Tone Deaf and Amrap are continuing in 2024 to ask music directors or presenters at some of the finest community stations around Australia to share their best Australian music finds discovered on amrap.org.au.
If you haven’t got your music on Amrap, what are you waiting for? Community radio uses Amrap to source Australian music for airplay.
Anyone can discover all the great Australian music championed by community radio on the Community Radio Plus App, featuring the diverse range of community radio stations nationwide in one handy spot.
This week, 2SER’s Lachlan Holland contributes with a list of Australian music from Amrap you should be listening to right now.
Lachlan Holland’s Community Picks
GIMMY – Things Look Different now
Things Look Different Now is easily among the most accomplished Australian records of the year so far. A wide-ranging yet cohesive debut album that intertwines influences of surf, garage, new wave, folk and much more as frontwoman Gemma Owens channels raw expression and inner turmoil in all its diverse forms as well as themes of relationships, ageing, life phases and self-empowerment.
Originally bedroom recorded before being recorded and mixed by Sam Joseph (King Gizzard, Babe Rainbow, Baby Cool), this is an absolute gem recently released via the always-on-point Third Eye Stimuli Records.
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Dobby has been such a regular presence in Australian music for so long a time, as a rapper, drummer, composer and much more that it’s surprising that his first solo album only dropped in June of this year.
Warrangu: River Story arose from live performances and was composed over five years. Fusing the rhythms and cadence of hip hop with crisp production, spoken word audio samples and orchestral interpolation. At its core, Warrangu is a storytelling record and the soundtrack to the community-driven opposition to water theft and environmental degradation in the Murray Darling basin as a result of over-irrigation and the resultant loss of traditional fishing sources.
Sydney-based producer Annastacia Lucas has been an active musician and mentor in various parts of the country for a long time as well as a festival staple and performer with the likes of Blues In Force, Ile Ile and Ripple Effect. Her new solo album under her Ta’sia alias is a sunlit trip through laidback, dubbed out soul and dusty lounge grooves.
Production aficionados of the beatmaker variety will be interested to know Ta’Sia made the album using an MPC 2000XL and SP404, and the whole record is a fantastic showcase of Lucas’ all-round creative chops, as ESTA combines vinyl samples of everything from reggae, jazz polynesian records as well as live embellishments from a range of featured musicians including Araminta, Holly McNamara, and regular collaborator Ena Malibu (with whom Ta’Sia released an EP last year – worth tracking down).
The first studio album from the now-Berlin based Australians is an incredible one, dripping with atmosphere and brooding menace, juxtaposing darkness with catharsis. Nowhere is a rich, synthesised odyssey through apocalyptic psychedelia, warped cinematics and poetic introspection that reveals a band who consciously push boundaries in whichever direction they appear.
Veronique Serret – Migrating Bird
Veronique Serret is a veteran vocalist and violinist based in Eora/Sydney, who has worked with a huge range of groups and artists, including Gurrumul, Bangarra Dance Theatre, Damon Albarn, Mike Patton, as well as many others. Her debut solo album, which is conceptually based on nature pushes things into avant garde and experimental territory. Utilising field samples, warped loops and strings and her own impressive vocal work.
Many of the tracks on Migrating Birds features the work of Didgeridoo player William Barton. It’s an excellent and explorative first record from an artist who has already commanded her craft and very much worth tracking down if you’re in the mood for something far left of centre.
Inaugral, the duo of Alice Amsel (BVLLVDS) and Phil Spiteri (DROVES) formed late 2023 and are among the new names in the Goth and Darkwave resurgence in Sydney. Their debut single, “STRIGOI”, an 80’s inspired tune really caught us at 2ser or it’s cold synth melodies along with starkly themed lyrics, which were penned as a love letter to the thirst for revenge.
This was released on their own label, Gloomshift, and with a line of new material to come they’re worth keeping an eye on.
The Aerial Maps – Our Sunburnt Dream
Snapshots of new starts and escape pervade the fourth album from The Aerial Maps, the Sydney outfit fronted by Adam Gibson and Alannah Russack. While much of Our Sunburnt Dream comes with a sense of nostalgia, it’s of the dreamlike kind, rather than a direct pining for the past. Their poetic take on freewheeling Australiana has a strong thematic tie to journeys across the east coast landscape, both physical and cultural, as well as memory and the passage of time. High marks include the droning, melancholic waltz of “Eucalyptus Road” as well as the propulsive jangle of “Head Up North Forever”, but this shines bright across the whole thirteen tracks.
