Gurrumul and Alice Skye top the community radio charts

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.

Gurrumul – #1 Amrap Regional (pictured above)

History was made last week when the posthumous album from Gurrumul, Djarimirri (Child of the Rainbow), became the first album to top the ARIA Albums Chart with a work sung in language. It’s a remarkable, bittersweet feat befitting the towering achievement ‘Djarimirri’ is with its ambitious casting of modern orchestration and traditional Indigenous chants and rhythms. It should be no surprise Dr G is at the top of Amrap’s Regional chart, as community radio acknowledges and celebrates a truly unique Australian artist.

Eliza Hull – #6 Amrap Metro

Based in picturesque Castlemaine about 90 minutes outside of Melbourne, Eliza Hull is poised to release a new EP, ‘How We Disappeared’, produced by Jono Steer (Ali Barter, Hiatus Kaiyote). ‘Hard Way’ is the first song from it, and it showcases Hull’s reach for both the atmospheric and epic, starting off gently like a ballad before building with a massive chorus into a strong and defiant song. Touring the east coast in June, she’s finding support from community radio in that zone from the likes of Melbourne’s 3RRR and Sydney’s FBi.

Haiku Hands – #5 Amrap Metro

Technicolour dreams are now soundtracked by Sydney band Haiku Hands. Set to play the UK in June – including slots at The Great Escape’s DIY showcases – the trio’s latest single ‘Jupiter’ is impossibly bouncy and infectious, helped along by production by some of their hometown’s best in Jaytee Hazard and Hermitude’s El Gusto. Spanning pop, funk and disco in their sound, Haiku Hands have a sound that hits the sweet spot across a load of diverse community radio programming, Brisbane’s 4ZZZ and Radio Adelaide are but two of the great stations making this gleeful addition to their airwaves.

Exhibitionist – #4 Amrap Metro

The pop project for Sydney multi-instrumentalist and producer Kirsty Tickle has returned on Future Classic with the commanding ‘Sway’. Full of the kind of vocal yearning Portishead’s Beth Gibbons made her name on, ‘Sway’ is full of rhythmic tension and string-laden beauty for a compelling new entry into Tickle’s sonic world. It’s Top 5 on Amrap’s Metro charts with sweet spins from FBi, 4ZZZ, Triple R and Tasmania’s Edge Radio, but also getting fine regional play from Fraser Coast Community Radio, Bellingen’s 2BBB and Mountain District Radio.

 BABY BLUE – #8 Amrap Metro

Melbournians Baby Blue haven’t been around long but have a polished dreamy pop template perfected after a mere two singles. It might be the pedigree in the band, with members having also done time with Courtney Barnett and Captain Apples but front person Rhea Caldwell sets the tone for the group oh-so-wonderfully with her giddily breezy vocals. ‘I Like You’ may just be one of the catchiest Oz tunes this year and if you switch on any community station in any major city you’re likely to hear it soon after.

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.