Party Dozen, Jamie Marina Lau and Troye: Australia’s best new music for November

(L-R) Troye Sivan, Friday*, Jess Ribeiro and Jamie Marina Lau all have songs among Australia’s best singles this month. Composite: Getty Images for Miu Miu/Jesse Campos/Nick Mckk/Leah Jing McIntosh

Troye Sivan – What’s the Time Where You Are?

For fans of: Jessie Ware, Lauv, Tove Lo

Intercontinental yearning: Sivan’s track What’s the Time Where You Are?. Photograph: Terrence O’Connor

Is Troye fever over? Not according to my Spotify stats, where Sivan’s new-ish record still ranks embarrassingly high almost a month after its release. (Anyone who hasn’t listened to Got Me Started on repeat for four hours is lying and/or straight.) This is an album cut: a comedown from the ribald ripsnorter Rush into a 4AM ode suffused with both intercontinental yearning and glitterball shimmer. Sivan, in Tokyo, pines for a lover who’s already in another time zone; I blame Lost in Translation. – Michael Sun

For more: Sivan’s album Something to Give Each Other is out now.

R.M.F.C. – Harmless Activity

For fans of: Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Alien Nosejob, UV Race

The Bandcamp bio says it all: “extremely talented, intelligent and famous child prodigy.” The prodigy in question is Buz Clatworthy, who has released a string of excellent, combative punk records over the years under his moniker R.M.F.C. (short for Rock Music Fan Club). But this new single, among other new songs, signals a different direction. Here, repetitious, nervy guitar lines sit at the centre, complemented with buzzing, contemplative vocals. – Isabella Trimboli

For more: Listen to previous single The Trap, or R.M.F.C.’s EPs titled Hive and Hive, Vol. 2.

Miss Kaninna – Pinnacle Bitch

For fans of: Leikeli47, Foxy Brown, Junglepussy

Miss Kannina: ‘One of the year’s sharpest rap debuts.’ Photograph: Tristan Stefan Edouard

Miss Kaninna’s first single, Blak Britney, was one of the year’s sharpest rap debuts: a casually fierce boom-bap track that built to throbbing deep house. The Yorta Yorta, Djadja Wurrung, Kalkadoon and Yirendali rapper’s follow-up, Pinnacle Bitch, is another sharp display of technical proficiency, Kaninna flexing over a serpentine beat without breaking a sweat. It’s punchier and more focused than Blak Britney, but retains all of its swagger. – Shaad D’Souza

For more: Listen to Blak Britney, released in May.

The Orbweavers – When It Rains in Broken Hill

For fans of: Grand Salvo, Luluc, Sodastream

The Orbweavers’ new track is sumptuous. Photograph: The Orbweavers

The mists of Broken Hill’s spring rain, and the desert flowers that bloom with it, come to life on the Orbweavers’ dreamy, textural new song. It’s all about the details – Marita Dyson’s gentle vocals are complemented by a luscious blend of chorals, harp and strings, and the lyrics evoke great respect for the land while also communicating a personal story. This sumptuous single is the first taste of the Melbourne band’s upcoming album – their first since 2017. – Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen

For more: The Orbweavers play Brunswick Ballroom on 9 December; their album, New Moon/Silver Moon, is out next year.

Friday* – God!

For fans of: Bloc Party, Nilüfer Yanya, Kevin Abstract

Metric, Beirut, Tennis, Real Estate, Girls – FRIDAY*, with his debut EP Darling, joins the long lineage of musicians with horrible SEO ranks. It’s a canny, amorphous take on the genres of the 2000s – emo, pop-punk, alternative – bolstered by an onslaught of era-specific references: a backing band called the Social Network; a track titled Radiohead; an earlier single cover paying homage to Craig David. God!, the first song on the EP, builds from a piano looping and lilting like a Nokia ringtone, the sound of anticipation ready to burst. – Michael Sun

For more: Friday*’s debut EP Darling is out now.

Jess Ribeiro – Summer of Love

For fans of: Julia Jacklin, Aldous Harding, Cat Power

‘A return to haunted folk-blues’: Ribeiro’s Summer of Love is a homecoming. Photograph: Jamie Wdziekonski

Coming more than four years after Jess Ribeiro’s last album, Love Hate, Summer of Love is a long way from that record’s suggestive, off-kilter indie rock. Don’t look for any of the connotations embedded in the title either. Rather, it’s a return to the haunted folk-blues of her earlier work, though instead of acoustic guitar, the song hangs on just a couple of piano chords with upwellings of strings. You’d barely know that Jim White, one of the heaviest-hitting percussionists on the planet (Xylouris White, Dirty Three, Cat Power), was there. – Andrew Stafford

For more: Ribeiro is touring nationally with Gareth Liddiard through November and December.

ZK king – Heart Throbs

For fans of: Neggy Gemmy, Bladee, Kelela

Jamie Marina Lau, author of the acclaimed Gunk Baby, is also a remarkably talented weirdo-pop singer. The music she records as ZK king is disorientating and addictive; her new record, Heart Throbs, touches on amapiano, vaporwave and trap, held together by her shimmering voice, which sits somewhere between Kelela and Britney Spears. The title track is the highlight of the set – a hypnotic pop-R&B song that feels like a walk through a crowded, unnerving party. – Shaad D’Souza

For more: Lau’s album Heart Throbs is out now.

Salarymen – Second Sight

For fans of: Royel Otis, Beach House, Phoenix

Fresh from SXSW appearances in both Austin and Sydney, this fast-rising Sydney duo (Renee de la Motte and Thom Eagleton) have really got me with this snappy, sardonic slice of dream-pop. Second Sight feels both nostalgic and irrepressibly “now”, encompassing a haze of references from noughties indie back to Mazzy Star, the Jesus and Mary Chain and 60s sunshine pop. With just one EP and a handful of singles to date, Second Sight makes me wonder how far these two could go – an album is eagerly anticipated, but for now we’ll have to wait for another EP in the first half of next year. – Andrew Stafford

Sydney duo Salarymen: an album is eagerly anticipated. Photograph: Tom Wilkinson

For more: The duo is doing an east coast run of shows in support of Second Sight across November. They’re also playing the Lost Paradise festival in Glenworth Valley, NSW, at the end of December before a UK and Europe tour next year.

Party Dozen – Wake in Might

For fans of: Divide and Dissolve, Liars, no wave in general

Pleasurable and pounding: Party Dozen at Phoenix Central Park. Photograph: Evo

There’s nothing quite like seeing Party Dozen live. The Sydney duo (Jonathan Boulet and Kirsty Tickle) are completely commanding, wielding strange, pummelling sound from only two instruments: drums and saxophone. On their latest single – with a name that riffs on the brutal outback terror Wake In Fright – they add another instrument to the fold: piano. Four pianos stomp together, creating a sound that wouldn’t be out of place in a 70s horror film. Then those unruly, howling saxophone lines come in, adding to the pleasurable and pounding mayhem. – Isabella Trimboli

For more: Listen to the band’s 2022 record The Real Work.

Phoebe Go – Something You Were Trying

For fans of: Haim, Muna, Maggie Rogers

Phoebe Go’s songwriting is smart and sensitive. The Melbourne singer-songwriter, who previously fronted Snakadaktal and Two People, has a simple yet devastating way with words, cutting straight to the heart of the matter. On her latest single, she ruminates on the mismatched expectations of a relationship, singing about the same scene from two perspectives over sharp, shimmering guitars and sparing drums. Go paints a vivid picture of heartbreak in just a few minutes, carried forth by her emotionally rich delivery. – Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen

For more: Listen to Go’s 2022 EP Player or see her live at The Curtin in Melbourne on December 11.