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 8 July 2019

Freddie Gibbs and Madlib - Bandana (Keep Cool Records, RCA Records, Madlib Invazion, ESGN)**Album of the Week

The class-leading rapper and producer come together for their second release, diving even deeper into each other’s uncompromising worlds to deliver a noir masterpiece. Gibb’s delivers uncompromising lyrics about social politics, violence and lots of pertinent basketball references, while Madlib provides a maximalist, kaleidoscope backdrop of samples, and beats.

Emma Russack - Winter Blues (Spunk/Caroline Australia)

The prolific Melbourne songwriter Emma Russack returns with her fifth LP, addressing love, loss and confusion in an increasingly complex world. Russack’s open and vulnerable vocals are nestled amongst spacious and warm blues and folk arrangements.

Peak Twins - Beloved (Our Golden Friend)

The Melbourne duo follow up their 2013 self titled release with Beloved. Now backed by a 6-piece band, the group expand and stretch their sound, adding lush strings and solemn keys. As with their debut, Beloved explores themes of love and heartache, but with an added emotional maturity and acceptance forged through the intervening years; “love don’t come easy at all.”

Body Type - EP2 (Partisan Records/23)

Sydney quartet Body Type’s second release is a captivating collection of guitar driven garage-pop. The songs find them exploring freedom, intimacy, broken relationships and empowerment, driven by blazing lead vocals, a razor-sharp rhythm section, and occasional descent into guitar solo jams.

Olympia - Flamingo (EMI/Universal Music Australia)

On her second album, Olympia aka multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Olivia Bartley references a great personal tragedy and loss. Yet in processing this grief, Barley creates a collection of songs which are outwardly the inverse - a brilliant and life-affirming album of compelling pop hooks and rich melodies, all driven by her feverous lead-vocals.

No Mono - Islands Pt 2 (Pieater Records/23)

Following up from 2018s haunting Islands Pt 1, the new release from the Australian two piece brings percussive elements to the fore, creating an at times bewildering, frantic and glitchy effect. Tom Snowdon’s singular vocals maintain their eerie, beautiful energy, yet struggle to find the same tenderness and empathy as its predecessor.

Félicia Atkinson – The Flower and the Vessel (Shelter Press)

The French multi-disciplinary artist blends fragments of poetry, ASMR and delicate sparse melodies and ambience on her new release on experimental label Shelter Press. Atkinson points to three French compositions as reference points for the album - Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges, Debussy’s La Mer and Erik Satie’s Gymnopédies; influences that manifest as sparse piano melodies throughout the album.

Daughter of Swords - Dawnbreaker (Bella Union and Inertia Music)

Daughter of Swords is singer-songwriter Alexandra Sauser-Monnig. Following a 10-year hiatus from making music, Sauser-Monnig returned to music to process a breakup that had yet to happen, recognising a partnership that had drifted into indecision and stagnation; lamenting the inevitable loss, yet recognising the promise of the future. The result is a drifting, delicate and hazy album of contemplative, confessional folk music.

Beak> - 'Life Goes On' EP (Invada)

The Bristol based act featuring Geoff Barrow of Portishead, releases a short, sharp and at times unsettling collection of Krautrock-inspired ambient electronic music embedded with fuzzy guitars and industrial vocals.

Chinatown Slalom - Who Wants to be a Millionaire (September Recordings/23)

The debut record by Liverpudlians Chinatown Slalom is a glitchy, experimental, and ultimately extremely catchy collection of pop music, stuffed with samples and glitter reminiscent of The Avalanches more manic moments.