Words by Riley FItzgerald
Graphic by Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra

Listening to Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra has taken time for me to process. His music touches themes that resist easy words, subjects rarely explored in recent albums coming out of Brisbane – or Meanjin, as it’s known to the Turrbal and Jagera peoples, and many others who live here.

The Sound of Being Present, Yet Unseen

What lingers after hearing Matt’s work is the feeling of being surrounded by people, yet still alone. The kind of alienation we don’t talk about, but simply feel, woven into the album’s upbeat musical textures.

One song, ‘Only Person of Colour at the Indie Hang’, speaks directly to this. It explores the experience of standing in a crowd where no one quite sees you. It resonates deeply because it reflects a reality many experience in Australia. A truth rarely acknowledged in local music.

I was recently talking with a customer at my shop Glitter Records. He had grown up here, but also spent part of his childhood abroad, particularly in the UK. He commented on the striking absence of many Black American blues and soul artists on vinyl in Australia before the 1970s. I agreed. It’s something I think about often when cataloging older music.

Take Lead Belly, for example. He was widely known in Australia by the 1970s, thanks to worshipful rock artists like The Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton name-dropping him. Yet, his records were rarely sold here before the 1980s.

A musician once told me, though I haven’t verified it, that Lead Belly’s music—despite being archived in the U.S. Library of Congress—was banned in Australia under the pretense that he’d been to prison. Whether or not that specific claim holds, systemic barriers against non-white artists in Australia’s record industry are well-documented. These artists were, in a sense, here, but gatekeepers ensured their voices were not.

That same customer summed his own experience up bluntly:

“I grew up in Australia, but I didn’t have white skin.”

There was no neat answer to that from my end. No easy fix. Only the weight of recognition.

Unapologetic Voices & Rebellious Sound

Matt’s ‘Only Person of Colour at the Indie Hang’ doesn’t explain itself. It doesn’t need to. The title speaks volumes: I was there too. You didn’t see me, but I was. And I still am.

That rebellious streak runs through Matt’s music—necessary, pointed, deliberate. You can hear it in ‘LIVE LAUGH DECOLONISE’ and ‘Capitalism™’, where voices like Chelsea Watego, BADASSMUTHA, Nima Doostkhah, and Rivermouth demand recognition, confronting systems that have long dictated who gets heard.

John Russell, whose label 4000 Records supported the release, told me that Matt’s album is, in some ways, a response to recent government decisions—such as the withdrawal of public funding from Queensland’s arts sector after jazz artist Kellee Green won a QMA award for a song critical of the Israel-Gaza war.

Music & Free Expression in Australia

As an entrepreneur, I’m frustrated by the institutional stifling of informed free expression. Let there be both informed pro and anti perspectives from every angle. And let them flourish. The exchange of ideas makes us stronger. Gatekeeping continues to limit us.

But I digress.

Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra Creates Space For Reflection 

Matt’s album doesn’t smooth over modern Australia’s one-size-fits-no-one-that-well ideology. Instead, his work creates space—not for answers, but for self-examination.

I don’t know about you, but I want to know what life in my home city actually looks like. And to do that, we must encourage artists like Matt to come together with us, share their experiences, and give voice to perspectives that might not otherwise be heard.

I feel a bit guilty saying this but it reminds me of something I read in that capitalist institution, Amazon’s recent annual shareholder report. Here one of the company’s higher-ups, Andy Jassy explored why Amazon calls itself a “Why” company—a group of highly motivated people constantly questioning why things are the way they are and why they can’t be different.

Not a new idea. Not Amazon’s alone.

I see similar questioning in the work of great musicians, poets, and visual artists. I try to bring that same questioning spirit into Glitter Records and suggest we can bring more of a “Why” culture into our wider community.

Belonging vs. Simply Being There

Why is being here not the same as belonging? There are many questions like this running through Matt’s work. Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra doesn’t answer that question. It holds it up to us. It gives shape to new ways of thinking.

And that’s brilliant.

Less fear. More collaboration. A “why” culture at a local level. I think things are changing for the better. And in this respect, artists such as Matt are already doing good work and have a vital role to play in enriching our lives and shaping a vision of where we can go next.