OG Flavas Picked Last Year's Buzziest BIGSOUND Acts; Here's This Year's Calls

Want to know the next big thing in Australian music? BIGSOUND is the hotspot. The massive music industry gathering – it's the Southern Hemisphere's equivalent of SXSW or the UK's Great Escape – happens in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley, 3-6 September. But the hype reverberates through the scene. 

In 2018, BIGSOUND hosted live showcases by KAIIT, KIAN, Kwame, Arno Faraji and CLYPSO. This year, soul, R&B and hip-hop artists are again at the forefront. Mojo Juju will be both a keynote speaker and performer on the back of 2018's celebrated Native Tongue album. Returning from last year are Adelaide's bluesy soulster Adrian Eagle (ahead of his debut EP, MAMA, via Island Records Australia) and Sydney's hip hop soul poet, imbi the girl. However, there are many emerging names. 

Today Australian neo-soul acts like Hiatus Kaiyote and KAIIT are enjoying unprecedented international attention. And, at BIGSOUND, the music's devotees can catch the ascendant Milan Ring, loungey Mariam Sawires, and psychedelic Sycco. The summit is also spotlighting our new hip hop wave – acts cutting trap, grime and drill. Crucially, BIGSOUND has programmed buzz First Nations artists. Indeed, appearing at the welcome party HOME are Electric Fields, DRMNGNOW, Deline Briscoe and the Darwin group Mambali.

Technology has enabled hip hop prodigies to be heard at an ever-younger age, with Brisbane's Creed tha Kid primed to break out as did The Kid LAROI. He has huge Spotify clout. BIGSOUND is about crew love, with Raj Mahal, Lauren. and Kymie – all members of Sydney's Bodega Collective – repping individually. BIGSOUND even has a riveting outlier in the trapmetal NETTI. Still, it isn't exclusively a hub for homegrown music. Don't sleep on CHAII, an Iranian-New Zealander hip hop polymath. Over summer she went viral with the single Digebasse (Enough), directing her own video in Oman. (CHAII toured Sydney and Melbourne in an April whirlwind.) Here are OG Flavas' BIGSOUND 2019 faves.

MILAN RING

Despite building momentum since 2014, Sydney avant 'n' B auteur Milan Ring is only making her BIGSOUND debut now. Ring is remarkably autonomous, being a vocalist, instrumentalist, producer, audio engineer, label owner (of MXMAY) and self-curator. She modishly synthesises soul, hip hop, electronica, indie and Caribbean musics. Ring writes about sentience and the threshold between self and society (the broken beat Drifting alludes to depression). She had several singles through 2018 – the hypnotically dubby Green Light, with gilded guitar, the pinnacle. So far in 2019 Ring has unveiled Step Back – another jam. She also produced Arno Faraji's Scalin'. Auspiciously, the tastemaker's rave sold out dates on her first Australian headline tour in April.

ELECTRIC FIELDS

The acclaimed Adelaide electro-pop combo Electric Fields discovered a whole new fanbase as contenders in Eurovision – Australia Decides, with 2000 And Whatever their first 'official' single. Yet Zaachariaha Fielding – a celestially soulful singer from Mimili in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands of the Central Desert – connected with main producer Michael Ross four years back. Both were sometime reality TV aspirants. The duo have developed a wondrous paradigm by merging Indigenous Australian culture, dance music and, as "two feminine brothers", camp. (Surprisingly, they cite Deep Forest as an influence.) Electric Fields presented an EP, Inma, in 2016. They've performed abroad. Electric Fields previously graced BIGSOUND for 2017's Made In Adelaide bash. In October, they'll notably join Baker Boy's Indigenous Game Changers event as part of the inaugural Red Bull Music Festival Melbourne, together with Rebecca Hatch and DRMNGNOW (read on!).

SAINT LANE

Saint Lane (aka Lane Muir) already has a storied career. Born in NZ to a French father and Fijian mother, he wound up on the Gold Coast as a teen – and hustling when his parents separated. Muir played bass in the high school rock band Clashing Colours prior to reinventing himself as a rapper with Lane-Harry x Ike Campbell – a more subversive Weapon X & Ken Hell. They had two albums. Plus Muir dabbled in stand-up comedy. Now solo, Muir offers a self-effacing persona, whimsical swagger and cutting-edge beats. He's liaised closely with Falcon Ultra producers Danny Duke (The Griswolds' Daniel Duque-Perez) and Aussie R&B legend Dennis Dowlut (aka Deutsch Duke). This year Muir released the wonky trap Compliment My Shirt, following with the moombahton Sugary Sweet. He's currently plugging the similarly arch Pitbull Type Beat – actually closer to Kanye West's R&B than reggaeton (and with studio input from MXXWLL). And, akin to Andre 3000, Muir is being heralded as an eccentric fashion icon – GQ Australia profiling him. He has performed his first solo shows, including a fluke slot at Ultra Korea. He'll hit SandTunes with Travis Scott on the Gold Coast in late November.

STEVAN

Wollongong's Ian Stevan Muhayimana might be Australia's most innovative pop newcomer. Like Theophilus London, or Jai Paul, the teen singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer is reformulating R&B, hip hop and indie aesthetics (curiously, Muhayimana namechecks Canadian indie-type Mac DeMarco). In April he formally debuted with Timee – redolent of Tyler, The Creator's hazy balladry – on Honeymoon Records, under the US 300 Entertainment fold. Then LNT materialised – imagine Khalid fronting The Smiths. Moods.

REBECCA HATCH

Rebecca Hatch is an intuitive star. The Campbelltown, Sydney teen – who has Kamilaroi and Samoan heritage – won the triple J Unearthed High Indigenous Initiative at the National Indigenous Music Awards two years ago. She delivers romantic numbers that evoke Sade's quiet storm, Kate Ceberano's swinging jazz, and Aaliyah's '90s R&B, albeit with Jorja Smith's new-school cool – cue Leeway. For BIGSOUND, Hatch is teasing fresh music. She has readily eased into live area, too, even joining Briggs' Bad Apples House Party at the Sydney Opera House for Vivid.

TASMAN KEITH

A sense of place, and home, is a reoccurring concept in hip hop. Tasman Keith is representing his ancestry as a Gumbaynggirr man from Bowraville, NSW, while following in the footsteps of his father, Wire MC – a GOAT in the Indigenous hip hop movement. In late 2018 Keith – who combines Ice Cube's incisive sway, Tupac Shakur's collective solidarity, and DMX's grittily expressive voice – independently released his debut EP, Mission Famous, titled for the Bowraville Mission. He tells stories about his community, using local colloquialisms and references (the defiantly affirming anthem My Pelopolees). Keith worked with producers James Mangohig (of Sietta fame) and Bad Apples' Nooky at Darwin's Skinnyfish Music, his style encompassing funk-fuelled R&B, 2000s hip-hop, and trap. Prolific, he revels in collaboration. Pre-festival season, Keith has just proffered the joint EP Evenings with Territorian singer/songwriter Stevie Jean – led by the percussive rocker Prey.

DRMNGNOW

DRMNGNOW is the interdisciplinary vehicle of Neil Morris – a Yorta Yorta poet, MC and musician residing in Naarm/Birraranga (Melbourne). He explores themes of decolonisation, restoration, culture, spirituality and identity, as manifested in country, knowledge and language. Morris' purposeful music is fluid, and experimental, with elements of hip hop, soul, jazz, post-rock, IDM and ambitronica – all very much in the tradition of Gil Scott-Heron's I'm New Here. He introduced DRMNGNOW last year with Australia Does Not Exist, a statement about sovereignty (with Adrian Eagle on the hook). Morris recently shared the synth paean We See You. He performed memorably at Golden Plains. Inherently communal, Morris also presents the 3RRR program Still Here, supporting First Nations artists.

LIL SPACELY

The Blacktown, Western Sydney (t)rapper Lil Spacely (Max Dualah) has steadily gained traction. He launched on OneLove's WVS imprint with the A$AP Ferg-like, Tupac-homaging You Know It in 2017 – New York radio don Ebro Darden playing it on his Beats 1 show. Dualah generated more heat with his contribution to Manu Crooks' posse banger Best Years alongside B Wise. Earlier this year he dropped the bobbing OH NO!, with Murdahh (featuring Rico Pacino and Big Skeez) due imminently. Dualah has secured coveted live slots – rocking 2018's FOMO Festival in Sydney.

TEMGAZI

The Sydney soul princess Temgazi (aka Nokuphiwa Ntshangase) initially encountered pop fame as a member of the girl group Adira Belle, competing in The X Factor (Australia) in 2013 – with Natalie Bassingthwaighte as mentor. Ntshangase was surely destined for music: her grandfather, Joseph Shabalala, founded the Grammy-winning Ladysmith Black Mambazo. She grew up between Swaziland (now Eswatini) and South Africa, before migrating to England with her mum and eventually arriving in Oz as a pre-teen. Last year Ntshangase released the solo Bunsen Burner – a Kehlani-esque '90s acoustic R&B throwback – on the seminal NY label Tommy Boy. Lately she promoted the dancehall Talk That Talk. Ntshangase also duets with Timomatic on his airy Wait In Vain. She performed at the final Secret Garden festival in February.

MIIESHA

Miiesha Young, a Pitjantjatjara/Torres Strait Islander woman from Woorabinda, Central Queensland, envisages herself as as educator as much as an artist. Her music traversing gospel, jazz, R&B, soul and hip hop, Young reflects on identity, inequality and the need for truth-telling in reconciliation. After the single Black Privilege, she's just circulated the video to the compelling Drowning. Here, Young protests former Prime Minister Tony Abbott's tone deaf comments about remote Indigenous communities' "lifestyle choices" back in 2015. Young has latterly been touring with Thelma Plum. 

JEIDA WOODS

In 2015, Louisville, Kentucky's Bryson Tiller established a sub-genre he branded 'trapsoul'. Other artists have since advanced – and individualised – the sound, Sydney's Jeida Woods among them. Mid-year, Woods premiered officially on Future Classic with Selfless. It's a sadboi's song of solace, helmed by Melbourne producer LUCIANBLOMKAMP – who, amazingly, has credits for 6LACK. Woods has reunited with LUCIANBLOMKAMP for LVESCK, out 12 September. He also guested on Paces' 2018 LP, ZAG.

P-UNIQUE

A new generation of dynamic female MCs are challenging the male domination of Australian hip hop. Melbourne's P-UniQue (Piath Mathiang) lays down bars over subliminal bass beats – setting off fire alarms. In 2018 she dropped the Bring Black Back EP, with songs emanating from her experiences as a young Sudanese-Australian woman. Outside of music, Mathiang is an actor, starring in Get Krack!n. Fans of Rapsody, Little Simz and Tkay Maidza take note!

HOOLIGAN HEFS

The charismatic Hooligan Hefs has sprung out of Doonside in Western Sydney with his hi-NRG bangers. The Party is a collision of UK grime and drill and… hardstyle, while No Effect is all ravey horns. But the Samoan/Chinese/Australian rapper – with nearly 90K followers on Instagram – has retained a Kerser-level of mystique, eschewing an artist bio for his motto, "Tell 'em I'm doing eetswa." In fact, Hefs did grant an interview to Filterzine in March, regretting past jail-time. Hefs may project a hardcore image, but he's really about the party. And his streaming stats are major. "I'm trying to do rap and techno, EDM, dubstep – all of that," he informs Filterzine. "Hopefully, this is the new Australian sound."

DVNA

The enigmatic Gold Coast vocalist, musician and producer DVNA (Dana Lowrey-Palmer) honed her sleek, post-The xx electro-soul in a bedroom studio. Where The Weeknd and BANKS lean into melancholy, she brings playfulness. Lowrey-Palmer's music is lowkey dancey, as she instills a groove Anderson .Paak would def nod to. She's issued a succession of bops, beginning with 2018's Girl On The Move (the latest Sushi In Tokyo). On the side, Lowrey-Palmer has collaborated with Sydney future bass producer Moonbase for Over U, off his recent Avalanche EP.

OZI JAREL

Brisbane's Ozi Jarel – who came to Australia from Uganda to study architecture at uni – belongs to a long line of socially-conscious MCs (he also does spoken word). But, as a musical messenger, Jarel ponders the present and the past – a rare quality he shares with J Cole. In May he dropped an expansive mini-album, Baobab I, so-titled symbolically for the tree. The single WYLF (What You Live For?) is alt-trap with an epic beat switch, but Jarel's biggest banger is the tech-grime Cash.