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 Triple R in Melbourne 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.
Tornado Wallace – ‘Today’ (featuring Sui Zhen)
If you’ve followed the maelstrom of Tornado Wallace’s dance floor destruction over the years, his long-awaited album Lonely Planet might catch you by surprise. The Australian producer also known as Lewie Day is well known for DJ sets, Animals Dancing parties, and studio productions, but his debut LP finds a meditative space in the eye of the storm.
We learn more of Lewie’s love for new wave and new age, ambient tones and subtle synth sounds. ‘Today’, featuring fellow Melbourne music ambassador Sui Zhen, is an instant classic from the record, filled with restrained rhythms, ringing guitars and compelling vocals.
Biscotti – ‘Instamatic’
Biscotti promises and delivers sonic bliss with her debut album Like Heaven in the Movies. The project of Melbourne-based Carla Ori, Biscotti’s inventive multi-instrumental arrangements offer escape from the everyday and access to new realms of imagination.
‘Instamatic‘ is one of the most dancefloor driven songs of the set, propelled by disco breaks and punk funk energy. Elsewhere on the record are explorations of synth wave. hip hop and film scores.
Still Works – ‘Me Or You Or Both’
Melbourne trio Still Works was formed by Chris Crisafi of Teaser Pony, Tori Holleman of Retiree and Matthew Hadley from Total Giovanni. Their music feels elemental: heat hazed beats, floating melodies and a confessed obsession with the ’80s “dark art of bass flange.”
In ‘Me or You or Both’ Tori sings of natural forces, of dams, wiers, creeks, rivers, and skies, describing cycles in nature, human or otherwise. Refusing this groove seems as futile as resisting the urge to dance in the rain.
Sweet Whirl – ‘Work Again’
On Sweet Whirl’s Bandcamp page it says the album O.K. Permanent Wave is “recommended for fans of Grouper, Chris Isaak”. It’s not a sentence you read every day. The comparisons resonate – music like this is rare. You can hear echoes of Groupers’ hypnotic layered approach, with guitars, and vocals, and tape loops and effects.
You can feel the reverb-rich heartbroken rock’n’roll of Chris Isaak, the artist famously associated with director David Lynch. Songs are drawn from a very restrained palette of sounds, recorded in what feels like vast space. ‘Work Again’ finds form in fragments of folk, blues, rock and drone.
Scraps – ‘Touch Blue’
TTNIK is an EP released in the second half of last year that I return to often. When reading about the release I found a range of descriptions from artist and label that I enjoyed almost as much as the music.
The EP is captioned “alienated karaoke” and “dehydrated disco” that “draws from a persuasive mood-board of 80’s hairdresser magazines bleaching in the desert, cubist synth-pop, and disaster fascination.Driving, house influenced sun soaked synth pop.” It doesn’t leave too much to add, but ‘Touch Blue’ is a particular standout, coloured by a vague but pervasive melancholy amidst the disco tempo.
Jade Imagine – ‘Walkin’ Around’
For years Jade McNally has been an active and integral member of Australia’s music community. Previously releasing music under her band name TANTRUMS, Jade has also performed as a touring member of Teeth & Tongue and plays bass in Jess Ribeiro’s band. Her anticipated solo debut EP as Jade Imagine arrives this April on Milk! Records.
The title What The Fuck Was I Thinking is easily one of the most relatable I’ve ever heard. In contrast to the name though, every song is brilliantly conceived and executed. ‘Walking Around’ is the latest single, revealing again the mastery and control of the songwriter who paces in carefully-measured steps.
Methyl Ethel – Ubu
Everything is Forgotten follows the acclaimed debut album Oh Inhuman Spectacle by Perth based Methyl Ethel. Anyone who heard the first full-length record would know founder Jake Webb’s skill for reshaping pop music into original forms.
There were traces of past avant-garde traditions, and sounds from newer psych-rock styles. The nocturnal haze of the melodies led some to describe the sounds as dreamlike, but latest single Ubu feels very much awake and aware of its surroundings.
Inspired by a revolutionary play Ubu Roi, which some say paved the way for modernism, Dada, and Surrealism, the effect of the new song is immediate and undeniable. Melodic hooks and lyrical refrains that will stay with you through the day, and many after.
