Baker Boy shoots to the top of the Amrap Metro Chart

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.

Baker Boy – #1 Amrap Metro (pictured above)

Rapper Baker Boy tells it like it is, and possibly nowhere more than on his latest single, Black Magic, where he teams up with his mentor and co-writer Dallas Woods. Packing his biggest punch so far without easing up on the joy and positivity that are his trademarks, Baker Boy riffs on ‘the power of black magic’ as well as being ‘young, gifted and black’, casting a direct line back to Nina Simone’s classic anthem for the 1960s Civil Rights movement. Moving forward with fire and no fear, Baker Boy’s undeniable presence in taking his Indigenous heritage into the future has taken him quickly to the top of Amrap’s Metro Charts. Sydney’s Koori Radio, Perth’s 6RTR FM, Brisbane’s 4ZZZ FM and Hobart’s Edge Radio are all powering their airwaves with Black Magic.

Nasho – #3 Amrap Metro

Fresh from getting the accolade of Album of the Week at Sydney’s FBi Radio for their self-titled debut, Sydney outfit Nasho are also making a sizeable dent on the Amrap charts with their enthralling, politicised hardcore. Fantastically in your face and full of dissent, Nasho take the bleak, black and white landscape we find ourselves in and turn it technicolour to reflect a world of gender diversity and multiculturalism mainstream media tends to omit. Unsurprisingly, FBi Radio have led the fray with airplay, but Melbourne’s Triple R and Brisbane’s 4ZZZ also represent heavily.

Angie McMahon – #8 Amrap Regional

The Melbourne singer-songwriter has come out of the blocks yet again with her third single, Keeping Time, sounding more assured and seasoned than most this early in her career. With a voice that’s deep and commanding but altogether heartening and heartfelt, there’s a distinctive polish to Keeping Time that makes it feel immediate as well a huge. It’s a song about taking flight and you sense that’s exactly what Angie McMahon is doing. Keeping Time is making airtime across regional community radio: Bay FM on the North Coast of NSW, 5GTR in South Australia’s Mount Gambier and Mountain District Radio in Victoria are three stations spinning this one loads.

Almond Soy – #1 Amrap Regional

These Perth soy boys have been riding high this past year with their infectious, high energy pop that often sneaks in a few dancefloor moves. It’s a brash but ecstatic sound that burst out of the bedroom where brothers Brendon and James Stockbridge first started laying down tracks before evolving into a six-piece to taking Almond Soy on the road to rapturous acclaim. Silhouette is another pulsating winner that feels downright breezy as it hits your earholes. Surely these guys are destined for bigger things but hey, regional community radio has already made them top of the Amrap Regional chart. Western Australia’s Voice of the Avon as well as South Australia’s Fleurieu FM and Rox FM have been milking this one (pun wholly intended).

School Damage – #6 Amrap Metro

Featuring folk from Melbourne modern-day DIY legends Ausmuteants and Chook Race, Chapter Music alumni School Damage have returned with their wonderfully wonky brand of new wave. Assimilate is a typically ramshackle charmer from the band, with giddy pop smarts propelling a message about fractured identity. It’s a hyper tune for these hyper aware times and serves as a sweet taster of their second album, A to X, set for release at the end of the month. 4ZZZ FM in Brisbane lead the way in airplay, along with Melbourne’s 3RRR, Perth’s 6RTR and Sydney FBi Radio.

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 & empowers broadcasters to promote new Australian music on air & online.