Troye Sivan, Dan Sultan and Corin: Australia’s best new music for August

(L-R) Troye Sivan, Memphis LK and June Jones have new singles out in August. Photograph: HBO

Troye Sivan – Rush

For fans of: New Order, Pet Shop Boys, Azealia Banks

‘A bawdy, pungent chemical high’: Troye Sivan’s new single. Photograph: Stuart Winecoff

Forgive the disparate comparisons above. Troye Sivan’s new track nods to New Order’s riotous Fifa anthem from 2002; Pet Shop Boy’s teeth-chattering commotion; Azealia Banks’ 90s club revival. But truthfully, Rush – the first single from Sivan’s upcoming album Something to Give Each Other – sounds like little else on the charts today. A paean to poppers inspired by Melbourne’s gay nightlife, it bottles the terrifying entropy of any good party into a weapons-grade chorus. “I feel the rush / Addicted to your touch,” goes its stadium chant: a bawdy, pungent chemical high. – Michael Sun

For more: Something to Give Each Other is out 13 October.

Dan Sultan – Ringing in My Ears

For fans of: Vance Joy, Tia Gostelow, Father John Misty

‘As though summer has come early’: Sultan’s song Ringing in My Ears. Photograph: Clint Peloso

This joyous song is about reconnecting with life through music, and Dan Sultan isn’t afraid to drop a name in appreciation: as the chorus proclaims, it’s Father John Misty ringing in his ears. Piano-driven and briskly paced, Sultan sounds optimistic and reinvigorated, as though summer has come early. Sultan says the song is “about being in a beautiful place in life and enjoying the moments as they come and inevitably pass”. It’s good to hear a spring in his step after a challenging few years. – Andrew Stafford

For more: Sultan’s self-titled seventh album is out 18 August; he has a handful of shows booked in the US (including two dates at the prestigious Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, supporting Vance Joy) ahead of an east coast Australian tour from late September.

June Jones – Good Girl

For fans of: Sophie, Charli XCX, Cub Sport

Strange, sarcastic, unabashedly horny … Good Girl by June Jones. Photograph: Michelle Pitiris

It’s been a delight watching the transformation of June Jones over the years, from the frontwoman of moody Melbourne folk-punk band Two Steps on the Water to solo queer pop star. Now based in Sydney, Jones’ new standalone single – her first for esteemed indie label Chapter Music – leans into flamboyant dance-pop. In typical Jones fashion, it’s strange and sarcastic (“I’m a snack but I think I’m getting mouldy” is a true mood). It’s also unabashedly horny as she names her desire, voice thick with longing. – Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen

For more: Listen to Jones’ 2022 album Pop Music for Normal Women.

Kito – Sticky (feat Lolo Zouaï)

For fans of: crying in the club, Robyn at her most cyborgian

Kito and Lolo Zouaï: a ‘perfect match’. Photograph: Callum Walker Hutchinson

Conflicted, whisper-soft R&B gives way to a muscular garage break on this heartbroken rager by Kito. The latest in a hot streak of singles from the Los Angeles-based, Western Australia-born producer – following Cold Touch, a collab with Grimes’ AI generator, and the Skrillex collaboration Inhale Exhale – Sticky finds Kito teaming with the French-born singer Lolo Zouaï. Usually known for her smouldering ballads, Zouaï finds a perfect match in Kito’s frenetic, high-gloss dance-pop. – Shaad D’Souza

For more: Listen to Kito’s track with Empress Of, Wild Girl, or her 2021 EP Blossom.

Mona Yim and Memphis LK – Thinkin of U

For fans of: PinkPantheress, Ninajirachi, Daine

Mona Yim and Memphis LK’s new track soundtracks a crush ‘like a cloudburst’. Photograph: Ninja Tune

A crush can feel like a cloudburst: a thick fog of heated infatuation giving way to the rude shock of reality coming down like precipitation. This new collaboration between Chinese-German DJ Mona Yim and Melbourne pop singer Memphis LK locates itself in a spell of “summer nights when the rain starts falling” – a poetic backdrop to the kind of love that can only exist as obsession. Yim’s skittish production veers towards the haptic: you can feel the hazy humidity, the fat droplets of water thudding beneath Memphis LK’s gauzy vocals. To quote that extremely online turn of phrase: when two queens come together to maximise their joint slay. – Michael Sun

For more: Memphis LK’s EP Too Much Fun is out now, or revisit Mona Yim’s Boiler Room set.

Corin – vīsiōnem

For fans of: Arca, Eartheater, Fatima Al Qadiri

This is a song of dense construction and assemblage, melding glitch, trance and ambient music into something enchanting and ethereal. The track begins simply enough: ghostly voices leap around the mix, but then the electronic producer begins steadily adding layers upon layers of synthetic synths and harsh, metallic beats to her futuristic soundscape. It manages a difficult feat: to create a challenging piece of music that is also undeniably and oddly catchy. – Isabella Trimboli

For more: Listen to Corin’s new record Lux Aeterna.

Bodies of Divine Infinite and Eternal Spirit – Song for Fear

For fans of: the UV Race, any punk bands that like to whip out the saxophone from time to time

Bodies of Divine Infinite and Eternal Spirit: a name hard to swallow, a single that goes down easy. Photograph: Jack Mannix

The band’s name is a mouthful, but their new single goes down easy. Song for Fear is the latest from the longstanding Melbourne group and comes off their forthcoming first “official” record All the Songs I Know About Fire. The post-punk track is an incantation of sorts – with wayward saxophone, propulsive drums and janky, chanted lyrics about fire, heat and terrors. Danceable and menacing in equal measure. – Isabella Trimboli

For more: All the Songs I Know About Fire is out 10 October. In the meantime, listen to the band members’ other group Wet Kiss.

Blusher – Limelight

For fans of: Muna, Hatchie, Robyn

Like a Vodka Cruiser (guava only): Blusher’s Limelight. Photograph: Geoff Sumner

If a guava Vodka Cruiser (the best flavour, I will not argue about this) was a song, it would be this one – sweet, fizzy and addictive. Against a backdrop of pulsing synths, Melbourne trio Blusher chart a night out where you hope something might finally happen with that cutie you’ve had your eye on. This electropop banger bottles what Blusher themselves call a “teenage feeling”: bright-eyed yearning and optimism, full of endless and unexpected possibility. – Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen

For more: Blusher’s debut EP, Should We Go Dance? is out now.

Sophiegrophy – No Time (feat Balloranking)

For fans of: Tems, drill with the edges softened

Born in Nigeria, raised in New Zealand and currently based in Australia, Sophiegrophy has been releasing a steady stream of promising singles over the past few years, slipping between trap, R&B and Afrobeats with ease. No Time, a highlight of her new EP Oranginality, pairs drill’s shuddering bass with one of Sophiegrophy’s most pensive performances to date. It’s a heady genre clash, made all the better by Balloranking’s velvety guest verse. – Shaad D’Souza

For more: Sophiegrophy’s EP Oranginality is out now.

Fred Leone – Yirimi Gundir

For fans of: King Stingray, Yothu Yindi, Yirrmal

Percussive and powerful: Fred Leone’s Yirimi Gundir. Photograph: Mark Crannitch

Here’s something really bold. Fred Leone is a Butchulla songman from K’Gari, formerly known as Fraser Island, and his first single – sung in Butchulla – is released in both traditional form and a remix by Kaurna (Adelaide) rapper and producer Trials. The traditional version is percussive and incredibly powerful, Leone’s vocals at the forefront. Trials’ version, meanwhile, does for it what Filthy Lucre did to Yothu Yindi’s Treaty, reimagining the track for the dancefloor, using a kangaroo skin for a kick drum. – Andrew Stafford

For more: Leone is currently on an Australian tour until late September.