Why Bilby’s Debut Album Will Probably be my AOTY
If you’ve ever experienced an infamous “Days Road Balc Sesh”, chances are you’ve heard music from a dude named Bilby. Bilby is a rapper/producer/singer/songwriter coming out of Sydney’s Northern Beaches and the one artist I’m probably most excited about.
I first heard of Bilby (aka Blinky Trill, aka Harry Moxham) when I flicked on triple j in the middle of a study session in 2015. It must’ve been fate, because I did this very rarely, if ever. Everyone’s favourite ‘Mad Dog’ Lewi McKirdy was on and he was a bit renowned for picking seemingly obscure tunes from Unearthed to play, and they were always bangers. Well, our mate Lewi had done what he does best. He played a tune called Champion Ruby by some guy named Bilby. I’d never heard of him and I’d never really heard anything like this song before either. He fused bouncy electronic beats with guitar melodies that were as intricate and layered as they were playful and slacker vocals verging on rap. You can find the song on SoundCloud under the tags ‘sydney’, ‘stoner pop’ and ‘folk trap’. Although his sound has taken twists and turns, these pretty much sum it up. I immediately tagged a mate on SoundCould, to which he replied, “this is amazing”.
That’s how Bilby got on my radar and he hasn’t left since. I would alternate between Champion Ruby and Smoak It for a good while and I couldn’t get enough. Then came his EP 2 High 2 Sing High. All his staples were there: his guitar melodies were memorable; his vocals were, at times, high pace and energetic and, at other times, as chill as it gets; his trap beats were getting more intricate and complex. Champion Ruby quickly became a favourite and is now revered as a staple of the sesh.
Over the next couple of years, I was exposed to Bilby a couple of ways. He joined Sydney label Yes Rave alongside a stacked roster of underground musicians. He released two more EPs, Botanicals and Walkin’ 2 the Lake. Botanicals was more of what we love about Bilby, but his hip-hop influences were becoming more and more clear as he seemed to be rapping a bit more himself. Songs Stingray and A38 are the perfect examples. Despite this, he’s still rapping with a classic Australian nonchalance, dropping as many references to youthful life in the Northern suburbs as possible.
In the following months I ended up digging through the crate that is Bilby’s Bandcamp, ultimately on the hunt for more sweet, sweet Bilby ‘tent (content). I ended up finding quite a few tapes that really blew me away. There is a lot of his current sound in his early stuff, but it’s probably less polished and a lot thinner. His guitar melodies are oh-so intricate and delicate and produced beats are sparse. Instead, he opted to rely on his voice and his guitar, mucking around with whatever recording software he had hands on.
Then came Walkin’ 2 the Lake, which got him a bit more attention from the almighty j’s. This EP seemed to be a bit of a detour as, instead of producing it himself, Bilby sourced beats from Atlanta producer Meltycanon, who boasts collaborations with the likes of Lil Yachty and Father. Meltycanon’s production suited Bilby’s style and vocals perfectly. The production is bright, bubbly and playful and the beats can only be labelled as “trap”. As such a huge fan of Bilby’s original production, it’s an EP I don’t go to often, but it’s still a Bilby EP and it’s a quality listen.
Come the second half of 2018 and we get two new singles and a release date for Bilby’s debut LP, Shade. He released November Nights in August, announcing the album for September 28. November Nights has even more beautiful, soothing layered guitar melodies and a hook that could be used as the perfect example of Bilby’s Australiana adaptation of emo-rap. It’s a proper nice song and it got me extremely excited for late September. Now we’re here, with another single, Proceed, which could only build the excitement.
Bilby continues to carve new sounds and make new ground with a conceptually original take on hip-hop. It may seem novel at first listen but it’s actually genuinely brilliant. He stands out in the Australian hip-hop scene filled with a majority of US copycats and flat cap-sporting tradies with a sound that is, at the least, objectively listenable, and subjectively masterful. I greatly look forward to what Friday brings (wouldn’t mind a little album tour announcement either, ay Bilbs?).
