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 22 June 2020

Sault - Untitled (Black Is) (Forever Living Records) **Album of the Week

Following up two acclaimed releases in 2019, SAULT have dropped their latest with the following statement: “We present our first Untitled album to mark a moment in time where we as Black People and of Black Origin are fighting for our lives. RIP George Floyd and all those who have suffered from police brutality and systemic racism. Change is happening. We are focused.” The group are directing all proceeds from the album to charitable funds.

Phoebe Bridgers - Punisher (Dead Oceans)

Punisher is the second solo release from Bridgers, to sit along a number of collaborative side-projects in the young yet prolific career of the 25-year-old Californian. On her sophomore release, Bridgers reveals herself as a rare talent in confessional, multi-dimensional songwriting, in the mould of her hero Elliott Smith. Punisher is lovingly and intricately produced by Tony Berg, Ethan Gruska and Bridgers herself.

Bob Dylan - Rough and Rowdy Ways (Columbia)

The 79-year-old Bob Dylan releases his 39th album with Rough and Rowdy Ways. As with much of his work over the last few decades, mortality is the chief concern here, with songs about the sinking of the Titanic, John F. Kennedy, John Lennon and the creation of his own personal Frankenstein. It’s also an absurdly funny album, with witticisms stacked on top of each other seemingly at will. Stripped back instrumentation relies on simple acoustic melodies, carefully arranged around Dylan’s life-heavy vocals.

Various Artists - Tender Connection (Tender Collection)

Tender Collection is an Australian-artist run, queer feminist label with a stated mission to support, promote and distribute electronic, punk and outsider sounds from feminist and queer-identifying artists. Their latest release Tender Connection, collates work from the likes of V, Geryon, Romy Fox and Golden Syrup, with all profits donated to Sisters Inside and Black Rainbow.

Jennifer Touch - Behind the Wall (Fatcat)

The Berlin-based artist draws from electro pop and disco influences on her latest, exploring industrial soundscapes with the raw energy of post-punk. With stated influences as diverse as Duran Duran and PJ Harvey, Touch finds her own unique sound within the busy world of Berlin electronica.

Ziggy Ramo - Black Thoughts (Independent)

With his debut EP Black Thoughts, the 24-year-old rapper Ziggy Ramo demands to be heard through his important and unapologetic political and social messaging and flawless production and style. With sounds owed more to the golden-age of hip-hop than heavily produced contemporary rappers, Black Thoughts slices deep into the heart of race relations in modern Australia.

Various Artists - Kiwi Animals: Future / Primitive Aotearoa (Stragelove)

Kiwi Animals is a collection which recasts 1980s New Zealand Top 40 in a parallel universe, by exploring unexpected electronic tangents from iconic groups, mining the disparate seams of local indie label awakenings, and other oddities and revelations from the end of the Earth.

Jockstrap - Wicked City (Warp Records / Inertia)

Wicked City, the second EP from the UK duo, is part PC Music cyber-pop and part conservatorium classicism; and it is in this odd duality that Georgia Ellery and Taylor Skye find their musical identity. Beyond the deliberate bewilderment found in the intersection of heavy vocal processing and classical instrumentation is a well of deep feeling and vulnerability borne of Ellery’s often gorgeous and beguiling lyrics.

Leah Senior - The Passing Scene (Flightless Records)

The Melbourne folk singer releases her beautiful and melancholic third album on Flightless Records. Effortlessly evoking the 1960s folk sounds of the likes of Nick Drake and Karen Dalton, Senior explores dreams, freedom, love, loss, and especially the passage of time and its intersection with the degradation of our environment. Released at a time when industry and transport have both been universally halted, there is a hopeful reminder to appreciate the wonder and wilderness of our natural world.

Adrian Younge, Ali Shaheed Muhammad & Roy Ayers - Jazz is Dead 002 (Jazz is Dead Records)

The founders of Jazz is Dead - contemporary producers Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad - release their second album under the moniker with the legendary vibraphone player Roy Ayers. The result is eight tracks which evoke the sound of Ayers’ classic period in the 1970s with something startling, new and unexpected from the modern production and sensibilities of Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad.