Sound Under Weekly Picks: 15 May 2026
Fresh Australian alternative music worth your time this week.
Every Friday, Sound Under curates the best of Australian alternative music: fresh releases, overlooked gems, rising artists, and songs worth spending real time with.
Whether you’re driving down the coast, walking through the city late at night, or simply tired of playlists chosen by algorithms, these picks are built differently. This isn’t about hype cycles or whatever is trending for 48 hours. It’s about music with replay value, personality, and something real inside it.
No artist is too early. No sound is too left-field, and no scene is too small.
Here’s this week’s Picks:
Raindrops — Headwreck
Headwreck feel like genuine stars in the making. The Brisbane-based nu-metalcore band have been quietly building a cult-like following over the last few years, and once you hear the music, it becomes pretty obvious why.
They understand something a lot of heavy bands forget: aggression alone is not enough. The songs still need movement, personality, and moments people actually want to come back to.
That balance is where Headwreck really thrive.
“Raindrops” is chaotic, explosive, and packed with energy, but underneath all the heaviness is a strong sense of groove and melody that stops the track from becoming one-dimensional. The band know exactly when to hit hard and when to pull things back into something more hook-driven.
The breakdowns throughout the song are some of the most satisfying we have heard from this lane in a while, but what really makes the track stick is the contrast between those heavier moments and the vocal harmonies layered throughout. Even the hook carries this huge melodic quality that gets trapped in your head almost immediately.
What makes Headwreck connect beyond just heavy music audiences is that they never let the music become overly self-serious. Even at their heaviest, there is still bounce, swagger, and fun inside the chaos.
If they keep refining this sound the way they have been, it genuinely feels like Headwreck are going to become one of the breakout heavy bands in Australia over the next few years.
Heartless — South Summit
South Summit have quietly become one of the most interesting bands coming out of Western Australia right now. What makes them stand out is how naturally they blend reggae, indie rock, hip hop, alternative, and pop influences into something that still feels cohesive and unmistakably theirs.
“Heartless,” the fourth single from their upcoming album Run It Back (dropping June 12), feels like another strong example of that versatility. The music video, filmed at the summit of Bluff Knoll — one of Western Australia’s highest mountains — perfectly matches the emotional openness running through the song itself.
“Heartless” works because of the tension at its centre.
Lyrically, the song leans heavily into emotional fallout, regret, distance, and the aftermath of a relationship slowly collapsing.
“I blame myself, but you already know”
“I gave my soul, but it still feels cold”
The lyrics carry the weight of heartbreak, but musically the song moves in a completely different direction. Instead of leaning into sadness sonically, South Summit build the track around uplifting melodies, groove-heavy production that almost feels danceable.
In a way, the track flips the traditional heartbreak formula on its head. It becomes less about emotional collapse and more about surviving it.
The chorus especially captures that emotional duality beautifully.
Interestingly, this was also the first song the band began working on for the upcoming album, and after hearing all the singles released so far, this still remains our favourite drop from the project.
Song for Steven — Sonic Reducer
Australia’s punk scene is ridiculous right now. There are so many great bands emerging across the country, and Sonic Reducer are definitely one of the ones we are most excited about at the moment.
Based out of Canberra, the band have been quietly building momentum through a string of strong singles and EP releases, and it already feels like they are moving toward something much bigger.
If you grew up listening to bands like Ramones or Sex Pistols, there is a very good chance Sonic Reducer will connect with you instantly.
Even though “Song for Steven” does not fully sound like a traditional punk track sonically, it still carries that same spirit underneath it all: looseness, emotional honesty, awkwardness, and youthful energy.
“You say you know what I’m on about
But I’m still trying to find what to say”
That line especially feels like the emotional core of the song. There is frustration in it, but also vulnerability — the feeling of not fully understanding yourself yet while everyone around you expects clarity.
“Don’t listen to your mother
Don’t spend your life trying to live it for another”
That line carries the classic punk spirit of individuality and freedom without ever sounding preachy.
They might not be a household name yet, but it genuinely feels like Sonic Reducer are becoming one of the most exciting punk bands emerging in Australia right now.
Too Late To Go Outside — kate moth
We recently discovered kate moth, a Sydney-based band, and we are very glad we did.
On their latest track, “Too Late To Go Outside,” they create a world that feels strangely immersive — like a rollercoaster moving in slow motion inside a dream.
The song feels hazy, intimate, and emotionally distant in a way that gets deeper the longer it plays. Even though there is movement underneath the instrumentation, everything still feels calm and weightless at the same time.
A huge part of that comes from Matt’s vocal performance. There is something incredibly soothing about the delivery throughout the track. Even when the lyrics deal with inner conflict, emotional exhaustion, and falling in and out of consciousness, the vocals somehow make the chaos feel comforting rather than overwhelming.
Lyrically, the song explores isolation, emotional paralysis, overthinking, and the feeling of wanting escape while remaining completely stuck.
It feels like the kind of song you put on alone late at night and suddenly find yourself completely absorbed in without realising it.
Higher Than Usual — Nancy and the Jam Fancys
The first time we heard Nancy and the Jam Fancys, one comparison immediately came to mind: Jim Morrison from The Doors, who is personally my favourite vocalist of all time.
Not because the band are trying to imitate The Doors sonically, but because Lewis Griffin carries a similar kind of unpredictability and charisma in his vocal delivery. There is that same loose, hypnotic energy where it feels like the performance could either completely fall apart or become transcendent at any second, and that tension is exactly what makes it compelling.
“Higher Than Usual” leans fully into that atmosphere.
From the opening line:
“You seem like a fine individual… shame I met you now you seem higher than usual”
the song immediately drops you into this hazy, psychedelic world filled with intoxication, late-night encounters, and blurred emotional states.
The video itself opens with a drug addict taking a hit, setting the tone for what the track is really exploring — not just substance use, but altered states in general. The feeling of people drifting through life disconnected, detached, impulsive, and emotionally elsewhere.
The last major release from the band was their album Swan Songs back in January 2025, and honestly, this track feels like the beginning of a new chapter creatively. There is something sharper, more confident, and more fully realised about the direction they are moving toward here.
If this is where Nancy and the Jam Fancys are heading next, we are very interested to hear what comes after.
Every Friday, Sound Under spotlights the best alternative music beneath the surface.
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