Flight Facilities & Melb Symphony Collab Makes Top-10 Debut On Aus Indie Charts

Flight Facilities' collaborative album with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Live With The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra — their first 'Christmas album' and the result of a live show together at Sidney Myer Music Bowl last year — has cracked the top 10 on the first Carlton Dry Independent Music Charts of 2016, stepping out at #8 on debut.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, it's the only new full-length face to make an appearance at this early stage, as 2015 mainstays Sometimes I Sit & Think, & Sometimes I Just Sit (by Courtney Barnett), 1000 Forms Of Fear (by Sia) and Dark Night Sweet Light (by Hermitude) take their place at the top, filling the #1-#3 spots respectively.

Seth Sentry sees a strong start to the year for Strange New Past, up five spots to #4, while previous #1-placeholder Our Christmas Wish, by The Ten Tenors, takes its inevitable post-Xmas dive to #5. Veteran troubadour Russell Morris (Red Dirt, Red Heart, #6), Sticky Fingers (Caress Your Soul, #7) and Chet Faker (Thinking In Textures, #10) round out the top 10 alongside a second placing for the Flight Fac lads at #9 with Down To Earth. 

Down near the cut-off, we see the re-emergence of two old friends in the form of The Smith Street Band's Throw Me In The River (#19) and The Jungle Giants' ode to Beck, Speakerzoid (#20).

It's a similar story on the Singles ladder, where platinum-wigged chanteuse Sia makes a standalone appearance as debutante, with Cheap Thrills emerging inside the top five at #4, just below previous single Alive, which stays strong at #3. Sia also keeps Elastic Heart (#9) and Chandelier (#10) on the list, maintaining her significant presence. However, all-star team-up Marcus Marr & Chet Faker remain unassailable at the top with The Trouble With Us, just ahead of Vance Joy's slow-burner Fire & The Flood at #2. 

The Rubens' chart-busting 2015 hit Hoops marks the close of the top five, with Vancey-pants claiming another two spots in the top 10 (Riptide at #6, Georgia at #8), with Hermitude's The Buzz — featuring Mataya and Young Tapz — filling the gap at #7.