The annual triple j Unearthed High competition has announced this year's group of finalist teens with talent enough to serve as applause-worthy yet who are also a still-unwelcome reminder that eventually you will only be relevant to the other people at your retirement home while the world moves on without you, filled ever more to the brim with younger and better versions of the thing you had been, once, many an age ago.
Not to get all dystopian on you.
Still, you have to marvel at what some of these adolescent artists are doing — be it Sydney five-piece Fifth Dawn recording their debut EP with Buried In Verona's Richie Newman, Canberran rapper Genesis Owusu's masterful, mature grasp of language, rhythm and flow, the do-it-yourself work ethic of West Australian garage-pop two-piece Mosquito Coast, the wunderkind-like electronic work of fellow left coast muso Spire, or the palpable maturation of Sydney songstress Lupa J, who was previously an Unearthed High finalist last year, it's a truly exciting — and somewhat frightening — cabal to behold.
Have a listen to some of their work below.
The winner of this year's Unearthed High competition will be revealed next Thursday, 20 August, on triple j's breakfast show.
