Australia’s DJs, producers and uncredited ghostwriters have an uncanny knack for delivering bangers on the common, from acid techno freakouts to tribal house workouts and past. Anthem standing, nevertheless, isn’t so simply attained. The primary prerequisite? An enormous, belt-it-out-at-the-top-of-your-lungs vocal hook or a refrain you may see a burly tradie mouthing the phrases to within the condiments aisle.
This all signifies that livid chin-stroking over whether or not Lydian & the Dinosaur or Fasten Your Seatbelt greatest represents Australian breakbeat could be placed on maintain (for now). And solely tracks with authentic vocal performances qualify – so please, Since I Left You devotees, put down your pitchforks.
That’s the bottom guidelines laid out. Let’s dance.
15. Rüfüs Du Sol – Take Me (2013)
The extra bold and expansive Rüfüs Du Sol get, the much less overtly anthemic their output turns into. Counterintuitive? Maybe. However again after they had been simply plain outdated Rüfüs they captured lightning within the bottle on their first album out of the blocks. Gentle, ethereal, direct and never afraid to embrace its inner Booka Shade, Take Me is tropical home with heft in its engine room and escape in its coronary heart.
14. Confidence Man – Vacation (2021)
If conjuring pure pleasure in the midst of rolling Covid lockdowns was a superpower, you might slap some spandex on Confidence Man and name them the Unbelievable 4. Vacation is the sound of catharsis, dropping simply as Australians had been peering out from behind the shutters to see if the skin world was sane once more. Channelling the spirit of Madchester and the hedonism of electroclash, it’s that uncommon anthem the place the verses do the heavy lifting. “One life, good because it will get, I’ll take it” ought to’ve been Vacation’s calling card; “once I was a baby I used to be so bare” is the road individuals scream.
13. Euphoria – Love You Proper (1991)
Within the four-year interval between Ride on Time and Let Me Show You reaching piano-house perfection got here Love You Proper, Australia’s personal chart-topper. Sure, that could be a shirtless, pre-Mentalist fame Simon Baker cavorting round a microphone offering “backing vocals” within the clip. And he’s not the one one getting all Milli Vanilli: it wasn’t till the European launch of Love You Proper that the observe’s precise singer, Keren Minshull, was given the spotlight. Whereas the orchestral synth stabs and total manufacturing could not have weathered the years so nicely, Minshull’s vocal remains to be “screaming diva” par excellence.
12. Bag Raiders – Capturing Stars (2008)
Capturing Stars’ street to anthem standing was extra lengthy and winding than most. Originally tucked away as a B-side, two years later it was the shining gentle on the Sydney duo’s eponymous debut album. The observe itself is a gradual burn, nearly sombre if it weren’t for that synth hook looping its manner up via the octaves till the refrain heads for house. Nevertheless it was the observe’s second life as a meme, beginning off in 2015 and climaxing with a Katy Perry tribute, that despatched the Bag Raiders into the stratosphere.
11. Sneaky Sound System – Photos (2006)
Overheard at Splendour within the Grass in 2007: “Each time a DJ performs Sneaky, a kitten dies.” Suffice it to say, the nation’s feline inhabitants had already taken fairly a success by that time, whether or not courtesy of the disco-funk authentic or Tonite Solely’s electro house remix (with Sam La Extra, he of PNAU’s Littlemore brothers fame, one of many duo accountable). In an period dominated by in-your-face synths and screaming vocal hooks, Sneaky Sound System’s spacious association gave Connie Mitchell’s voice loads of room to glitter. A lot to the chagrin of cat lovers and Photos haters alike.
10. Timmy Trumpet and Savage – Freaks (2014)
Not each dancefloor anthem could be profound. “Is kindness an historical ability buried by our blindness?” asks Farnesy, in the direction of the sharp finish of this record. Timmy Trumpet’s considerations are extra direct: “Inform me, the place the freaks at?” Fact be advised, it’s not Savage’s rhymes however Timmy’s brass that elevates this boilerplate piece of EDM silliness from ridiculous to chic. Till then higher often known as a sidearm for Queensland DJ duo the Stafford Brothers, Freaks remodeled the person born Tim Smith right into a gunslinger in his personal proper.
9. PNAU – Embrace (2007)
PNAU’s self-titled third album brimmed with shout-along moments – No! Extra! Violence!, Wild! Straw-berries! – however Embrace was its centrepiece, with Peter Mayes and the brothers Littlemore ceding the highlight to particular visitor Pip Brown, higher often known as Ladyhawke. Its fame was sealed when the group took the brand new LP, a bunch of fruity costumes and a plethora of monumental balloons across the nation on the 2008 Massive Day Out tour. Elton John signed on because the group’s official No 1 ticket-holder shortly after and PNAU’s profession would by no means once more be within the doldrums.
8. Hermitude feat. Chaos Emerald – Converse of the Satan (2012)
If anybody who’d been following Hermitude’s decade-long profession up so far suspected Luke Dubs and Elgusto had one thing like Converse of the Satan in them, they’d saved it to themselves. The remainder of the five-star HyperParadise album is extra akin to the esoteric, introspective hip-hop the Blue Mountains duo had cast a good profession on, till this explosion; an infectious shot within the arm with a bassline that slaps, a snare drum that snaps and a vocal chorus that calls for motion: “That little satan in your shoulder / It’s telling you to bounce.”
7. The Potbelleez – Don’t Maintain Again (2007)
Strolling down the grassy knoll overlooking Brisbane’s Riverstage within the early afternoon as Parklife 2007 warmed up, two issues had been obvious: Kid Kenobi wasn’t playing breaks any more, and everybody knew the phrases to this tune with the acoustic guitar breakdown however me. Earlier than Don’t Maintain Again was synonymous with selling American SUVs to the masses, it was already triple platinum large. It catapulted the Potbelleez from Sydney DJ residencies to family title standing. And who’s that with a writing and manufacturing credit score? Who else but Sam Littlemore.
6. Madison Avenue – Don’t Name Me Child (1999)
Solely a matter of months after a few youngsters with a sampler and far greater issues forward launched Australia’s definitive funky house album got here a 12-inch that grew to become the nation’s definitive tackle the style. The bassline groove is borrowed from an obscure Italo pop outing, itself interpolated from a Black American disco hit, however Don’t Name Me Child pays it ahead with a scorching vocal efficiency from the perspective of a girl who isn’t placing up together with your shit any extra, pal. Perhaps if Madison Avenue had carried out this on the Aria Awards, Cheyne Coates wouldn’t have been so thirsty.
5. John Farnham – Age of Purpose (1988)
Sure, John Farnham’s first tune out of the blocks post-Whispering Jack was a membership banger in its time courtesy of a 12-inch combine which opens borderline Balearic (lush pads, tinkling pianos) earlier than that voice – the voice – chimes in and the refrain reaches for the heavens. There’s a cause kitschy Canberra Client Liaison dragged Farnesy out on tour, and why Melbourne DJ and Rinse FM resident CC:DISCO still gives Age of Reason a spin: it’s pure fireplace, whether or not in its authentic kind, given the slow-mo disco treatment or the euphoria factor is dialled up to 11.
4. Kylie – Can’t Get You Out Of My Head (2001)
On a Night Like This followers are welcome to lodge a protest (though technically, like The Horses, that Australian anthem is a cover), however Disco Kylie’s early-noughties scorching streak topped out with an ode to obsessive love and a refrain of la-la-lala-las. Mashed up with New Order’s timeless megabomb? Check. Coated by the Flaming Lips? Check. Madonna could have finally one-upped her with Hung Up, however for 4 years our Kylie was queen of the dance-pop world.
3. The Presets – My Folks (2007)
Equal components brooding, menacing and outright slamming, My Folks capped the Presets’ regular ascendancy from small rooms to out of doors phases (courtesy of a run on Daft Punk’s near-mythical Nevereverland tour) – and the way. Julian Hamilton and Kris Moyes pull off the seemingly unattainable by disguising a fierce protest tune – decrying the Howard government’s treatment of asylum seekers – as a name to motion on the dancefloor. Not the entire exponents of the Modular sound have aged so gracefully (Muscle mass followers, don’t @ me). However in a summer season overflowing with instantaneous classics – as this countdown attests – My Folks strode like a colossus above all of them.
2. Yothu Yindi – Treaty (Filthy Lucre Radio Edit) (1991)
A songwriting group together with Dr Yunupingu, Paul Kelly and Peter Garrett laid the platform, nevertheless it was the dancefloor smarts of Filthy Lucre that took Treaty to the world. The Melbourne trio stripped again the unique’s roots-rock trappings, added piano riffs and Hamilton Bohannon samples (“Clap your fingers and dance!”), and put the “Treaty, yeah!” chorus up in lights. Many remixers have taken the scissors to Yothu Yindi’s protest tune through the years – Carl Cox, William Orbit and Peace Division amongst them – however none have invigorated it fairly just like the OG remix. Greater than 30 years later, the urgency of the music and the message stay.
1. The Bee Gees – Stayin’ Alive (1977)
Who else to get lungs bursting on the seams one final time however Redcliffe’s most interesting, strutting breezily previous a burnt-out subway prepare prefer it’s a Sunday stroll alongside the Esplanade. Throw a dart at your tattered Saturday Evening Fever gatefold sleeve and also you’ll discover a disco inferno worthy of this record – Tony Manero had his favourite. Nevertheless it’s unattainable to go previous Stayin’ Alive: the guitar riff, the falsetto, the rumination on “the New York Occasions’ impact on man”. And that held be aware on the finish of the refrain, which is able to nonetheless be echoing throughout dancefloors a dozen disco revivals into the longer term.