Hermitude storm 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.

Hermitude – #5 Amrap Metro (pictured above)

As the Elefant Traks label celebrate their 20th year with a series of great concerts around the country, one of their earliest signings and likely their biggest act, Hermitude, return with a new single. The Blue Mountains duo have of course come a long way since their beginnings as an instrumental outfit inspired by golden-era hip hop and the British trip hop scene – showing how much label development still really counts in this day and age – and have hit a peak of their pop vision with ‘Stupid World’. Enlisting Bibi Bourelley, who’s collaborated with the likes of Rhianna, Usher and Mariah Carey, Hermitude have come up with a top-level production that’s equal parts substance and gloss. This one surely marks another notch in the pair’s continuing stratospheric rise, but they haven’t been forgotten where it all started for them, community radio. FBi Radio in Sydney, 3RRR in Melbourne and 6RTR in Perth are just three stations with this in heavy rotation.

Indigenoise – #10 Amrap Metro

Having just released their album, Old Ways New Age a fortnight back, Byron Bay Indigenous Australian hip hop act Indigenoise head back into the Amrap Metro Top 10 this week with their most recent single, ‘One Mob’. It’s a heady but atmospheric rush of rhythm and sound fusing ancestral ties to hip hop’s trap zone with electro and psychedelic overlays. It’s a charged statement of unification in the face of any boundaries – no wonder they’ve recently come back from performing at the world’s largest alternative festival, Burning Man, a space that promotes ‘decommodification’ to value who you are not what you have. Back on home soil, ‘One Mob’ is getting great spins across community radio, especially regionally at places like NSW’s Tank FM and Bay FM as well as Victoria’s Plenty Valley FM.

Yolanda Ingley II – #9 Amrap Regional

It sounds as though Yolanda Ingley II’s ‘Come Back In My Arms’ could have been some unearthed 45 found in a diner’s jukebox somewhere in the deep south of the USA, but in fact this great singer and song is straight outta Melbourne. ‘Come Back Into My Arms’ smoulders in the classic Southern Soul vein, spare and slow with a streak of gospel and an age old lesson on love in tow. After stints performing in Europe including a stretch at the legendary West End jazz club Jazz After Dark, Yolanda Ingley returned to Melbourne to continue her craft. She may have been hiding plain sight to many, but community radio are right onto her latest gem, finding love at BBB FM in NSW’s Bellinge, 5GTR in South Australia and Victoria’s Mountain District Radio.

Hallie – #6 Amrap Metro

It tells a bigger tale, but to be straight up: Hallie’s ‘Not A Lady’ is a song about the Brisbane singer-songwriter fighting with her parents about not wanting to shave her armpits. The clash of parental values, pride and teen independence is a long storied one in song and Hallie takes to it on ‘Not A Lady’ with grace and humour. The 19-year old kicked off her musical journey in 2017 and cites an ever-pressing want to challenge social norms and fly in the face of life’s awkwardness with her songs. Hallie’s band have given her a sturdy, melodic folk-rock base to back her quirky observations and already community radio  – including Sydney’s FBi Radio and Brisbane’s 4ZZZ FM – has found her to highlight on the airwaves.

Kota Banks – #7 Amrap Regional

Self-love is a big thing in the pop game these days, and Sydney’s Kota Banks is administering it in the shiniest, bounciest way with the aptly titled ‘I’m It’. Short, sweet and to the point, it’s another clear-cut winner from her PRIZE mixtape released in the middle of 2018, and showcases her infectious positivity in full. Just like the song itself, there’s no reason to drag this out too long – Kota Banks is, quite simply, it. Radio Adelaide, 4ZZZ FM in Brisbane and Sydney’s FBi Radio agree.