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, Simon Winkler from Melbourne’s Triple R contributes 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 apply here to have your music distributed for free to community radio on Amrap’s AirIt.
POPPONGENE – Do It Girl
POPPONGENE is the solo recording project of Sophie Treloar, known also for her work with premium psych-pop practitioners Sunbeam Sound Machine. You get a sense from the first few chords of this debut single, echoing and swirling in hazy layers, that we’re preparing for flight.
There’s a powerful inevitability about the songs’ skyward trajectory: Do It Girl shimmers with slowly ascending synths and unfolding, uplifting vocal harmonies. When take-off arrives it’s a technicolour vision in super slow motion.
Carla Dal Forno – Fast Moving Cars
Carla Dal Forno is an Australian artist and musician now based in Berlin. Both the draw of home and a lure of the unknown seem embedded in this track. It begins with familiar sounds, field recordings of tropical thunder. It’s a signal perhaps of a storm before the storm as Carla creates her own disquieting atmosphere with tense strings, pulsing bass, and thudding metallic beats.
Reflections on the great unknowns of life, love and the world outside fill the space between – elation and heartbreak told in anticipation and hindsight. You don’t so much hear the Fast Moving Cars of the title as you feel the tension and chaos in the echoing silence of the void within.
House of Dad – Hard Working Man
There’s also something deeply contemplative about the latest project from Andras Fox, an artist who’s worked collaboratively and under a number of solo guises over the years. The latest alias is in a dedication to his father, a professional plumber with a fastidious dedication to detail and a decade-spanning collection of source materials relevant to his work: “audio recordings of storm water drain inspections, instructional videos and structural drawings executed on the backs of drink coasters and table napkins”.
It’s an archival impulse the respected crate digger and producer can perhaps relate to. Hard Working Man finds Andras return to the methodology of his sample chopping days, a subtle and sophisticated dance track imbued with a minor key sadness that reflects and deepens, rather than overshadows, the affection at its heart.
On Diamond – Long Road
Lisa Salvo forges further along her own musical path with “Long Road”. It’s an extension of the impressive folk-infused solo craft perfected on I Could Have Been A Castle, and also something of a reintroduction.
On Diamond reveals new facets of Lisa’s songwriting, and reflects the strengths of her exceptional band who together with Salvo have honed this new material. “Long Road” effectively conveys a sense of journey, a folk and rock and blues arrangement that moves at a languid but determined pace.
Holy Balm – Fashion
Like a tonic for troubled times, Holy Balm are here to help. The Sydney trio shake off ennui and motivate us to move with this single off second album Activity. Lyrics “Fashion it the way you want/walk the way you feel” and “change the way you gotta think to find your own piece of mind” form a compelling case, sung persuasively over their signature blend of club, no wave and mutant disco sounds.
If all that wasn’t already enough, there’s a late cameo from Marcus Whale on saxophone – an urgent melodic addition to the synths, beats and vocals driving the song.
Terry – Chitter Chatter
Terry HQ also feels like a crucial soundtrack for uncertain and unsettled times, filled with lo-fi folk, taut post-punk and no wave. It’s the debut album LP from Terry, a Melbourne-based four-piece featuring members from other leading local groups like Total Control, Constant Mongrel, Dick Diver, Mick Harvey Band and Eastlink.
‘Chitter Chatter’ is a punk directive straight from the top ranks: playful, poignant and pointed, with a tightly coiled energy and subversive edge.
REMI – For Good (feat. Sampa The Great)
REMI and Sensible J are close collaborators and friends. A passion for the history of hip hop and an interest in its future shines through all their output. For Good is one of the latest examples, a cut from REMI’s second official full-length Divas and Demons. A crisp uptempo break carries the song, along with minimal jazz instrumentation and a chopped guitar lick.
The tone is thoughtful, a backdrop to REMI’s rueful, ruminative rap about relationships. Sampa The Great is outstanding as ever with her soulful delivery on the vocal hook and guest verse.
