Community radio music presenters and 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 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, Aeron Clark, the Music Director of Tasmania’s Edge Radio, contributes with a selection of tracks currently making their way to community radio through Amrap’s music distribution service ‘AirIt’.
Check out Aeron’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.
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Slag Queens’ excellent debut album is the first full length release this year that I’ve been cranking on repeat purely for myself rather than for work. The Slags have a lot to say, and You Can’t Go Out Like That (Rough Skies Records) traverses many heavy themes.
While sonically calmer than most of their other songs, ‘Wear This 4 U’ still packs a hefty punch with its vital subject matter. A feminist power ballad from one of the most important bands active in Australia right now, this one sticks in my head for hours at a time.
Check out Slag Queens’ ‘Wear This 4 U’:
Comfortably at home these days on the trailblazing Hysterical Records, Fair Maiden’s new album Oleander is due out late in March.
Laced with noir country twang and built around Ellen Carey’s majestic vocals, ‘Willow’ is a dark and dramatic neo-psych offering from the four-piece, also featuring Steph Crase (Summer Flake), Harriet Barbour-Fraser and Hamish Baird.
Check out Fair Maiden’s ‘Willow’:
208L Containers – ‘Feral Cats in The Tasmanian North-East’
It’s only February, but I’m already exhausted by Rough Skies Records’ relentless release schedule (please send help). 208L Containers’ Knitted Family Helmet tape is a balls-out mix of razor sharp humour, social commentary, and Metallica documentary musings, led by the infectious ‘Feral Cats In The Tasmanian North-East’.
Who is Jonathan? What was the ultimate fate of the Cheezel? We don’t know much, except that climate change is undeniably true, and that one absolutely must see 208L Containers live.
Check out 208L Containers’ ‘Feral Cats in The Tasmanian North-East’:
Featured recently on the incredibly diverse Synthesthesia 7000 compilation released by Cubbyhouse Records, ‘Vultures’ plays out like a masterclass in restraint.
Soft and spacious from the opening, Amber Perez-Wright (Foxy Morons, Dolphin, Slag Queens) deftly mixes found sounds and minimalist vocals into a warm, cavernous swirl. I’m hanging for more.
Check out Slumber’s ‘Vultures’:
From the plaintive opening guitar riff, to the galloping drums following the chorus, the warmth and sincerity of the vocals, and the assured use of dynamic shifts, Sweater Curse have crafted an absolute belter of a break-up song.
Yeah, ‘(Hear You)’ is kinda sad, but it’s also super fun to sing along to. The trio from Brisbane are releasing their debut EP See You this Friday, March 1st.
Check out Sweater Curse’s ‘(Hear You)’:
Honey 2 Honey – ‘Tone Of Voice’
Canberra/Sydney quartet Honey 2 Honey’s debut EP, A Taste Of, is due out in April via Chapter Music. Jaunty and hypnotic all at once, debut single ‘Tone Of Voice’ showcases the group’s skills in subtle layering.
There’s an intimacy to Rory Stenning’s deep vocals and the nest they lie in that manages to convey a hell of a lot despite the lyrical brevity (or perhaps exactly because of it).
Check out Honey 2 Honey’s ‘Tone Of Voice’:
Edith Thomas Furey – ‘Wednesday’
Edith Thomas Furey’s fuzz-laden Sleep Well, My Love EP emerged earlier this year on Brisbane’s Valley Heat Records. Edith Thomas Fury is Joel Glazebrook, a master of self-deprecation who does absolutely everything on the release.
‘Wednesday’ is an insistent and brooding track that feels like a euphoric lovechild of Joy Division and Bruce Springsteen.
Check out Edith Thomas Furey’s ‘Wednesday’:
