The new Melbourne melodicists... Prophetic Justice Ministry and Who Cares?
One of the most exciting sub-sub-cultures we’ve come across recently is the brew of melodic but obscure music that’s seeping out from bat-town aka Naarm/Melbourne. There’s a crew of kids...
One of the most exciting sub-sub-cultures we’ve come across recently is the brew of melodic but obscure music that’s seeping out from bat-town aka Naarm/Melbourne. There’s a crew of kids mulching the influences we all know and love into new forms, heartfelt, heartbroken, hearty and arty. Below are two examples of groupings you should get onboard with
The solo music by Who Cares? member Sam Perry, Prophetic Justice Ministry’s first releases were CD only, hand-made affairs that while enjoyed the obscurity of an awkward moniker and some musical sidesteps still managed to bring the some earworms. On Key To World Peace, Perry’s gone in two directions at once.
Swathed in atmospheric synths and muffled in waves of reverb, Key To World Peace starts out at a slant, before climbing up-hill into some pretty damn perfect pop songs. Life’s A Party is a case in point: downtrodden and riding in on a seductive loop, it’s a effortlessly melodic and reminds us, curiously, of everything from The Beta Band to Ela Orleans. Perry’s vocal is deep in the mix before arching up into the chorus, glowing with ironic melancholy. It’s for sure one of the songs of 2026. Side A is a-swirl with more abstract tone veers from industrial tracks (T-A) to pastoral, impressionistic pieces (Trance) that sets the scene for this suite of songs and atmosphere. Elsewhere, like on Love Drum the ghost of Syd Barrett shines through brightly, with acoustic guitar and Perry’s off-the-cuff delivery hitting all manner of sweet spots. Elsewhere, there’s a pretty straight up albeit lovingly lo fi cover of Lana Del Ray’s Maritime Apartment Complex and closer Spirit House Party (what is it with this crew and parties) gets pretty close to a downer anthem while also sounding not a million miles from Perry’s other group Who Cares?
It’s a mini album with a big heart. Limited to 300 only.
Melbourne’s underground superstars / supergroup finally break into the physical realm with an already-sold-out EP. FFO Mazzy Star, Gabys, moody garage heart-melters.
“As with the firmest of its diy domestica ilk, there’s something ever so slightly off here, the carnivalesque nature of this thing being the ‘what?’ that keeps pulling you in. parched ennui drip, fully zonked bacchanal (anti-)energetics, listlessness rendered bedsit anthem, cooees in the hallway. depending on how your head is screwed, ‘correct’ or otherwise, one might hear a charmed take on a vein of folk song fallen well by the wayside/behind the mantle, others a seance for the spirits in the kettle, others more attuned to the myriad wraiths swirling within the outer reaches of these songs, flights of whimsy foiled by a sticky, gluey something or other.
