The Australian Recording Industry Association has released its list of nominations for the 2026 ARIA Music Awards. Scheduled for 18 November, this year marks the 40th anniversary of the awards which will be broadcast on Network 10 and live-streamed via YouTube and Paramount+ from the Hordern Pavilion, Sydney.
The nominations for Engineer – Best Engineered Release include:
Dom Dolla – Don’t Worry Baby
A collaboration between Dom Dolla (Dominic Matheson) and Canadian producer/DJ Tiga. Released on 1 May 2026, Dom Dollais credited as producer, mixing engineer and mastering engineer, while Tiga is credited as producer and vocalist. Campbell King supplies additional vocals. Visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ab0qq4ZyO0
Kevin Parker/Tame Impala – Deadbeat.
Recorded between 2023 and 2025, principally at the home studio of Tame Impala founder Kevin Parker in Fremantle and at Wave House at Injidup in Western Australia. Parker produced and mixed the album himself; Matt Colton mastered it.
According to the Tape Notes podcast, equipment used on the project includes:
- Roland TR-808
- Vermona DRM1 analogue drum synthesiser
- Roland SH-1
- Sequential Prophet-5
- DBX 165 compressor
- Shure SM58 and SM7B
- Neumann U47
- Ableton Live and Ableton stock processors/Echo
- Soundtoys EchoBoy and Decapitator
- Valhalla Room plugin
For vocal processing, Parker also employed EchoBoy, Decapitator and Valhalla Room, with Ableton Convolution Reverb among the software processing. According to https://weraveyou.com/ Parker took a traditional approach to production, and rather than using loops, began with drums and recorded performances, layering subsequent instruments over them. Parts were recorded to tape with little opportunity for correction. Mistakes — including audible drum-stick clicks — were deliberately allowed to remain. Instead of simply taking electronic instruments’ outputs directly into a DAW, they were played into the room and recorded acoustically in different ways.
Visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyUOSaQZmxw&list=PLTU9Rfr3yfofsPvruInN1R-4SJaLraA1Z
Wave Racer/2charm – Star Scum City
Melbourne duo 2charm’s nine-track debut was made with several producers, principally Ninajirachi, Simon Lam and 1tbsp. Ninajirachi worked on five of the nine tracks. Wave Racer (Thomas Purcell) handled mixing and mastering across a substantial part of the project; his own credits list the album tracks “girls”, “prerogative”, “chateau”, “no pressure”, “invisible wings”, “you will never be alone in barcelona”, “paris (to get you out my head)” and “boyfriend”.
Visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhDUyWw9Q5M&list=PL5eYp3HzzCyrkf6k-4gVyjer_HSbb_kV1
Styalz Fuego/Troye Sivan – She’s The Best
Released 14 August 2026, She’s The Best was written by Troye Sivan, Leland, George Daniel, Jack Antonoff and Styalz Fuego (Kaelyn Behr) and produced by Sivan, Daniel, Antonoff and Fuego.
Visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFA1P8ZzoLw
Tony Buchen/DOBBY – MARSHMALLOW
DOBBY’s 15-track second album was released on 31 July 2026. It is conceived as a “time-travel concept album”, in which a CD Walkman transports adult DOBBY back to Wollongong in 2009 and into contact with his younger self and his abandoned teenage project The Royal Flame.
Musicians include drummer Tully Ryan, string players led by Freya Schack-Arnott, Jonathan Zwartz on double bass, Zeppelin Hamilton on guitar, and Buchen himself on flute. DOBBY integrated Foley sound design into the record, employing Daniell Johnston to create effects to help dramatise the time-travel theme. DOBBY also sampled his own history. The album contains recordings of his 12-year-old self and samples of his jazz teachers from 2009.
Visit https://dobbyau.bandcamp.com/album/marshmallow
Best Produced Release
The nominations for Producer – Best Produced Release include:
Dann Hume/Andrew Klippel – Genesis Owusu, REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE
This album was primarily created in a converted church in Barry, Wales, owned by producer Dann Hume. The building had been converted into a studio plus two living spaces. Owusu lived upstairs, Hume downstairs, and the pair met in the studio each day. Owusu says the intensive recording period lasted around two months, with sessions often running eight to ten hours a day.
Rather than arrive with a rigid set of finished compositions, Owusu and Hume developed much of the record through jam sessions. They deliberately isolated themselves creatively, listening to virtually no other music while making the record.
Individual track credits reveal Hume using a mixture of traditional instruments and vintage electronic equipment. Pirate Radio, for example, includes Hume on drums, electric guitar, Minimoog bass, Moog modular synthesiser and Mellotron horns.
Visit https://genesisowusu.bandcamp.com/album/redstar-wu-the-worldwide-scourge
Kevin Parker – Tame Impala, Deadbeat
Ninajirachi – 2charm, Star Scum City
Ninajirachi/Porter Robinson – WannaCry
Styalz Fuego – Troye Sivan, She’s The Best
Visit https://www.aria.com.au/
