Melbourne soul-funk legends The Bamboos return with Sugar On Top, a boogie-fuelled, R&B-soaked 12th album bursting with soulful grooves, irresistible hooks and standout guest turns, with the powerhouse vocals of Kylie Auldist anchoring a record made for good times, good vibes and dancing.

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After limbering up with 3 singles, Melbourne soul & funk heroes The Bamboos, release 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.

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 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 Fergsuon 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“, said Ferguson, “it was great this time to travel to his home studio in Launceston, which was misty and magical at that time of year”.

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.