arrives on the eve of Vera Blue’s fast- selling national tour, including her second appearance – and first as a solo artist – at the sold-out Splendour In The Grass in two years.

Perennial sees Vera Blue finding arresting new ways to channel a voice Australia has already fallen for. Unflinchingly honest, it’s the album she had to write, with a sound that is entirely her own.