Amrap Chart Wrap: Flowertruck continues dominance, while Laura Jean returns with new style
Community radio shows a huge amount of support for Australian music, with almost 40% of music played coming from local artists. Taste-making presenters excel at giving airtime to an incredible spread of what Aussie artists have to offer. The Amrap Metro and Amrap Regional Charts provide insight into what’s getting airplay and attention on community radio each week. Here’s the lowdown on some tunes charting this week.
Laura Jean – ‘Touchstone’ (#3 Amrap Metro, pictured above)
After her stark self-titled album (produced by PJ Harvey collaborator John Parish) from 2014 established Melbourne’s Laura Jean as one of the country’s most innovative and touching storytellers in the folk realm, her new single ‘Touchstone’ is a sparkling turnaround in style. Drawing on synth-pop and RnB, this dreamy taste of her upcoming LP Devotion is all hypnotic and ice cool delivery while still cutting to the core emotionally as only Laura Jean can. We can’t stop swaying, and neither can Melton’s 979 FM in Victoria’s and Fraser Coast Community Radio in Queensland.
Gabriella Cohen – ‘Baby’ (#2 Amrap Metro)
Melbourne’s Gabriella Cohen has returned with ‘Baby’ after her charmingly scuffed-up debut album nicely carved out her idiosyncratic path into garage-pop. For a song about unrequited love, this is a hell of a lot of fun, helped along by the stickiest of sweet of melodies. If there’s love Cohen can rely on getting regularly, it’s from community radio with Perth’s 6RTR, Melbourne’s Triple R and Tasmania’s Edge Radio just a few stations all in tow to this great new single.
Slag Queens – ‘Lena’ (#4 Amrap Metro & #2 Amrap Regional)
Tasmania’s Slag Queens have unleashed ‘Lena’ – a post-punk pearler on the third compilation of femme, GNC and LGBTIQA+ artists from around Australia from LISTEN, powered by one of the most jagged basslines this side of The Slits!
This is just one of 22 tracks displaying a mass of creative action from Fia Fiell’s sublime electronic ambience to Meme Girls’ skewed bedroom pop, with 50 percent of proceeds from the cassette edition donated to WAR (Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance). AirIt is hosting a load of these tunes, but Slag Queens have bolted into both charts’ top five. FBi Radio in Sydney, Brisbane’s 4ZZZ and Victoria’s Mountain District Radio are all well on board.
The Double Happiness – ‘City’ (#4 Amrap Regional)
Self-described as ‘two couples on the longest double date ever’, the latest single from The Double Happiness is a true jangle-pop gem with nods to British shoegaze, early R.E.M and their Brisbane brethren The Go-Betweens. With the Brisbane foursome’s new EP City just out as well, community radio is reverberating with their ringing melodies – Victoria’s Inner FM just one station loading up the airplay.
Front End Loader – ‘Not Tonight’ (#6 Amrap Regional)
Still pulverising after all these years, the Sydney band who formed in 1991 have returned with a new album with the characteristically wry title of Neutral Evil. ‘Not Tonight’ is the first single, and Front End Loader‘s template for crushing and elastic riffs, drilling rhythms and some seriously soulful reckoning upfront is blazingly undiminished. Their wily brand of rock reigns at NSW’s Yass FM and Bay FM, plus WA’s Harvey Community Radio and Victoria’s North West FM.
See the full Amrap Charts at www.airit.org.au.
The Amrap Charts show the top ten tracks ordered for airplay by community broadcasters through the Amrap’s AirIt music distribution service. Amrap is an initiative of the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia which distributes new Australian music to community radio stations nationwide and empowers broadcasters to promote new Australian music on air and online.