Sui Zhen - 'Hangin On' (3RRR Live from Melbourne Music Week)

This sparky performance by Sui Zhen was taken from a session for 3RRR Live as part of Melbourne Music Week. You can also watch a slightly more recent full set by Sui Zhen live during The Grapevine's 10th Birthday celebrations here.

Fantasy Festival number 3: The Lineup

Julia Bardo: This young musician moved from Brescia in Italy to Manchester three years ago and after playing as part of Working Men's Club for a bit, is now pursuing a solo career. You can read a really good interview with Julia over on the Fred Perry website, and find out more about her here. 

Biig Piig: One of The Guardian's 'One To Watch' from late last year, and a favourite of 6Music, Biig Piig is the pseudonym of Irish musician Jess Smyth. You can find her on Insta and listen to her on Soundcloud.  

Mint Field: 2020 sees Mexican band Mint Field return with a changed lineup as they begin the build up to their much anticipated second album. You can find out more at their Bandcamp page. 

Sui Zhen: Electronic artist Sui Zhen began her career in Japan in 2016 but is now based in Melbourne, Australia. Last years album Losing, Linda was a understated classic. You can find out more over at her website. 

Jenny Hval: Experimental Norwegian artist Jenny Hval has built up a cult following over the past five years or so, and has collaborated with a number of other artists, including Kelly Lee Owens. You can access her website here. 

Ibeyi: French-Cuban sisters Lisa-Kaindé Diaz and Naomi Diaz make sophisticated and intricate music in English and Yoruba, a Nigerian dialect. As well as featuring in Amy Raphael's recent excellent book of interviews with female musicians, A Seat At The Table, there's also a good introductory interview with them here. 

Rosalía: Catalan global popstar Rosalia Vila Tobella has only been with us a few years, but she is going from strength to strength, steadily climbing the live circuit and performing in bigger and bigger venues, turning in stirring performances at every award ceremony going, and generally bossing it. Now is her moment. 

Songs of the year, number 23: Sui Zhen - Being A Woman

Melbourne based artist Sui Zhen released her most recent album Losing, Linda in September. Dreamy, slightly offbeat, electro pop is her main mode of expression, and 'Being A Woman' is a slyly subversive expression of the genre, coupled with a very matter of fact series of observations about being a woman in the modern world. It walks no line between feminist statement and pop music: It just... is.