The best new Australian music to listen to this month

Sydney Morning Herald

02-05-2025

Teether & Kuya Neil, Yearn IV
Naarm's (Melbourne's) underground music scene can feel like a deranged pot-luck dinner – club rats, art punks and rap surrealists seasoning their demented bone broth with unknown spices pinched from ziplock bags. Teether and Kuya Neil come bubbling out of that soup's peak-boil with their debut album, Yearn IV.
Neil, one of the country's most visionary producers, sets the vibe on album opener Scratch the Flea Point with a murky Enter Sandman -esque guitar line and added breakbeats; Teether pokes fun at his hometown on Cosplay ('Half of the club cosplay low class/ How you got all that designer on?'); and on Dial Up (featuring Stoneset) he conjures his trademark feverish imagery ('Who filled the city with rats? Breathing the hottest of breath/ Pig on my bag, down my neck, screaming').
Yearn IV locates its energy in Naarm's community, cultures and creativity, pokes fun at its class contradictions and hedonism, and isn't afraid to embody the present moment's existential dread in Neil's swampy but nonetheless electric production. Teether's tongue is on fire, but ultimately Yearn IV' s a bisque to burn the brain. Nick Buckley
Montaigne, it's all about the money
If you had to guess which local pop artist would manage to work the lyric 'I am renouncing the monetary system' into a gleefully pinballing art-pop track, your mind may have drifted to Montaigne. It's all about the money is the fourth single from Montaigne's upcoming fourth album, and it's a return to their best: piercing and funny, with a delicious sticky melody that will bounce in your head for days. The production, by Montaigne with assistance from talented dance producer Wave Racer, bursts with bright guitars and jaunty electronic effects.
The Sydney artist's new album, it's hard to be a fish, will land on June 19, and it marks their first as a fully independent artist after splitting with major label Sony a few years back. They recently joked on April Fool's Day that they had re-signed, which is perhaps an indication of how little love is lost between the two parties.