The Australian music industry and community of local musicians is undoubtedly in crisis mode at the moment, with the global pandemic that is COVID-19 causing events, tours, and festivals to be cancelled, and robbing artists, performers, and those in the creative industry of a dependable income.
While a number of initiatives have sprung up to help support artists in this current time, the most effective way to continue supporting creatives is to buy their music and merch, hold onto any postponed tour tickets, and above all, stream their music as often as possible.
Here’s a list we’ll regularly update with community radio music directors from around the country of Australian artists much loved and supported by community radio and its dedicated listeners. Their music has been a source of strength, inspiration and connection. Some of these tracks are new releases, and others from artists who would otherwise be traveling and touring at this time.
Matt Ferret of 6RTR’s Music Department and Drivetime program continues this series with Australian music available on Amrap’s AirIt service to help compile a playlist of the best Aussie tunes doing the rounds on community radio to show your support to.
Check out ‘The Good In You’ by Simona Castricum:
Simona Castricum – ‘The Good In You’
Taken off her most recent LP Panic/Desire, Melbourne based producer, performer, DJ and architecture academic Simona Castricum delivers five minutes of space age synth-pop that suits introspective late night drives just as well as it does hazy nightclubs. Weighty
bass and drums play counterpoint to ethereal synth lines and Casrticum’s own vocals, elevating the track to dance floor anthem status.
Hunkering down east of Melbourne in the Dandenong Ranges, HTRK collaborated with Conrad Standish, half of CS + Kreme, on this dreamy single from the Victorian duo’s most recent double A-side. Nuanced vocal harmonies drift across a cloudy bed of raw acoustic guitar lines, giving way to the supremely deep and dubby electronic percussion programming HTRK has become so well known for.
Active in the Perth neo-soul and jazz scene since 2018, No Nomad have been quietly crafting a warm, intricate and supremely chilled-out sound for the past two years, all the while sticking to a wonderful DIY dogma.
Their latest single ‘Subterrain’ sees the group turn inwards, presenting a delightfully dynamic, unique and introspective take on contemporary soul and jazz that still maintains plenty of personal panache and style.
Exploring the depth that can be found with layered minimalism and fragility in pop music, ‘Shooting The Breeze’, is the latest release from Perth based duo Segue. Blending evolving ambient textures with mellow synth sounds and stripped back percussion, revelling in melancholic warmth amid the powerful fragility of vocalist Jeremy Segal.
Check out ‘Saving Grace’ by Rebel Yell:
Self-described as creating “hard music to explore soft ideas” Brisbane producer and performer Grace Stevenson’s track ‘Saving Grace’ just does what it says on the box. Putting heavy industrial electronics, percussion and processed in counterpoint against existentially challenging lyrics Stevenson creates mind boggling, trance inducing techno that you can’t ignore.
Simultaneously “a love letter and a cursing damnation to regional Australia” West Australian larrikin-rock expert Peter Bibby enlists the help of his Dog Act on this six minute ode to the South Australian town of ‘Whyall’a.
Flip-flopping between a saccharine chorus and churning, riff driven verses, this cut from Bibby’s forthcoming album Marge takes the listener to everywhere garage rock can and should go (with a lengthy pit stop in Whyalla.)
Blending speaker-thumping low end sonics with delicate melodies and vocal samples, the east coast duo of Luke Tkalcevic (Sondrio) and Luke Cuerel (Luke Cuerel Orchestra, Pigeon) present this soulful two-step garage track, taken from their most recent record Offworld.
Reverb-soaked vocals echo over gently wobbling basslines, skittering percusion and hypnotic string lines – don’t be surprised if a few tears are shed as this melancholy banger rolls through the club.
Taken off forthcoming album, Or Not Thibault and revolving around the Australian icon of the beige dole office, Melbourne based singer-songwriter Nicole Thibault’s most recent single is sonically the opposite of your local Centrelink. Full of harmonic invention, unexpected arrangements and lush, ever changing atmospheres, ‘Centrelink’ creates a whimsical, light and engaging image of everyone’s favourite waiting room.
Dallas Woods – ‘If It Glitters It’s Gold’
A Noongar rapper straight out of Western Australia’s East Kimberly region and now Melbourne based, Dallas Woods is an artist at the top of his game. Credited as being Baker Boy’s mentor and coming off the back of a hugely successful debut single in ‘9 Times Out Of 10′, Woods flexes his lyrical muscles over a an earworm G-funk beat on his latest track, examining ego, interpersonal competition and whether or not bigger actually is better on ‘If It Glitters It’s Gold’.
