Moaning Lisa join The Teskey Brothers at the community radio charts summit

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.

Antony & Cleopatra – #7 Amrap Regional

Working a heavy 90s electro vibe into a creamier dance concoction perfect for 2018, Antony & Cleopatra have returned with ‘Hurt Like Hell’, the title track from their upcoming EP. There’s a dark undercurrent you might expect with a title like that, but this one throbs like the best party starters. The pair behind the empire-spanning name – Alexander Burnett and Anita Blay – wrote ‘Hurt Like Hell’ over the course of 24 hours, also marking the first time the pair had worked together from different locations. With the EP set to be released through Dew Process in late November, the summer’s soundtrack could be set, and community radio is starting early with NSW’s BBB FM in Bellingen, 2EAR FM in Moruya on the South Coast of NSW and Radio Adelaide just a few stations on board.

Null – #2 Amrap Metro

From grittier beginnings, Melbourne artist Null has grown his sound into a travelogue of 90s electronica that rivals legendary UK producer Luke Vibert in his twists and turns across a range of styles, while remaining incredibly catchy. Other crucial artists from that fertile 90s period in UK music such as Squarepusher and Aphex Twin come to mind with ‘Elevated, Elevated, Elevated’, Null’s new single that supremely blends breakbeat and melody  into a heady groove. Made with equal parts machinery and heart, ‘Elevated, Elevated, Elevated’ has rightly shot up to #2 on the Amrap Metro charts, with heavy-duty spins at Sydney’s FBi Radio and Perth’s 6RTR-FM.

Cyanide Thornton – #3 Amrap Metro

Melbourne duo Cyanide Thornton also play in the heartbreakingly beautiful Two Steps On The Water, and they display a similar sensitivity in their music with a beguiling, uncanny depth of feeling. The tender new single ‘Hot Air’ is evocative and understated folk rock, unwaveringly hypnotic underneath Sienna Thornton’s ice-cool voice. Thornton weaves a personal take with a surreal spin, making for a distinct new presence in Melbourne’s crowded indie scene. Bedroom Suck release their self-titled debut in early November – in the meantime, you can catch ‘Hot Air’ at Hobart’s Edge Radio, Brisbane’s 4ZZZ FM and Perth’s 6RTR FM.

The Aints! – #9 Amrap Metro

While in the midst of his golden run of acoustic-based solo albums through the 90s, Ed Kuepper switched gears and formed The Aints! – named with a cheeky nod to the band he’s rightly most associated with, The Saints – and showed he could still fire with punkish venom and jazzy flourish. After two excellent studio albums and a very long layoff, Kuepper has added an exclamation mark to the band and resurrected it for 2018 with a new album based on older, unused material, The Church of Simultaneous Existence. Kuepper still knows his way around a riff playing for euphoria and exhilaration on the stomping title track that also showcases the sly existentialism at the heart of his lyricism. It’s a startlingly fresh take on some of Kuepper’s classic trademarks and is burning bright at community stations such as Kuepper’s hometown heroes 4ZZZ FM in Brisbane.

Jasmine Atkins – #10 Amrap Regional

Perth’s Jasmine Atkins is a relative newcomer to the Australian country music scene, but her talent was spied early by her home state, named WA Country Music Songwriter of the Year back in 2015. Last year saw Atkins land three nominations on the WA Country Music Awards and she’s followed up her 2017 debut EP with a new single, ‘Get Gone’. With a no-mess approach with words, Atkins put the right mix of grit and polish into ‘Get Gone’ for a tough tune ringing with sweet guitar melody. 2019 might just be the year when Atkins breaks out just that little bit more, with a wider reach of airplay coming in from the likes Victoria’s 979 FM and NSW’s Yass FM. 

See the full Amrap Charts at www.airit.org.au

The Amrap Charts show the Top 10 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.