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 6 April 2020

Mystery Guest - Octagon City (Tenth Court)**Album of the Week

Mystery Guest is the Melbourne based project of Adelaide expats Caitlyn Lesiuk (Peak Twins & Elizabeth) and Patrick Telfer (Bitch Prefect, Old Mate, Peak Twins). Their debut Octagon City is a slickly produced, rhythmic synth-pop album, layered with tuned and untuned percussion, plodding bass lines and Lesiuk’s recognisable sing/speak. The album conjures a fantastic, geometric, future-city of dance, love, spirituality and redemption.

Yaeji - What We Drew (XL Recordings)

What We Drew is the first full length mixtape from the ascendent Brooklyn based Korean American producer Yaeji. Musically, What We Drew takes its structure from deep house and bright, club electronica, but withholds on the revelry to explore themes of loneliness and anxiety. Yaeji jumps between Korean and English, finding different rhythms and tones in the two languages like different members of an instrumental family.

Thundercat - It Is What It Is (Brainfeeder Records)

“This album is about love, loss, life and the ups and downs that come with that”, Stephen Lee Bruner AKA Thundercat has said about his newest record. The former Suicidal Tendencies bassist proves his chops as a transcendent R&B vocalist and songwriter here, backed by a super-star list of collaborators including Flying Lotus, Ty Dolla $ign, Childish Gambino, Lil B, Kamasi Washington, Steve Lacy, Steve Arrington, BADBADNOTGOOD, Louis Cole and Zack Fox.

Yves Tumor - Heaven to a Tortured Mind (Warp Records/Inertia)

On their newest release, Yves Tumor furthers their capacity for shapeshifting and roleplaying. Heaven to a Tortured Mind is - taken in its entirety - a rock album stitched from a catalogue of styles; glam, psych rock, krautrock, Britpop, soul, noise. It is a significant transformation from Yves Tumor’s early experimental and ambient recordings. In the nuance and adroitness of this transformation, Yves Tumor shows that they are one of the most interesting artists currently releasing music.

Irreversible Entanglements - Who Sent You? (International Anthem)

Irreversible Entanglements are a free jazz collective formed in early 2015 as part of the Musicians Against Police Brutality event organized after the slaying of Akai Gurley by the NYPD. Where their self-titled debut was relentless, explosive and at least more outwardly political, Who Sent You? Is focused and meditative, building grooves through time and patience towards truly euphoric soundscapes.

TOPS - I Feel Alive (Fat Possum Records)

On their latest studio album, the Québécois four-piece further hone their mastery of gentle, glassy, shimmering synth-pop. Like contemporaries Ariel Pink, Real Estate and Destroyer, TOPS take instruction from the golden age of sophisticated soft rock, digging through dusty record boxes to take reference from the likes of Stevie Nicks, Blondie and Steely Dan.

Body Corp - Soft Expression (Soothsayer)

Soft Expression is the debut EP from Sydney DJ, producer and Retiree band member Marco Vella. The four tracks build on Vella’s heritage of long DJ sets in Melbourne and Sydney clubs, gifting them a slow-build, 90s house, dancefloor friendly sound. The heart of the EP, though, retains a smudginess and introspection, with soft pads and gently pulsating synth lines demanding the listener’s deeper attention.

Dana Gavanski - Yesterday Is Gone (Ba Da Bing!)

On her debut LP, the Canadian songwriter attempts to “learn to say what I feel and feel what I say.” Yesterday is Gone is a folk-pop album about longing and devotion; about the uncertainty of learning about oneself, and about pushing boundaries.

Nicolas Jaar - CenizaS (Other People)

Written in self-imposed isolation free of alcohol, cigarettes and caffeine, Nicolas Jaar’s third album began as an attempt to rid himself of negativity. The solitude failed in this task, and Jaar realized that instead he’d have to work his way through his flaws in order to heal. The resulting record is at times disconcertingly freeform, as it works through internal feelings of fear, fury and sadness through stretching asymmetrical soundscapes and gorgeous, textural simplicity.

Various Artists - Whispers: Lounge Originals (The Numero Group)  

Lounge music. That oft maligned, nearly always misunderstood sound of tranquility and relaxation, born of Holiday Inns, casinos, cruise ships and cocktail bars through the 60s and 70s. Gathered here are 14 lounge originals from across the entire easy listening spectrum, revealing a certain tension and truth in what is restrained and withheld.