Adam Kelly is an artist manager for Melbourne favourites Jakubi, in addition to his work as a promoter, music industry consultant, and project manager at A Thousand Hills, a media project encompassing music, documentaries, and photography.

In his own words, “Every week I get a dozen new artists emailing me asking about my thoughts on their music and whether I’d consider managing them. I get dozens more from friends around the world working in the industry wanting to share something new they are excited about.”

“I have a general rule when listening to new music. The rule is that I will listen to two tracks, but if they don’t grab me in the first 30 seconds, I move on to the next one.” Naturally, Adam gets plenty of music that doesn’t make it past that point.

“But I get plenty again who I think make some incredible music and deserve the opportunity to have it heard by a wider audience.” Tone Deaf have decided to help Adam give those bands and artists that opportunity.

“Every month I’m going to list the five or six best new tracks I’ve heard and what it is I like about them. Hopefully you find something you like in there too.” So, without further ado, here’s the best of what’s come into Adam’s inbox this month.

Glades

As far as new music goes, it doesn’t get much newer than this. These three friends from Sydney have been making music together as a group for only a few weeks, but the first single they put out has certainly turned a few heads.

They combine catchy electro-pop beats with beautiful vocals and lyrics you can’t help but sing along to. Picture yourself in the summer, winding down after a long weekend in a backyard down by the beach, a BBQ, your closest friends, and this tune, falling away. Hard not to imagine these guys doing well.

Shakes

Definitely not what I would usually listen to, but the raw production makes this gritty pop rock track come to life. ‘Hole In Your Pocket’ is the first single from this Kiwi group, but I expect a heap more like this over the next few years.

Honestly, it’s not a game-changing sound by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s a solid platform to launch from and an easy track to listen to.

Yum Yum

Again, I’m sure plenty of people have heard this track. It’s here for the same reason as WILSN – it’s just that good. If you’re into funky hip-hop beats, soulful vocals, and brass for days, then this is your track.

Combined with the Brass Knuckle Brass Band this duo have killed this single. It’s probably my most listened track over the last three weeks.

LarzRanda

Heading across the ditch, I found young emcee Larz Randa. Larz’s use of narratives, puns, and cultural references is as good as any emcee I’ve ever listened to. It’s glitchy, it’s fun, it flows, and the kid has some really powerful things to talk about between songs.

I can hear this track being played on triple j alongside acts like Allday, no doubt. See if you can catch the homage to Harry Potter, that line is a personal fave. Peep the video to ‘Frankenstein’ if you want a follow up jam to ‘Rangers’.

WILSN

Definitely not new, but no question this girl is under-appreciated. ‘Unmeet You’ is one of the sweetest sounding jams to come out of Melbourne in a long time. It’s genuinely exciting to see Australia producing talent across the broad spectrum of musical taste.

We don’t have to keep going back to pub rock and Aussue hip-hop, as great as those sounds are. We can literally mix it with the best in the world regardless of style. WILSN has as good a soul sound as I’ve heard anywhere, and you’d be doing yourself no end of favours if this found its way into your daily playlist.

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