Community radio music directors often have an encyclopaedic knowledge of local music and an insatiable thirst to keep their ears ahead of the curve. So in this new Tone Deaf series the Australian Music Radio Airplay Project (Amrap) will invite music directors to highlight new Aussie tunes that you might have missed.
Simon Winkler from Melbourne’s Triple R (3RRR) kicks off the series with a selection of tracks currently making their way to community radio through Amrap’s music distribution service ‘AirIt’.
Check out Simon’s selections below and if you’re a musician you can at apply at www.airit.org.au to have your music distributed for free to community radio on Amrap’s AirIt.
Alice Ivy – ‘Touch’ (feat. Georgia Van Etten)
Alice Ivy is the recording project of Melbourne-based musician and producer Annika Schmarsel. It took a second, or maybe slightly less, to know I loved this song when I first heard it played one morning on Triple R.
It struck me from the start and held my attention throughout as the composition gently and insistently developed. A faint familiarity seems to pervade the individual elements of the track, tape-worn strings, cinematic samples, an analogue warmth to the recording and a sense of space to lose yourself in. The vocals, instruments, effects and beats all work together leading the listener deeper into a rabbithole of sound.
Loose Tooth – ‘Bites Will Bleed’
Loose Tooth is the excellent garage guitar-pop trio comprising Etta Curry, Nellie Jackson and Luc Dawson. I first heard their music last year via the anthemic ‘Everything Changes’ single and became an instant fan.
Bites Will Bleed offers all the requisite elements of a harmonious hit: hazy rock melodies, soaring vocals, purposeful drums and bass all placed in reverb heavy recording.
Sampa The Great – ‘Blue Boss’
The Great Mixtape was absolutely one of my favourite releases of 2015, and seeing Sampa The Great perform live several times were all highlights of the year.
‘Blue Boss’ follows from Sampa’s debut with characteristic charisma and inimitable style.
There’s the shuffling percussive track, Sampa’s unique phrasing, some dense jazz passages and laid-back breaks. The result is deceptively complex and effortlessly cool.
Coup D’etat – ‘Utopia’
Coup D’etat is a formidable combination of talents.
Kane Ikin and Harvey Sutherland are leading figures in modern electronic and dance music with international followings in their respective spheres.
Long-term friends, this collaboration is inspired by their shared love of dark synth wave, the eerie electronic soundtracks of artists like Giorgio Moroder, and deep dub techno sounds of the early millennium. It sounds a little like this and a lot like nothing else you’ve heard.
An immersive and transporting listening experience.
Nearly Oratorio – ‘Tin’
Simon Lam is a musical wunderkind well known for his work with groups such as Kllo and I’lls – not to mention his production and engineering work for other artists.
His Nearly Oratorio side project quietly started life several years ago, and is making a very welcome return in 2016.
‘Tin’ is captivating: a mesmerising electronic ballad that starts softly and builds into a richly detailed work of art. The detuned synths and melancholic analogue sounds recall the early BBC Radiophonic workshop songs of artists like Delia Derbyshire and the more modern interpretations of groups like Broadcast.
In the end though ‘Tin’ is resolutely and undeniably the sound of Simon Lam continuing his personal exploration of songcraft, tracing the past through to future possibilities.
NO ZU – ‘Spirit Beat’
Note: Also a special mention to the Statue Reconstruction Mix.
Spirit Beat is one of many highlights from the Melbourne group’s latest record Afterlife, filled with heavy percussion, urgent vocals and multi-layered instrumental arrangements.
NO ZU are globally known for their signature Heat Beat style, a powerful and unique hybrid of polyrhythmic post-punk and contemplative club chaos. Heat Beat covers history, geography and spirituality; a fully developed manifesto that commands the imagination and demands movement.
Special mention here goes to Tom Gould’s reconstruction as Statue, transforming the original into an early morning hazy dub rave anthem.
Smile – ‘Boundless Plains to Share’
Melbourne four-piece Smile return with their second album in March, and Boundless Plains to Share was the impressive first single released last year.
Propelled by a purposeful rhythm and melodic guitar refrains the song conveys a clear sense of focus but an expansiveness too, a vastness that echoes the title. Reverb heavy vocals drift in and out of the multi-layered arrangement.
A deeper meaning lies in the lyrics, a commentary on the political situation surrounding refugees and their search for a new home.
Good Morning – ‘The Great Start’
Melbourne duo Good Morning have a great skill for songcraft and sound design. Their tracks often reveal something new each time you hear.
Here the plaintive beauty of the melodies is underlined by the tape-worn weariness of the production. Stefan Blair and Liam Parsons are also very good at conveying a deep melancholy that is comforting or uplifting somehow. In fact there’s a balance of many apparent contradictions in their music, dark or obscured humour finding space amid sadness, which makes it all the more interesting and elusive.
Lazertits – ‘Very Berry Milkshake’
Here’s a powerful anthem that’s at least partially about how to make a berry milkshake alternative for a vegan friend. It’s taken from Aubergine Dreams, the debut EP from Melbourne five-piece Lazertits who’ve already developed a strong following in the live arena for their playful punk rock with a poignant pop edge.
