DJ Moopie's Charmingly Moody Curated Collections and This Week's Best New Tracks
From Melbourne
Recommended if you like classic jangle-pop compilations, AU/NZ jangle-pop, art-pop experimentation
Newest project The compilation 'Going Back to Sleep' is currently released
The artist known as DJ Moopie, real name Matthew Xue, from Melbourne, is celebrated for captivating and eclectic DJ sets that can run the gamut from gelid ambient music to pulsating breakbeats plus other genres. Additionally, he operates A Colourful Storm – a fantastic indie label that massively punches above its weight when it comes to releasing quirky and introspective pop experiments, featuring a diverse roster including London-based percussionist Valentina Magaletti, the dub-infused sounds of Hobart pair Troth, and renowned underground polymath Simon Fisher Turner.
The label's 2017 release was I Won’t Have to Think About You, a collection of delightful, C86-inspired indie pop. Earlier this year, it put out Going Back to Sleep, a spiritual follow-up to that compilation which also functions as a neatly drawn guide to several excellent bands in the gentle pop sphere active today. Sydney band Daily Toll, whose 2025 debut A Profound Non-Event is one of the year’s underrated gems, offer Time, a seven-minute melodica-and-guitar reverie. The duo Chateau, comprising Al Montfort and Alex Macfarlane, explore percussive, psychedelic lounge pop on How Long on the Platform, while Who Cares?, channel equal parts the styles of Hope Sandoval and Eartheater on Wax and Wane.
Elsewhere, Going Back to Sleep showcases songs by the enduring San Francisco indie group the Reds, Pinks and Purples; minimalist Sydney group the Lewers; and the sunny folk-pop of Netherlands-based duo the Hobknobs. This is a modest collection that’s likely to grow into a beloved and regularly mentioned resource among connoisseurs of all things delicate and deeply felt.
This Week’s Best New Tracks
Flea – A Plea
A rare solo track from the Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist, and a magnificently realised one: rhythmically forward-moving but adventurous jazz-soul with Flea calling for harmony and affection. “I’m not being corny – this shit is real!”
Daniel Blumberg and Amanda Seyfried – Clothed By the Sun
After securing this year's Oscar for Best Original Score, one could envision Blumberg earning the Best Original Song award in 2026 thanks to this remarkable collaboration with Amanda Seyfried featured on the soundtrack he composed for The Testament of Ann Lee.
Jana Horn – All in Bet
The Texan songwriter depicts all the nuances of melancholy in this opulently sad new song, in which minimal hints of piano and flute shade her exhausted letdown.
Umor Rex – Lo Animal
One might readily envision this Madrid-based cellist’s gothic masterpiece with industrial shades featured in a Dune soundtrack, thanks to its pounding percussion, metallic shrieks, eerie chorals and cataclysmic majesty.
Zora Jones x DJ Polo – Hoes Link Up
Imaginative Austrian producer-vocalist joins forces with Bristolian UK bass producer DJ Polo for some slamming ghettotech: the beats are absolutely crushing yet the melody approaches dream-pop.
Jawnino and Surf Gang – Hit Again
Included on the latest mixtape, Amnesia, UK rapper Jawnino flows over varied cloud-rap beats by Surf Gang, with this song standing as a peak moment, Jawnino focused and in the zone as he surveys the landscape of drug dealing.
Annabelle Chairlegs – Heavy Sleeper
With production by Ty Segall, this garage-rock-influenced track propels itself forward at a self-determined tempo, transitioning from a freight-train momentum to the Austin musician’s dazed reverie about how “my spirit is restored by the moon”.
