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.

School Damage – ‘Tall Poppies’

This new Melbourne group formed by Carolyn Hawkins, Jake Robertson, Jeff Raty and Dani Damage offer enough pop hooks, DIY smarts, punk attitude for a whole curriculum on cool. Tall Poppies is a great case study: melodic and meditative, immediate and seemlingly effortless. School Damage have clearly done their homework.

Terry – ‘Take Me to the City’

Amy Hill, Xanthe Waite, Zephyr Pavey and Al Montfort are Terry – a singular name for a singular project. Over the past couple of years there’s been two EPs and an album, all filled with unforgettable folk, lo-fi, punk and new wave songs. Remember Terry is a chance to get reacquainted, and ‘Take Me To The City’ is the first single – Terry’s poignant paean to the bright lights and dancing opportunities offered by urban centres.

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Shrimpwitch – ‘Lust for a Kick’

The online premiere of ‘Lust For A Kick’ was linked to an interview with Kim Prawn and Georgi Goonsack. Among many topics the duo discussed a shared love of world-changing rock and roll, and hinted at the existence of a direct telephone to John Water’s house to use if they’re ever short of ideas. Based on the evidence though, they’ll never need it.

Shrimpwitch pack their music with energy and inspiration to spare. The band have found an ideal home at Hysterical Records, newly founded by Amanda Vitartas, Jenny McKechnie and Grace Kindellan to provide a voice for artists who inspire, include, challenge, and create new conversations within music and society in general.

Jacky Winter – ‘I Pay My Taxes’ ft. Amanda Roff

Here are all the parts needed for a rocking electro jam with endless playback potential. Heavy drum machine beats, looped melodies, commanding vocals combine to form a political, punk, hip hop synth pop anthem for your mind and feet to follow. It features on Our First One Hundred Days, a compilation to raise funds for organisations threatened under the current US administration.

Love Deluxe – ‘Cool Breeze Over the Mountains’

Musical inspiration arrives in many forms. For instance if you are composer Angelo Badalamenti, it could arrive in the shape of film director David Lynch who one fateful day sits at the end of your keyboard to talk about a TV show he’s making. As David describes an eerie scene in the woods you start to interpret the images with notes and chords and improvise a theme that becomes an enduring musical motif for Twin Peaks.

Another time, if you are Sydney’s Love Deluxe, you spend a fruitful few hours meditating on the translated meaning of Keanu Reeves’ name and you produce the compelling groove ‘Cool Breeze over the Mountains’.  A poetic title for a beautifully reflective dancefloor jam, filled with minor key melodies and satisfying, dusty breaks.

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Jessica Says – ‘Rosemary’

Do With Me What U Will is an extraordinary LP, signalling the welcome return of Jessica Says after a pause from recording. Elements of folk, orchestral, pop, dance and experimental music are drawn together to create a compelling, original sound. Each song is rich in detail and meaning, exploring ideas around identity, health, learning, love and desire.

The album’s closing track is a tribute to fascinating Rosemary: elusive friend, star of screen and keeper of secrets. Plaintive cello melodies lead an instrumental coda that concludes on a single strong piano note, leaving a sense of uplift and resolve.

Ghosting – ‘Reimagining Miyazaki’

Reimagining Miyazaki is one of those releases that seems too good to be true when you hear about it, and better than you could have hoped when you finally get to listen. Andrei Eremin is the Grammy-nominated record producer whose immense skill can be heard in releases from Hiatus Kaiyote, Banoffee, Chet Faker, Rat & Co, Naysayer & Gilsun, Oscar Key Sung and too many others to list. Ghosting is a new outlet for Andrei’s solo productions, and here his focus is fixed on the scores for films by Hayao Miyazaki, one of his favourite directors.

Each track preserves the melodic and emotional spirit of the originals, whilst reframing them with new energy and ideas. The results are revelatory, a playground for the imagination.

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