STACK #242 December 2024

MUSIC FEATURE

visit jbhifi.com.au/stack

WHAT’S OUT THIS Whether it’s a voyage of musical discovery or a sonic reacquaintance with a favourite band or artist, check out these fresh releases heading to JB this month.

ACTRESS Apeh Kahhihrem SMALLTOWN SUPERSOUND/ROCKET

CORY MARKS Sorry for Nothing BETTER NOISE/MGM

DAFT PUNK Discovery: Interstella 5555 Edition ADA/INERTIA

EDITOR’S PICK ELECTRIC FIELDS Live in Concert ABC It’s been a big year for Adelaide electro duo Electric Fields. After representing Australia at Eurovision, they won a couple of big awards – the ‘Indigenous Language Award’ at the National Indigenous Music Awards, and ‘Best Aboriginal or Torres Strait Island Artist’ at the South Australian Music Awards. And now they’ve issued this compelling live album. Backed by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Zaachariaha Fielding and Michael Ross deliver a stunning set of songs, many in Fielding’s traditional languages of the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people. No other Aussie act sounds quite like Electric Fields. They’re doing something very special.

Canadian country singer Cory Marquardt records under the name Cory Marks, and this is his third album. It includes

English electronic artist Actress’ real name is Darren J. Cunningham. He turned to music when

Probably December’s most anticipated release, Discovery: Interstella 5555 Edition , is a reissue of Daft

the classic country cut Drunk When I’m High , as well as (Make My) Country Rock , which features country star Travis Tritt, Mötley Crüe guitarist Mick Mars, and Godsmack singer Sully Erna. It’s one of 2024’s craziest country collaborations, but it works. And it’s a defiant mission statement: “I’ve been behind both kinds of bars,” Marks declares. “I broke some hearts and crashed some cars/I’m on the edge, but I’ll always walk the line… I’m gonna make my country rock.” COUNTERPARTS Heaven Let Them Die PURE NOISE/ROCKET Canadian punk band Counterparts took their name from the Number Them . After releasing their first live album, Live in Toronto , earlier this year, this six-track EP maintains the metalcore momentum. Singer Brendan Murphy says: “This EP is the most authentic representation of Counterparts to date – honest, harsh, and without restraint. Heaven Let Them Die is Counterparts at our most aggressive.” Alexisonfire song Counterparts and

his soccer career, at West Bromwich Albion, was curtailed by injury. Apeh Kahhihrem , his 11th studio album, is his second release for 2024, following Statik , which dropped in June. ANDRÉ RIEU The Sound of Heaven ROCKET

Punk’s second album, 2001’s Discovery , complete with the original Japanese artwork by the legendary Leiji Matsumoto. But it’s limited – this edition will see just 5555 gold vinyl records and 5555 numbered CDs. FIREBOY DML Adedamola EMPIRE/INERTIA

André Rieu, the Dutch virtuoso of the violin, is a sales powerhouse, having sold more than 40 million albums

Nigeria’s Fireboy DML (real name: Adedamola Adefolahan) moved to Lagos to pursue his music career. He called

worldwide, including an astonishing three million in Australia. The Waltz King’s latest release shows that he remains a masterful song interpreter, putting his classic spin on melodies from musicals such as The Phantom of the Opera , The Sound of Music, and West Side Story , as well as movies such as Star Wars and Titanic .

his fourth album Adedamola because he says it’s “so personal and feels nostalgic, like a call to home”. He describes his smooth romantic sound as “Afro-Lite”. LAUREN MAYBERRY Vicious Creature EMI/UNIVERSAL Mayberry. When she released her first solo single, Are You Awake? , the Scottish singer said she was “flip-flopping between excitement and abject terror”. But the album is an unqualified success, though Mayberry is adamant it doesn’t spell the end of the band. “We are all confident that the Chvrches story has many more pages yet to be written,” she says. Vicious Creature is the debut solo album for Chvrches singer Lauren

CLAIRE BIRCHALL The Haunting IT/MGM

Melbourne songstress Claire Birchall goes deep and dark on her new solo album, which follows 2020’s similarly

impressive Running in Slow Motion . The songs were inspired by nightmares, fairy tales, and ghost stories, and confront fear, loss, grief, sadness and anxiety. A gothic synth-pop treat.

40 DECEMBER 2024

jbhifi.com.au