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, Will Backler from RTRFM in Perth contributes with a selection of tracks currently making their way to community radio through Amrap’s music distribution service ‘AirIt’.

Check out Will’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.

Salary – ‘Beyond’

Ahead of the release of their debut album Upside Down Island, Perth nine-piece Salary deliver a single of grandiose experimental indie-pop sounds, a track that builds and builds based around infectious guitar hooks, subtle horns and synths, a relentless beat and vocalist Sean Gorman’s distinctive processed vocals.

Rebel Yell – ‘High Authority’

Brisbane’s Grace Stevenson’s new single is a heavy, relentless industrial leaning 4/4 analogue techno jam, dominated by a pulsating squelchy bassline, pounding drums and Stevenson’s spoken word vocals. An overdriven kick drum underpins the intensity, giving way to rapid hi-hats and sweeping synths, with the track maintaining an inescapable sense of urgency right to the conclusion.

Simone and Girlfunkle – ‘Fight On’

The first new sounds from these WA favourites is another dreamy indie-pop excursion, with catchy guitar chords meeting ethereal vocal harmonies, luscious synths and harmonious harmonicas. As you inevitably start to hum along, the crisp drums will make your head nod right until the last chord rings out.

Mt. Mountain – ‘Dust’

Perth psych-rock quintet Mt. Mountain released the amazing Cosmos Terros a year ago and have managed to surpass it, with the truly epic Dust, taken from the EP of the same name. Delving further into the realms of drone based doom sounds, Dust combines hypnotic repetitive drums with a pulsating bass line, eventually giving way to a thunderous climax.

Shady Nasty – ‘Citizen’s Arrest’

Sharp, angular and dark yet lulling guitar tones with strained vocals, grimy bass and tight drums collide on the opening track from Sydney band Shady Nasty’s new self-titled EP, managing to have you hypnotised just as the track breaks down and snaps you back into reality.

Ferla – ‘Wasted on You’

Melbourne’s foremost low-rent disco practitioner’s irresistible single from the Guilty Pop/Stay Posi double EP is an absolute earworm, straddling the line between euphoria and melancholy through its myriad of dominant synths and reverb drenched vocals that grapple with the grieving process of a relationship in the mellowest of manners.

The Fruity Whites – ‘Getting It Together’

Perth’s pre-eminent pedlars of lo-fi, boxed wine influenced melodic sounds are back, following up 2013’s Goon Tapes with a single of captivating, jangly alt-country pop. Hugh Manning’s lyrics are as equally charming as they are somewhat confronting, detailing the mundane and heartbreaking aspects of adulthood in excruciating detail.

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Ryan Beno – ‘Saline’

Luscious, layered post-rock sounds driven by  by jazzy swinging drums, reverb drenched sweeping guitar chords, a pulsating bass line and swelling synths combine to progress in intensity until the track turns into a gorgeous jazz influenced second movement.

Mikey Young – ‘Socks’

Nostalgic, tropical slo-mo house is our first taste from musician/audio engineer Mikey Young’s soon to be released Your Move Vol 1. Amongst playing with Total Control, and working as a mastering engineer, Mikey also manages to find time to craft  tracks based around a wide range of analogue synth sounds, from bleeps and bloops to sweeping pads, bubbling bass lines and extravagant chords.

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