This week's must-listen singles: LUCIANBLOMKAMP, Eliott, CANDY + more

Every week, we're hammered with tonnes of new music from Australia and afar, so much so that at times, it feels a little overwhelming and you're not quite sure where to begin. Every week, we plan to run down this week's must-listen singles and releases, this week featuring names like Moaning Lisa, LUCIANBLOMKAMP, Candy and more. Check out Pilerats' homepage for more brilliant music and news, or subscribe to our Spotify Office Playlist for easy listening.

LUCIANBLOMKAMP - Endless

Best known internationally for his work with R&B heavyweight 6LACK, Melbourne's LUCIANBLOMKAMP is an artist who continues to be pushing out some of Australia's best electronica - 2017's teasing mini-album Sick Of What I Don't Understand. The musician is currently pushing out a three-part album, the first portion being last year's just-mentioned four-tracker, with the second taste, a four-track release, to arrive via Good Manners on July 6. Endless is the first taste of the album's second phase and it's a genre-bending journey, opening with a soft piano line and hazy, distorted vocals that settle with this oozing R&B feel - a feel only amplified when the driving production kicks in a minute into the ride. From there, the track twists and turns amongst different flavours before ending on this climactic, thumping ending which gives the track a distinctly electronic, house-flavoured twist. "Endless is about self-reflection," says the musician on the single, which arrives ahead of collaborations with Jace XL, Rosebud Leach and Eliott. "The track is basically a chat between my present and past self. The different sections of the track are meant to reflect that."

Eliott - Calling

Despite only having two tracks to her name, Eliott is a Melbourne-musician with enough potential to shoot her into space (suck it, Elon Musk). Calling is her third single and it's achingly beautiful, with her emotive vocals drenched in heartache and pain dripping above a hazy, stripped-back instrumental by Jack Grace that perfectly elevates Eliott's vocals to where they deserve to be. It's one of those singles that force you to bask in the confronting, emotional rawness and vulnerability of Eliott's touching vocals, which come from a pretty personal place for the up-and-coming name. "Calling is really the only heartbreak song on my upcoming EP - it's about longing for someone to come back," she says on the track. "I had this one line in my head for about two years which I never really fit with anything “so I'm calling out to you, like a wolf in the cold, howling for your love - so close but it’s not enough” and then one day, I was in the studio with Jack Grace and it just moulded into this intense ballad - it took me two years to put those emotions into a song, and Calling is what came from it."

Candy - Hiding From The Sun

In March, we were introduced to the world of Melbourne's Calum Newton, who broke away from his projects with Lunatics on Pogosticks and Amyl and the Sniffers to form his own solo project, Candy. Apartment In The City was the first taste of the project and if you were a fan, you'd probably love his second single Hiding From The Sun too. It's another acoustic, guitar-soaked indie cut that is part heavenly dream-pop and part sun-soaked indie, with Candy's bright vocals playfully rolling with a stripped-back instrumental which is perfectly simple and easily accessible. He's got a headline show at Melbourne's Foxxy Dolphin on June 23, plus a bunch of shows with one of our favourite acts at the moment RAAVE TAPES - including their mammoth-looking RAAVE TAPES SHUT DOWN THE CAMBRIDGE show which you can get a tasty preview of HERE.

Moaning Lisa - Good

Distancing ourselves away from Melbourne now in favour of the low-key musical haven that is Canberra, Moaning Lisa's Carrie (I Want A Girl) - an ode to being queer, loving women, and the legendary Carrie Brownstein - immediately caught our attention, mostly thanks to its modern take on a grunge-esque sound which somehow, managed to feel both current yet nostalgic. Good sees them back in our ears once again with another alt-rock gem influenced by the 90s grunge movement, and although the song title is actually Good, we have a better name - bloody f'kn fantastic. The vocals are light and easily maneuverable, something the group well and truly test as those vocals float through the single's guitar-soaked instrumental which rises and falls over the spiralling three minutes. They're spending much of the month touring with WAAX in a must-catch tour, but you can also see them at Yours & Owls Festival in September.

imbi the girl - Swell

Through collaborations with Oh Boy and Spit Syndicate as well as their own two singles, 2017's break-out debut Acidic and its following V.I.P., Sydney's imbi the girl is quickly becoming one of Australia's most promising next-generation artists, something which their newest (and first for 2018) single, Swell, goes out to prove. It's part pop, part hip-hop, part-soul, combining this soft, almost spoken-word vocal similar to acts like Odette with a snapping production dripping with those R&B influences, which really helps imbi the girl feel at home. "Swell is about this feeling I get in my chest sometimes," imbi says on the single. "It’s not anxiety, it’s not excitement, not sadness or joy, it’s a culmination of all of that and more." I'd say it's more on the R&B side of things than anything else we've heard from imbi the girl before, and it totally works, getting us well and truly hyped to see them come to our side of this big, big country for the Listen Out Festival tour later this year.