Soundscape is a weekly look at local and international releases making an impression on our musical radar. The list offers a cross section of EPs and albums arriving at the station.

We have been busily scouring the Soundscape! Check out some of our favourite finds for this week 16 September 2019.

Oh Sees - Face Stabber (Castle Face)**Album of the Week

Face Stabber is the 22nd studio album in the last fifteen years from the remarkably prolific Californians. Like their band name, their sound has morphed in style over the years, but has remained essentially recognisable in substance. The latest release channels the restlessly inventive spirit of the band through psychedelic riffs, rhythmic rock, free-form jazz and experimental sound design.

Cool Sounds - More to Enjoy (Hotel Motel)

The third EP from the Melbourne guitar pop group delivers a sound deeply rooted in the Melbourne guitar-rock scene, with nods to 70s lo-fi, alt country and West-Coast surf-rock.

Jenny Hval - The Practice of Love (Sacred Bones)

The Practice of Love is a deep-dive into what it means to grow older and question one’s relationship to the earth and self. The album - Hval’s seventh - unfurls with deceptive ease and gentleness on soft waves of arpeggiated synths and lilting beats

Prudence - Growing Closer (Eastmint)

On Growing Closer, Los angeles based Australian artist Prudence anchors herself in this specific moment in time and reflects on the fast approaching realities of the future, asking us, the listener, to choose if we have agency, or if we’ll just sit back and watch it unfold.

Dry Cleaning - 'Sweet Princess' EP (POD/Inertia)

The London post-punk group release a wiry and compelling six track EP - their first - following a hot run of live shows. Driven by the predominantly spoken-word vocal narratives of Florence Shaw, Sweet Princess explores human fragility and anxiety via an archeological exercise on Social Media.

(Sandy) Alex G - House of Sugar (Domino/EMI)

The ninth album from the enigmatic song-writer is his most relatable and accessible release yet. House of Sugar retains much of the DIY aesthetic and experimental tendencies of his early releases, yet collates his vast catalogue of sounds and influences together in an inviting and cohesive whole.

Metronomy - Metronomy Forever (Because Music)

The mainstays of the noughties indie electro-pop scene return with their sixth album, an hour-long collection packed with funk-heavy dance tracks, audacious pop-anthems, and the occasional breath-of-air slow-burner.

Papaphilia - Peace Was Never An Option (Factoid)

The deeply conceptual release by the Melbourne electronic outfit, is an urgent call to reassess the instilled desire to avoid conflict at the cost of deepening inequalities, subverted justice and concealed nuances. Ambient, processed vocals are overwhelmed by a driving beat and urgent, of-the-moment electronics.

FSOM / Andy Rantzen - Track Six / Harmonic Eye (Efficient Space)

Efficient space release this two track retrospective of 90s Australian rave music. On Track Six FSOM revels in a time when Melbourne’s underground rave scene evolved from basement clubs to more mainstream venues, while Rantzen supplies a darkroom canter on ‘Harmonic Eye’, taken from his 1999 solo album The Blue Hour

Velvet Negroni - Neon Brown (4AD/Remote Control)

On Neon Brown, Jeremy Nutzman aka Velvet Negroni presents a refreshingly raw and experimental take on R&B. His debut explores his life as a pursuit of communion, jumping from harrowing to hilarious between his deep croons and double-time rhymes.