Australian Music Is Bloody Great: Tjaka

Where do you hear great new Australian music these days? Community radio is one crucial outlet and Amrap – the Australian Music Radio Airplay Project - offers Australian musicians a pathway to airplay from the hundreds of community stations to a weekly listenership of nearly 6,000,000 people. Go to amrap.org.au to get your music to thousands of presenters using the site each month to find new Australian music. If you haven’t got your music on Amrap, what are you waiting for? Community radio uses Amrap to source Australian music for airplay. You can discover all the great Australian music championed by community radio on the Community Radio Plus App, featuring the diverse range of community radio stations nationwide in one handy spot!

Amrap’s national radio show Australian Music Is Bloody Great features Australian artists presenting their favourite recent Australian music. Australian Music Is Bloody Great’s previous hosts range from Dune Rats to Sampa The Great to Phil Jameison.

We’re proud to team up with Amrap to bring you Australian Music Is Bloody Great as a Pilerats feature!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This article originally appeared on amrap.org.au
Written by Cameron Menegoni

Coming out of Meanjin (Brisbane), Tjaka create a groundbreaking new blend of a electronic and hip-hop fusion while proudly wearing their Aboriginal ancestral influences on their sleeve. Off the back of some well received BIGSOUND showcases and a live performance on 4ZZZ for Sounds Like Community Radio, Tjaka are gearing up to drop their biggest two singles to date. Geoff from Tjaka joined us recently on Australian Music Is Bloody Great to take us through their current favorite Australian tunes.

Garrangali Band - Tongues Of The Fire

This song, Tongues Of The Fire is from Garrangali Band up in East Arhem Land in Baniyala. This song is very high energy, there’s beautiful harmonies there from the brothers and you can also hear the Yidaki (didgeridoo) which I love hearing in these songs. This recording gives you a sense of seeing them live which I haven’t done yet, but it’s definitely on the list.

Jungaji - Pilbara Man

The next track is Pilbara man by Jungaji from Meanjin. Little fun fact  - Jungaji (formerly known as Troy Brady or to me, Uncle Troy) played many gigs with my Dad, Tjupurru, over the years and I got to hear them rehearse all the time when I was living at home with Mum and Dad. This is very new and fresh release from early August and I hope you like it as much as I do.

Miiesha - Skin Deep

The next song is by Miiesha. She’s from a little town called Woorabinda in Central Queensland. The song I’ve chosen is off her recent EP called Smoke & Mirrors and the track is called Skindeep. I chose this one because I love the production, it really shows off the range of her amazing vocals and you really hear the emotion of her storytelling through this track.

DENNI - Could Be

Earlier this year my band Tjaka got the opportunity to go to Dark Mofo to play, which is in Tasmania. We got to meet sister-girl Denni, she’s the artist of this next track that I’ve chosen and it’s called Could Be, which was released late last year. I really like all the different elements in this one, specifically her vocals and the guitar. There’s a lot of cool things happening in this song, and it’s hard not to bop your head to this too.

Sachém - How It Be

From Tasmania, all the way back to home in Meanjin is brother-man rapper Sachem with a new EP called The Bigger Picture. I’m a big hip hop tragic and this song is called How It Be. Amazing production, spitting fire – spitting bars, and I think you’ll like this one.