Purity Ring, The internet and Vince Staples are all set to perform at the 2016 Laneway Festival. Photo / Getty Images
Purity Ring, The internet and Vince Staples are all set to perform at the 2016 Laneway Festival. Photo / Getty Images
Chrvches are there. So are Grimes, Flume and Beach House - but who else made the cut in this week's Laneway line-up? Here are five artists we thought deserved some extra attention.
The internet
Syd the Kid's latest guise seems an unlikely one. As the producer and DJ for Odd Future, she's in charge of the decks behind an unruly collection of skate brats who rap about the most offensive things imaginable.
Laneway 2016 artist The internet.
But The internet, her collaboration with Matt Martians and four others, is something else entirely. Across three albums, Syd's crooned and pouted her way through a collection of neo-soul jams and future-funk R&B a million miles away from her rowdy day job with Odd Future.
The internet's latest album, this year's under-rated Ego Death, even has a sickly sweet love song on it called Girl that's so memorable it will rattle around in your brain for days. It's likely to do the same after Laneway.
Hudson Mohawke
He looks like that lanky teen who lives next door and spends all his time playing Call of Duty until 3am. But Ross Birchard is much more interesting than that. As Hudson Mohawke, the Scottish producer has one major credit next to his name.
That would be his work on Kanye West's future-rap opus Yeezus, helping pen the tracks I Am a God and Blood on the Leaves. He was also one-half of the short-lived trap team TNGHT, a duo he started with fellow DJ Lunice. But his second solo album, Lantern, released in June, is the one that has people sitting up and taking notice.
At Laneway 2016, Mohawke is likely to fit the spot Flying Lotus filled at this year's event, providing a livewire electro mashup that, when Scud Books drops, will make everyone go mental.
Vince Staples
He's only 22, but Vince Staples has already amassed an impressive biography. A sometime affiliate of Earl Sweatshirt and Mac Miller, Staples stepped out on his own with last year's critically acclaimed EP, Hell Can Wait. But it's this year's full-length debut, Summertime 06, that really sets him apart.
Laneway 2016 artist Vince Staples.
Firstly, it's a double album, one that charts his life growing up in small suburb of Long Beach. Secondly, it's good right the way through, whether he's rapping about drugs, drive-bys, dodgy corner boys, or occasional mentions of his mum. Lastly, he's a wordsmith, cramming so many incredibly complex rhymes into his songs they need repeated listens to pick them all up.
Amazing, really, when you consider Staples didn't grow up with music in his life, never thought he'd have a career in the business and began rapping seriously only a few years ago.
Shamir
The first thing you'll notice about Shamir is his colourful dress sense. The second is his unusual voice, an asset that normally has reviewers reaching for words like "androgynous" to describe.
Laneway 2016 artist Shamir.
Yes, songs like On the Regular - a jumped-up party starter of the best kind - are pitched like updated versions of Salt N Pepa hits. But Shamir's debut album, Ratchet, released in May, shows there are plenty more sides to this Vegas showman. Shimmering electro jams mix with ballads, dancehall thrillers and suburb sub-pop freak outs.
Then there's Darker, his freaky ballad which features Shamir hollering from a hilltop in the video. Get your lighter ready - everyone else will be waving them around Silo Park when he plays it.
Purity Ring
Purity Ring are Chvrches' gothic cousins. Over two albums, the Canadian duo have shown off their love affair with the darker elements of electro-pop. "I cried 'til my body ached," sings Megan James on one of their most well-known songs, Body Ache, over pounding walls of synth riffs.
Laneway 2016 artist Purity Ring.
Their love for sluggish, grimy detours - see Lofticries, Fineshrine - has also seen Purity Ring become popular among rap acts. Danny Brown is a fan, and has collaborated with the duo on several songs, including 25 Bucks, from his most recent album.
But James and her bandmate Corin Roddick will be playing Laneway on the back of their really rather good second album Another Eternity, a record TimeOut almost awarded five stars.
