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Hailing from Melbourne
Recommended if you like classic jangle-pop compilations, Australian and New Zealand guitar pop, art-pop experimentation
Latest release Going Back to Sleep out now

Melbourne-based DJ Moopie, AKA Matthew Xue, is renowned for engrossing, wide-ranging sets that often traverse from gelid ambient music to driving drum and bass and much more. Additionally, he operates A Colourful Storm – an exceptional independent record label that massively punches above its weight when it comes to issuing charmingly moody experimental pop music, from artists as disparate as percussionist Valentina Magaletti, based in London, Troth, a bass-heavy duo from Hobart, and renowned underground polymath Simon Fisher Turner.

In 2017, the label released 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 simultaneously serves as a succinct overview to some of the best twee-pop groups active today. The Sydney group Daily Toll, whose 2025 debut A Profound Non-Event is one of the year’s underrated gems, contribute Time, a sprawling, seven-minute meditation featuring melodica and guitar. Chateau, comprising Al Montfort and Alex Macfarlane, venture into beat-driven, psychedelic-infused easy listening on How Long on the Platform, while Who Cares?, one of Melbourne's best new bands, blend influences from Hope Sandoval and Eartheater on Wax and Wane.

In other tracks, Going Back to Sleep features tracks from San Francisco indie stalwarts the Reds, Pinks and Purples; Sydney's minimalist outfit the Lewers; and the sunny folk-pop of Netherlands-based duo the Hobknobs. This is a modest collection that’s likely to grow into deeply cherished and often cited for aficionados of all things delicate and deeply felt.

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