Unpopular Recordings share new compilation “Unpopular Presents: Fuck Wave Vol. 1”
Feat. new music from Sex Mask
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Knife Tutorial, Humane The Moon, Cellular and more
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Knife Tutorial, Humane The Moon, Cellular and more
Tastemaker label Unpopular Recordings have released a new compilation featuring a selection of tracks from their roster including Sex Mask, M2, Cellular, Knife Tutorial, Humane The Moon, Rhed, and Wry Gray.
Founded by Stephen “Pav” Pavlovic and Adrian McGruther, the new compilation marks something of an unofficial launch for Unpopular. The label shares its name with an exhibition from 2022 at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum, in which Pavlovic showed his archive of iconic rock memorabilia collected over his years as a promoter and label boss. He is widely known as the first person to bring Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Pavement, Daft Punk and more to Australia, and as the founder of Modular Recordings under which he first signed the likes of Tame Impala, Ladyhawke, Wolmother and The Avalanches. Former A&R and music lawyer, Adrian McGruther, is the founder of artist management company su:yu:ka – home to the likes of Gordi and Willaris. K and viral content creators Shepmates. In addition to running Unpopular, the pair also manage artists including Radio Free Alice, one of the breakthrough Antipodean indie-rock acts of the last year and fast-rising trio, Sex Mask.
Recently championed as “Australia’s next big export” by NME, and having released their “Body Broker” EP to widespread praise, Sex Mask have contributed a new single to the compilation titled “Girth”. The driving and deceptively hooky new track is a live favourite from the band’s recent packed-out EU/UK tour with hometown friends Radio Free Alice (whose singer, Noah Learmonth, also features on the compilation via the band’s recent single “Blisters”), and sees them elaborating on their lo-fi blend of 80s industrial, no-wave and post-punk influences. As much at home in late-night venues and darkened clubs, “Girth” nods towards what’s to come in what looks like an even bigger 2026 for the band.
Knife Tutorial’s contribution also marks a new release and a new project from Sex Mask frontman, Wry Gray (who also closes out the compilation with a solo track). Knife Tutorial shows another side to Gray’s output combining warped electronic arrangements and glitched-out samples with abrasive, high adrenaline rapping and saturated vocals. Meanwhile, his solo outing shows a more delicate side to his compositional work.
Elsewhere on the EP, tracks such as “i kinda like it” by Cellular show off the band’s genre-fluid, autotune-tinted noise rock, while East London’s Humane The Moon highlight their gritty, kitchen sink indie rock on “Agony. Conversely, M2 shows off the label’s eclecticism with dancefloor ready indie-pop club heater “M3”, whereas Rhed’s airy “Rightway” delves into trip-hop inflected, psych-pop territory.
Tracklisting:
1) Sex Mask – “Girth”
2) M2 – “M3”
3) Cellular – “I kinda like it”
4) Knife Tutorial – “Concrete”
5) Humane The Moon – “Agony”
6) Sex Mask – “Blisters” (feat. Noah Learmonth)
7) Humane The Moon – “Tetris” (feat. Kate Ireland)
8) M2 – “M4”
9) Rhed – “Rightway”
10) Wry Gray – “Dreams”
Speaking on the compilation, Pavlovic says “there’s a rising tide of kids worldwide that don’t give two fucks about rules, genres, scenes or sounds, that in a way harks back to a time when post-punk, dub and disco were intertwined in the 80s, or when indie rock and dance music became bedfellows in the early 2000s. Unpopular is an outlet for these kinds of transgressive sounds and Fuckwave Vol. 1 is our first collected representation of that. It’s an assortment of sounds that doesn’t really belong anywhere but to us makes perfect sense together.”
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source circuitsweet.co.uk ’
