Following on from three stellar singles, Melbourne Soul powerhouse The Bamboos have released their 12th studio album, Sugar On Top.
The highly anticipated ten track album features guest vocals from some of Melbourne’s brightest new talents. Reginald AK, the singer / drummer in one of Melbourne’s brightest up and coming Soul acts, Steppers, features on the taut and driving “On & On”. He also happens to be the oldest son of The Bamboos’ own Kylie Auldist. This is the second Bamboos album that he has contributed to following on from the tender Nu-Soul excursion “Safe From Harm”, which was a standout on the band’s previous album, 2023’s This Is How You Do It.
The band have also dropped a suitably colourful video for the upbeat opening song on the album, “Hello Sunshine”, which was designed by Giulia Giannini McGauran. Better known as “GGMcG”, Guilia has created a trademark style with eye popping and bright album covers and photoshoots for Crowded House, Tash Sultana, Empire Of The Sun, The Rubens, Tones & I, Peking Duk and many more. The clip was directed, along with all videos from the album, by Rick Clifford. Vocalists on the track are Rita Satch and Kate Ferguson.
Rita Satch features on the honey drenched “Hooked On You”. Her 2025 debut album Meet Me In The Garden was one of Melbourne’s best Soul releases of the year and has recently been touring the UK and Europe with Jazz legend Gary Bartz. Old friend of the family, Tim Rogers of You Am I struts his way through “Nothing Reminds Me Of You”. Rogers of course has a long history with the band, going right back to the breakthrough 2012 hit “I Got Burned” and him and Ferguson reunited on The Ferguson Rogers Process album in 2024. But it’s the vocals of Australia’s Queen Of Soul, Kylie Auldist that is the backbone of this album, as she has been for the band over the last twenty years.
While the album was recorded with the band’s long time co-producer and engineer, John Castle (whose in demand studio skills have been called in by the likes of Alex Lahey, Vance Joy, Angus & Julia Stone, Jack River and Cub Sport), this time Ferguson decided to track it at Castle’s recording space in his new home of Launceston, Tasmania.
“After so many years working with John Castle in the legendary Shed Studios in Melbourne, it was great this time to travel to his home studio in Launceston, which was misty and magical at that time of year,” said Ferguson. “There’s a certain energy that comes with bringing the band to a new place to record – an extra-sharp focus. I feel like everyone walked away happy with what we made.”
The viral success for their 2006 track “I Don’t Wanna Stop”, which exploded on social media in late 2025 shows no signs of abating with now well over one billion plays on TikTok and with similarly huge numbers across Instagram and YouTube. Long a live favourite, there’s been no pattern or trend to the song’s success in how it’s been used, with users in almost every language and country around the world simply drawn to an undeniably feel-good sweet Soul tune. The song saw another wave of success earlier in 2026 with a remix from one of Australia’s best Dance acts, Cosmo’s Midnight.
Upon forming in 2000 The Bamboos held their own against the overwhelming tide of rock music on Australian stages and became a foundation of the now world famous “Melbourne Soul Scene”. The Deep Funk of their releases caused ripples worldwide, and they become the first Australian band with that sound to be signed to international labels and tour Europe and the UK. Kylie Auldist joined in 2007 and in a short space of time they became one of the first local Funk & Soul live drawcards, establishing a reputation as one of the best live bands in the country, regardless of genre. They soon evolved, incorporating a more complex blend of modern songwriting with classic Soul arrangements, appealing to both purist fans of the genre as much as casual music fans by focusing on what’s important: songwriting, groove and powerful vocals.
They have been nominated for seven ARIA Awards (including back-to-back nominations in 2022 and 2023) and five APRA Songwriting Awards. They’ve blown away international audiences everywhere from the Caribbean to Tokyo. Their 2023 EUR/UK tour saw them sell out two shows (in one day!) at London’s iconic Jazz Café. The guest vocalists that they have collaborated with include Aloe Blacc, Durand Jones, Tim Rogers, Urthboy, Ev Jones, Dan Sultan, Daniel Merriweather and Alice Russell. Over the course of their career they have released albums on international labels such as Ubiquity, Tru Thoughts, Atlantic, Sony, Nettwerk and, since 2018, on Ferguson’s own Pacific Theatre Records.
The Sugar On Top album is out now on Pacific Theatre Records.
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