🎸 The understated genius behind Brisbane's The Jungle Giants

🏆 Five albums, back-to-back #1s and nearly a billion streams

🪩 Songwriter, producer and master of infectious indie-dance

Five essential albums from one of Australia's most quietly brilliant musical minds.

Some musicians are considerably more celebrated than others, and then there are those whose talents deserve far more recognition than they receive. Sam Hales belongs firmly in the latter category. The frontman, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and creative force behind Brisbane's The Jungle Giants is, to our ears, one of Australia's most quietly brilliant musical minds. An understated genius, if you will. And, just to make the rest of us feel thoroughly inadequate, he's one hell of a nice guy to boot.

For more than 15 years, Hales has been responsible for some of the most infectious, inventive and downright irresistible music to emerge from this country. What begins as a humble indie-rock outfit formed among high school friends gradually becomes something far more adventurous, with Hales steering The Jungle Giants through increasingly sophisticated territory, absorbing electronic music, disco, funk and dance without ever losing the melodic instincts that made the band so immediately appealing in the first place.

It's an evolution that speaks to his remarkable musical curiosity. Hales isn't particularly interested in standing still, repeating himself or being confined by whatever genre someone decided The Jungle Giants belonged to. He's a songwriter with an extraordinary ear for a hook, a producer with a gift for building entire sonic worlds and a musician who seems happiest when following an idea somewhere unexpected. His identity is all over the band's five albums, from 2013's Learn to Exist, modern classic Quiet Ferocity through to the ARIA chart-topping Love Signs and 2026's Experiencing Feelings of Joy.

That latest record marks another significant chapter. Born out of a difficult period of personal upheaval and creative exhaustion, Experiencing Feelings of Joy finds Hales rediscovering his love of making music. It's a deeply personal album that puts his songwriting under a different kind of spotlight, with emotional honesty taking precedence over the cryptic lyricism of earlier releases. It's further evidence of an artist willing to challenge himself rather than settle into the considerable success he's already achieved.

And yet, for all the ambition, all the musical intelligence and all those enormous songs, there's something refreshingly unassuming about the bloke himself. Warm, generous, thoughtful and genuinely lovely company, Hales doesn't appear particularly concerned with cultivating the mythology of a musical genius. He's much more interested in making music, finding new sounds and enjoying the process. Perhaps that's part of what makes him so bloody good at it.

Which brings us to Forever Five. We asked Sam to nominate the five albums he simply couldn't live without, and the resulting collection is a fascinating one. There's electronic experimentation, modal jazz, brilliantly inventive Australian indie music, irresistible synth-pop and gloriously unpolished garage rock.

Five records from very different musical worlds, but each with a distinctive approach to rhythm, songwriting and the possibilities of sound.

There's plenty here to get our ears around.

Sam Hales' Forever Five

Caribou – The Milk of Human Kindness (2005)

Canadian producer Dan Snaith's first album under the Caribou name is a wonderfully peculiar collision of psychedelia, electronic experimentation, jazz and restless rhythms. Live drums meet programmed beats, guitars dissolve into electronic textures and melodies emerge from the most unexpected places. Tracks like 'Yeti' and 'Bees' demonstrate Snaith's extraordinary ability to make intricate, unconventional music feel playful, warm and surprisingly accessible. It's a fascinating early glimpse of the producer who would later become a festival favourite, and a fitting selection from a musician as adventurous and instinctive as Sam.

Miles Davis – Kind of Blue (1959)

Few records have influenced modern music quite like Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. Recorded with an extraordinary ensemble including John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley and Bill Evans, this 1959 masterpiece revolutionised jazz with its emphasis on modal improvisation, space and musical freedom. From the instantly recognisable opening of 'So What' to the exquisite restraint of 'Blue in Green', every note feels considered, yet wonderfully spontaneous. More than six decades later, it remains a masterclass in musicianship and the art of knowing when less is more. A fascinating inclusion among Sam's selections, and a reminder that great musical instincts transcend genres.

Big Scary – Not Art (2013)

Melbourne duo Tom Iansek and Jo Syme delivered something extraordinary with their second album, Not Art, an adventurous reinvention of their indie-rock beginnings. Drawing on hip-hop rhythms, piano, electronic textures and wonderfully unconventional production, the pair created a record that sounds both intimate and remarkably expansive. Songs like 'Phil Collins', 'Luck Now' and 'Twin Rivers' demonstrate their gift for balancing inventive arrangements with genuinely affecting songwriting. Winner of the Australian Music Prize, Not Art remains one of the finest Australian albums of its era. There's an obvious kinship with The Jungle Giants' own musical evolution, particularly their shared refusal to let the traditional guitar-band formula dictate where their creativity can go.

Hot Chip – The Warning (2006)

Few bands understand the relationship between electronic experimentation and irresistible pop quite like Hot Chip. Their second album, The Warning, is a brilliantly eccentric collection of synth-driven grooves, vulnerable songwriting and gloriously infectious melodies. The magnificent 'Over and Over' remains one of the defining indie-dance anthems of the 2000s, while 'Boy from School' reveals the emotional depth beneath the band's playful exterior. Alexis Taylor, Joe Goddard and company make intelligent, unconventional dance music that never forgets the importance of a great hook. It's not difficult to hear the connection with Sam's increasingly electronic approach to The Jungle Giants, where sophisticated production and pure dancefloor pleasure happily coexist.

Eddy Current Suppression Ring – Primary Colours (2008)

Raw, urgent and gloriously unpolished, Primary Colours is Australian garage rock at its absolute finest. Melbourne's Eddy Current Suppression Ring strip everything back to the essentials: scratchy guitars, relentless rhythms and Brendan Huntley's wonderfully unpredictable vocals. Tracks like 'Which Way to Go' and 'Memory Lane' capture the band's extraordinary ability to turn deceptively simple ideas into something completely irresistible. Released in 2008, the album won the Australian Music Prize and cemented the quartet's reputation as one of the country's most original outfits. Among Sam's more electronically adventurous selections, it's a terrific reminder that great music doesn't always need elaborate production. Sometimes all it takes is four musicians, a great groove and the confidence to leave well enough alone.

Now listen to the playlist