Fremantle-based group SUPEREGO have come a long, long way over the years. Initially known as POW! Negro, the group stepped forward as an experimental, unlike-anyone-else hip-hop group that twisted boundaries much like groups such as Death Grips and JPEGMafia, uniting the worlds of hip-hop and R&B with sounds that typically find themselves a far way from this genre's covering umbrella: jazz-centric brass, thick electronica, powerful spoken word and poetry all among their discography.

However, with their rebrand to SUPEREGO a little while ago, things became a little more concise and focused; their sound - warped, dystopian hip-hop moulded and shaped by experimentalism and forward-thinking creativeness - became more potent and distinct, and rather than continually shifting their sound on an extreme level, they focused on a distinct flavour that could only be described as SUPERGO, while occasionally touching on the places it could go in future years.

Their new EP, last week's Nautilus, is an opportunity for SUPEREGO to show this off - and that they do. Spanning seven tracks, the EP is a focused expression of SUPEREGO's flavour that doesn't water what they've become known for. Everything that encompasses SUPEREGO and what they're about is in central frame, from the almost-confrontational fierceness of their lead vocalist to the lyricism he weaves through the sprawling, hip-hop-adjacent instrumentals, heavy on the percussion and warping soundscapes you'd expect from those aforementioned international comparatives.

However, there are a few opportunities for SUPEREGO to test their own limits, and while Nautilus is almost completely focused on SUPEREGO and their evolution over the years, they do share the spotlight when it's needed to elevate their work to a slightly higher level. While Typist and Simulacra have SUPEREGO at their most fierce and focused, Last Tango sees them share the EP's most daring instrumental with fellow Fremantle rapper Cruz Patterson (formerly of Koi Child), while O.B.S unexpectedly pairs them with hip-hop's most consistent name, Sampa The Great, in a comparatively subtle and soulful exploration of identity and cultural heritage.

"Nautilus represents us at those times when we were most introverted and in our shells. Fighting rips of depression, anxiety, finding our identity and searching for the strength in ourselves to keep swimming," the group say on the EP. "The creation of Nautilus was an incredibly cathartic experience and while the songs on this EP are often raw, honest and intense, they helped us come to terms with a lot of things and grow both individually and as a collective."

You can feel that catharticism spread across the record, whether it's on tracks like O.B.S that showcase it through rich lyricism and almost-spiritual melodies or those like Typist, which as mentioned, takes a far more eyes-into-the-camera and almost-aggressive approach: "It opens the EP in a defiant bar heavy three-part odyssey that is one part self-righteous ego, one part disarming self-reflection, ultimately culminating in embracing change," they say.

Either way, it's an incredible record that welcomes SUPEREGO to the upper echelon on Australian hip-hop, and while the west coast relishes in the success of a group that have always been one of the scene's most exciting and captivating, Nautilus takes them to national waters. SUPEREGO have well and truly arrived. Now, the only question is can the country keep up with them?