Community radio music directors often have an encyclopedic knowledge of local music and an insatiable thirst to keep their ears ahead of the curve. So in this Tone Deaf series, the Australian Music Radio Airplay Project (Amrap) invites music directors to highlight new Aussie tunes that you might have missed.
In this edition, Cameron Durnsford from PBS 106.7FM in Melbourne contributes with a selection of tracks currently making their way to community radio through Amrap’s music distribution service ‘AirIt’.
Check out Cameron’s selections below and if you’re a musician you can apply here to have your music distributed for free to community radio on Amrap’s AirIt.
This week’s 7 best Australian bands
Great to finally have an EP from Chiara Kickdrum, a fixture of DJ booths across Melbourne. This is the raw, driving techno of Chiara’s minimal, dubby live performances; still, there’s no doubt her classical training shines through in subtle melodic flourishes across the three tracks of the Moebius EP.
I’ve been a big fan of Tom Lyngcoln’s various projects over the years, so was stoked to find out he’d found the time to make a solo record. Lyngcoln’s well-known for his shredding, which is given plenty of room to breathe here. But, as with his bent gospel dirge outfit Harmony, it’s often his voice that gets me right in the guts.
Sarah Mary Chadwick – ‘Sugar Still Melts In The Rain’
Sarah Mary Chadwick returns with the first taste of her fourth solo album, due out in May. Much like 2016’s Roses Always Die, ‘Sugar Still Melts In The Rain’ strikes just the right balance between plaintive piano rumination and bombastic ballad. It’s undeniably beautiful – the vulnerability and candour we’ve come to expect from Chadwick is here in spades.
This one snuck out toward the end of last year and passed me by at the time – a sweet RnB jam in which Adrian Eagle finds catharsis by reflecting on his former self and the road to where he is today. I think we can all relate to the dread of being that most awkward phase of our lives; not everyone can find beauty in it the way Adrian does on this.
Grace Stevenson has released a bunch of banging singles under the Rebel Yell moniker – in the video for this, her latest, she introduces the youth to the joys of EBM. With debut LP Hired Muscle due out soon, a whole new generation will hopefully go on to discover DAF, Nitzer Ebb and Front 242. This is a good thing.
Fun aside: searching for Pressure Drop – ‘Rebel Yell’ yields a very different result in YouTube. #rigsofdad
Sydney’s Tangents cook up a beguiling mix of improvised jazz and electronics on this first cut from their new EP. It’s incredibly hard to mash such disparate styles together to create a cohesive other – Tangents clearly have the chops to get it done– without sounding anything like Mr. Bungle.
Evelyn Ida Morris – ‘The Body Appears’
A stunning departure from their previous work, ‘The Body Appears’ is Evelyn Ida Morris’ first release under their own name. Leaving behind the psychedelic pop of Pikelet and punk of former bands True Radical Miracle and Baseball for the meditative post-classical compositions, ‘The Body Appears’ shows their obvious talent as a pianist.
