Community radio music coordinators 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 coordinators to highlight new Aussie tunes that you might have missed.
In this edition, Chris Cobcroft and Nick Rodwell from 4ZZZ in Brisbane contribute with a selection of tracks currently making their way to community radio through Amrap’s music distribution service ‘AirIt’.
Check out Chris and Nick’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.
Frida – ‘Everything (Is You)’
Nick: Big waves of big dream-pop out of Melbourne. This single affects you like twilight anaesthesia, overwhelming washes of euphoria with only minimal recognition for more pressing matters. The chorus is positively soaring. It’s almost as if this lot is trying to portray infatuation and succeeding, vividly.
Obscura Hail – ‘Qualia’
Chris: Sean Conran’s folk music is sometimes more immediate (like Elliott Smith) and sometimes, like now, reserved, channeling the elegance and thoughtfulness of artists like Sun Kil Moon or The Books. His approach trades in raw emotional power and gets back artisanal beauty in his philosophical journey towards understanding of self, others and an attempt at a personal cosmology. Few would attempt such an all-consuming project and still fewer would achieve it with such grace and poise.
Moreton – ‘Johana’
Nick: This has such a seductive sense of drama that you’d be happily duped into thinking it was the wise Marianne Faithfull. Brisbane’s Moreton are steeped in some seriously sonorous alt-rock that is bound soothe many.
Sampology – ‘Natural Selections’
Chris: Sam unloads African thumb pianos, flute chirps, synth horns and robot voices blatting away toward a big climax before plateauing into a funky afro-pop, the sort of thing that you’d be ready for if you’d been listening to a producer like Ribongia, lately. One of the few voices really trying to say something different in Australian beats right now and never saying it in a way that’s anything less than infectious.
Adele Pickvance – ‘Treasure’
Nick: Adele Pickvance (former Go Betweens bassist) has released an EP of explorations true to her roots. It’s a light offering of jangly pop buffed with electronica that gives credence to her as a songsmith in her own right.
https://soundcloud.com/adelepickvance/treasure
Teeth & Tongue – ‘Turn Turn Turn’
Chris: Over the course of an EP and a few albums Jess Cornelius and her performing guise, Teeth & Tongue, have been consistently producing music as full of snarling intensity and thorny concepts as sweetly melodic hooks. However, the manner in which she’s delivered it has just about as consistently transformed, flipping from a PJ Harvey channeling artrock into a new-wave electro-pop, guitars and drums making way for synthesisers and pads.
On her latest full-length, Give Up On Your Health, Jess has continued that progression. ‘Turn Turn Turn’ is like the album in microcosm: the most anthemic pop of her career and it works like a seasoned operator in the discotechque, but if you listen closer, there’s an intellectual depth and lots of Jess’ trademark uncomfortable truths to mull over in your mind. Whatever level you take it at: an impressive bit of work.
Shutup Shutup Shutup – My Friends
Nick: The latest incarnation of energy from the lads that brought you ‘Release The Hounds’ is ‘Shutup Shutup Shutup’. With the irreverence of Future Of The Left smashed together with the hard hits of The Bronx, My Friends is the kind of anti-bullshit firebrand that is most welcome.
https://soundcloud.com/collisioncoursepr/shutup-shutup-shutup-my-friends
Thigh Master – ‘Canned Opening’
Nick: Another Thigh Master single dropped in the lead up to the excellent album Early Times. ‘Canned Opening’ steps back from the rush of previous single ‘Bad Company’, and also from the messy melange of indie-rock that they have pumped out in the past. There is a sweetness to its humility that makes the band even more relatable and just as welcoming as ever.
