15 Acts Set To Break Out From BIGSOUND 2016

We asked around delegates and staff to tell us which 2016 BIGSOUND acts they most expect to get industry-types excited. That’s resulted in this year’s must-have buzz list.

Middle Kids

Remember last year’s BIGSOUND when everyone was tripping over themselves to get to Gold Class? Sydney indie trio Middle Kids are set to be THAT band this year.

Alice Ivy

Is the Melbourne-based performer set to become this country’s first break-out multi-instrumentalist hero of future soul? Add her to the top of your must-see list.

Good Boy

The buzz on these Brisbane garage punkers has risen to a screaming roar in the weeks leading up to BIGSOUND. Their Poverty Line track is a deadset Aussie dolewave anthem.

Braille Face

This Melbourne singer/producer has quietly made his way into many delegates’ acts-to-see lists as chatter has spread about him in recent days. THAT voice!

Lastlings

Okay, so people are basically going nuts over these Brisbane siblings. Will their textural electroscopes make them this year’s Flume?

Alex Lahey

It could be argued that the Melbourne singer-songwriter has already broken out (thank you, triple j and Pitchfork). Lahey, Sampa The Great and Buoy were the names mentioned most by the delegates we spoke to. [Lahey is managed by The Music publisher Leigh Treweek.]

Flowertruck

This Sydney quartet are bringing back all that was good about catchy, new-wave pop. People have noticed. This year’s Big White?

Young Tapz

The New Zealand-based rapper last year featured on Hermitude’s The Buzz. This year he is ‘The Buzz’.

West Thebarton Brothel Party

A few years back Bad//Dreems made everyone at BIGSOUND take notice. Can these fellow Adelaide garage rockers repeat history?

Gabriella Cohen

Ex-The Furrs singer has sent media and bloggers gaga (there’s been comparisons to Mazzy Star - say no more). Time for even more people to take notice.

Columbus

The Brisbane trio have already recorded with respected hardcore producer Jay Maas. They pack such a punch live we suggest you wear padding to their showcase.

Sampa The Great

Already buzzing via triple j, Hype Machine, Spotify and BBC1, Sampa’s joyful hip hop is set to break out globally any second now.

The Belligerents

Brisbane’s The Belligerents are very much the tastemakers’ faves this year. If they replicate their energetic post-baggy indie studio sound on stage we could be looking at the next Jagwar Ma.

BUOY

Sydney’s Buoy has been building a rep on the underground electronic scene for some time now. But in the lead up to BIGSOUND her name seems to be on everyones’ lips.

Hideous Sun Demon

Perth psych doesn’t get much more psycho than this. Could follow Tame Impala and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard onto the international psychedelic stage.