Jack Quigley’s Debut Album “Upstream, Vol. 1” Lets Different Voices Shape the Same Current

About the Artist

Melbourne-based composer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Jack Quigley brings an international cast of musicians together on his debut album, Upstream, Vol. 1, released on October 16, 2026. The nine-track collection opens a planned trilogy built around his Anarcho-Pop philosophy, which puts collaboration and shared creativity ahead of traditional music industry hierarchies. 

Recorded between 2020 and 2023, the project spans four continents, 12 studios, and 55 musicians, growing out of sessions that began in Australia’s Tanami Desert before extending across cities in the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe. Featuring collaborators from Somalia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Spain, and Lebanon, the album brings together different musical traditions through a process of co-creation, allowing each contribution to shape the sound and bring distinct voices and musical traditions into one connected body of work.

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The Album

Coming into Land feat. Skinny Lips opens the album, lasts not even a minute, but the faint crackle of vinyl, smooth bass, and gliding synths ease you into the record. Skinny Lips’ rap sounds like butter being spread across toast, making for an unexpectedly slick introduction before the album starts pulling in different directions. Next, Dhunkasho (Kissing) feat. Qare The Mask, Nadia Faragaab & Angus Leslie, sounds like someone dug up a disco record from the ’70s or ’80s and gave it a psychedelic makeover. The rhythm is built around the repetition of the Somali word for kissing, with the synths bubbling around it. The song follows two lovers kissing on a highway overpass, waiting for passing cars to honk below. It’s cheeky and the music makes it easy to imagine the two of them laughing as headlights flash past underneath.

Then, Cairo Streets feat. Toqa El Hagrassy feels like wandering through a video game set in a city you are still learning to navigate. A hazy, dripping guitar lick gives way to the saxophones, and the ambient hum of Cairo. The city sounds are not just decoration; they give the track the feeling of moving through somewhere alive, like the next turn might bring a new sound into view. On Addis Ababa (The New Flower), feat. Nina Girma & Kamuzu Kassa, brings the album into softer territory. “Let the new day begin,” repeats alongside images of flowers blooming, like watching a neglected garden slowly come back to life. But, “me and you, gold and blue,” makes the song feel less like a declaration of renewal and more like a reminder that growing up and growing alongside someone can be the same thing.

After that, Sailing feat. Juan Pablo Ramírez, opens with a spoken reflection on music before slipping into Spanish and English vocals. “Sailing on the sea, sky right over me,” is the kind of chorus that makes you want to stare out of a window for a while, looking at nothing but blue. Following that, Andalucia feat. Carmen Lancho and Sahraaoui, brings Spanish vocals and North African rhythms together, with the question “Dime el nombre de la flor de la revolución,” running through, slightly on edge. Its sound feels sun-warmed but carries a sense of history beneath it, much like the thousand-year-old Kutubiyya Mosque featured in its music video.

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Next, Riverside Woman feat. Johnny Tchooga sounds like a guitar having a minor electrical malfunction, its wobbly texture almost like electricity running through water. It’s rough, slightly warped, and the lyrics bring dancing, the river and music as the soul of a person into the same frame. It sounds like bare feet against wet ground, with the rhythm travelling up through the soles. After that, True Name feat. Kaine Mauri shifts into pairs plucked acoustic guitar with a light vocal melody. A fly becomes food for a bird, a frog feeds a snake, and life keeps passing from one creature to another. The image of joy as spring bringing flowers into bloom feels less like a simple expression of happiness than a small patch of colour growing in the middle of it all.

Lastly, Skinny Lips (feat. Skinny Lips) returns for a frantic, one-minute finale, rushing through German and French phrases before the listener has time to settle into either. Piano keys scatter like raindrops against a window, and the track ends almost before you register it, leaving behind a peculiar burst of energy.

Upstream, Vol. 1 sounds like a series of postcards collected while moving between places. There’s disco-pop, hazy guitar, Somali phrases, Spanish vocals drift into North African rhythms, and a guitar makes strange noises like it’s been plugged into water. It carries a sense of people and places crossing paths, of things being shared and picked up without needing to be fully understood. Some transitions can be abrupt, its moods occasionally elusive, and some tracks pass by before you’ve had time to settle into them. Maybe that’s the point; leaving behind fleeting impressions. Little things caught in passing, then on to the next, keep on swimming upstream.

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