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 5 October 2020.

Róisín Murphy - Róisín Machine (Skint/BMG)**Album of the Week

The fifth solo record from the former Moloko singer is her strongest and most consistent record yet. It’s a powerhouse of future-disco, gorgeously produced by Sheffield DJ Richard Barratt (Crooked Man). Like Goldfrapp or Robyn, Murphy has long existed outside of mainstream European pop, referencing and influencing what’s happening in the top 40, but maintaining a distance of independence and edge of creativity. On Roisin Machine she folds her disco heritage into a palette of house and techno. “This is the simulation, this is the demonstration” she sighs, “this is the realm of my wildest dreams, these are my wildest dreams”

Blake Scott - Niscitam (Wing Sing Records)

Niscitam is the debut release from the former frontman of celebrated Melbourne three-piece The Peep Tempel. Produced by multi-instrumentalist John Lee, the album seeks to reconcile Scott’s hopes of peace and justice against all of the contrary evidence presented in front of him. Driven by Scott’s front-bar drawl, the album dials the punk energy of the Peep Tempel back to something more structured and introspective, filled with meticulous and rich arrangements with help from musicians Jacey Ashton and Nick Finch.

Denise Chaila - Go Bravely (Narolane Records)

On Go Bravely, Denise Chaila represents the thriving hip-hop scene in Ireland to an untapped wider audience, following her breakthrough hits ‘Copper Bullet’ and ‘Chaila’. Of the release, Chaila has said “this mixtape is a series of sonic polaroids; a patchwork collection of snapshots and messages that came to me in the midst of overwhelming messiness. These songs are affirmations and declarations from every part of me that refused to lie down and give up when everything in me told me I should’

Isola - 'EP 1' (Godmode)

The Las Vegas-born musician Ivana Carrescia has gone under many alias’ and cycled through many sounds over her career; the wistful folk of Ivana XL and Eddi Front; the ambient throb of Gioia, and now her new project as Isola, embracing the moody club sounds of early 2000s house. Written and recorded in collaboration with LA producer and Godmode head Nick Sylvester, Carrescia finds inspiration from the everyday on her latest release, “the whirr of traffic, the howl of wind, the blank hum of a refrigerator”, while her glassy vocals find scraps and fragments of meaning to tie to these everyday mundanities.

Mindy Meng Wang 王萌 - An Improvisation Through Time and Space 穿越时光的即兴 (Music In Exile)

Mindy Meng Wang 王萌 is a Chinese/Australian composer and performer, whose work centres around her virtuosic playing of the guzheng, a traditional plucked Chinese string instrument which she’s perfected since the age of seven. Exploring the space between traditional and contemporary practices, each track reveals a new level of the sonic range and emotive capacity of her instrument, with the album at times veering into more experimental, ambient territory. An Improvisation Through Time and Space 穿越时光的即兴 finds Mindy joining a growing cohort of contemporary Chinese musicians redefining and reinvigorating their musical heritage, while seeking to contribute to a deeper and reciprocal musical connection between Australia and China.

Kurt Vile - 'Speed, Sound, Lonely KV' EP (Matador Records / Remote Control)

The latest release from Kurt Vile features a duet with the late John Prime covering his own ‘How Lucky’, an additional Prine cover, a cover of Jack Clement’s ‘Cowboy’ and two original recordings. Captured over four years with a cast of legendary Nashville musicians at the Buther Shoppe studio, 'Speed, Sound, Lonely KV' is a more direct and sincere take on heartland American country music for an artist who has long practiced in the weird, alt edges of that tradition.

Gabriel Garzón-Montano - Agüita (Jagjaguwar)

On his third album, the Brooklyn born artist takes the listener on a wild ride through genre, language and tradition, sweeping contrasting sounds and influences into a truly unique aesthetic signature. Mining sounds from his French-Columbian heritage, and with a tender croon reminiscent of Moses Sumney or French Ocean at their most vulnerable, Aguita also takes hard right turns into latin trap and reggaeton before easing back into soaring classical strings and piano. The grace with which all this is pulled off is a testament to the enduring songwriting talent and authenticity of Garzón-Montano.

Wax Chattels - Clot (Captured Tracks Remote Control)

The highly anticipated second album from the New Zealand act maintains the raw live energy of their debut album but digs deeper into cathartic noise and builds volume and energy into the paired back instrumentation of bass guitar, keyboard and a two-piece drum kit. The band at times rage through personal and political frustrations around migrant disconnection, human sacrifice, the anti-empathy of the mindfulness movement and the harm caused by rising global partisanship. The band maintain, however, moments of hope and acceptance raising Clot above and beyond the limitations of another protest album.

friendships - FISHTANK (Remote Control)

The experimental audiovisual duo of Misha Grace and Nic Brown follow up their acclaimed 2016 album Nullarbor 1988-1989 with FISHTANK. A deeply conceptual piece, the album’s arc follows the descent of the individual through loss of self. It’s a portrayal, through experimental sound and vision, of the emptiness, despair, loss of control, and the isolation of rock bottom. Coming full circle, the arc of FISHTANK charts rebuild and rebirth into the reassembled self.

Fantastic Man - Utopioid (Mule Musiq)

Utopioid is the long awaited debut full length release from the Melbourne producer, following over a dozen EPs and singles over the last decade. Written between 2019 and 2020 in Berlin, Rio and Melbourne, the meticulously structured album draws on sci-fi influenced electronica, house, airy dub and breakbeat creating a “vacation through an imaginary pleasure-dome.”