Hello there. I've just arrived back from two weeks in Australia, where I was lucky enough to attend a bunch of great shows at the Sydney Opera House (Jessica Pratt, Pat Metheny, Shackleton + Azu Tiwaline), go to a warehouse party in Marrickville, and eat my weight in fancy pasta before heading to Melbourne. Over the second week, we DJed at a bunch of beautiful spots around town (Hope Street Radio, High Note, etc) and managed to see Keanu Nelson, Richard Akingbehin & Tikiman, MC Yallah and Tenniscoats perform. Pretty good innings for a fortnight away. While I'm recalibrating, here are some short blurbs on a few recent releases I'm vibing on.

One of the funny things about the last two weeks is that I ended up seeing Jessica Pratt play live three times in three different cities. Part of this was because our friends Matt McDermott and Diego Herrera play in his band. The other part was because of how lovely the performances were. A big part of the dynamic is Jessica's excellent bassist, Nico Leibman aka Harmony Index. As it turns out, she's also an excellent dance music songwriter, producer and engineer. Last night, she released her new EP, Winterbreaks. Opening with the Kanyko-ongaku slanted synth-ambience of 'Prelude', the EP unfolds into an exercise in bouncy, floaty breakbeat house ("All Around"), smokey downtempo/street soul ("Drifting") and lush piano garage ("In Step"). Well recommended at this end.

Another lovely part of this trip was seeing the longstanding Japanese avant-pop duo, Saya さや , Takashi Ueno 植野隆司 aka Tenniscoats play two shows: one as part of Melbourne's Rising Festival and another at a special Sunday night Omniversal Hum event held inside Hope Street Radio. If you know, you already know. If you don't, they're just the cutest two-piece in the known universe. But while they're cute, it never gets too cutesy. There's so much charisma on display here. How many acts do you know that can unplug mid-set and draw a room to complete silence? Released back in February, "Zenvu Yume" is loaded with elegant dance pop tracks, bossa-tinted downtempo numbers and an abundance of lush ambient folk.

The same night we saw Tenniscoats play for the first time, we also caught Richard Akingbehin & Tikiman performing at the same venue. At this point, Paul St. Hilaire aka Tikiman really is one of the final bosses of dub techno. Having grown up on his music and that sound, Richard does an incredible job of supporting him as a DJ. Their performance was an absolute dream. When I was decompressing afterwards, I decided to check out what Richard's been doing with his Kynant Records label. As it goes, he released a new EP from the Lisbon-based producer .VRIL titled "Crystal Cell Energy." Expect six slabs of deep, driving and hypnotic dub techno with a euphoric tone and some meaningful spoken word delivered by two critical thinkers in the world of soundsystem culture and experimental music: Edward George and Isis Semaj-Hall AKA Riddim Writer. Oh yeah, acclaimed Dutch techno artist Steve Rachmad also dons his Parallel 9 alias for a remix.

Melbourne's Efficient Space label continues to expand its Ghost Riders musical universe with a new (old) archival EP of material recorded in New York in 1973 by a then 11-year-old musical prodigy named Dennis Harte. I'm gonna speak in simple terms here. If you're a Donnie & Joe Emerson enthusiast, this EP is right up your alley. Beautifully dreamy vocals and guitars, a prematurely nostalgic sentiment and rolling rhythm sections. It's just absolute bliss. I absolutely adore the title track.