Review by: Lauren Sherritt
Bec Plath’s debut solo EP Unrequited is the kind that sells live gig tickets. To put it plainly, this young woman has guts, a trait she showcases most beautifully on the record. With an honesty so often lacking in modern day song writing, Plath bravely explores to a remarkable extent the story of her life and herself throughout Unrequited, and compels the listener to come along for the journey.
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Category Archives: cd review
CD Review: The Kill Devil Hills – ‘Man, You Should Explode’ LP
Review: Lana Harris
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When writing about The Kill Devil Hills, it’s pretty much de rigueur to use a variety of swampy, country folk and blues inspired words. Press releases and journalists alike reference cowboys, hard drinking, and the southern USA when writing about this West Australian band. So it’s not enough for me to say that Man, You Should Explode (their 3rd full length release) is a mature recording. |
To maintain the desert inspired linguistic sentiments …The Kill Devil Hills have ripened into the sun wizened, rifle cradling old man on the front porch, dispensing wisdom as freely as he spews forth obscenities to those who dare trespass on his land…
The album opens with two sing along tracks, ‘It’s Easy When You Don’t Know How’ and ‘Cockfighter’ which, with it’s one word chorus and short punkish riffs, was a favourite at their recent Brisbane show. These two tracks are fun and tight, ballsy, and set up an expectation of more of the same for the rest of the album. But with track 3, ‘I Don’t Think This Shit Can Last Much Longer’, the Kill Devil Hills turn inward. This is a gentle, emotive and introspective track. ‘Rosalie’ is similarly paced – moving, dark and beautiful, reminiscent of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds’ ballads. ‘The White Lady’ continues along the same tracks, drawing on the minor scales and bringing melancholic aspects.
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CD Review: Buick Six – Common Arms EP
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Review: Lana Harris
Despite the never-ending death and birth cycle of live venues, amid licensing restrictions and noise curfews, bedrooms and garages on both sides of the Brisbane river continue to deliver quality acts to the Australian music scene. Buick Six owe their beginnings to the soggy grounds of 2007’s Splendour in the Grass festival. By 2008, a debut EP had appeared which captured the force of Buick Six’s Brisbane based gigging through live recording. |
Their new EP, Common Arms, is garage rock at its dirty, window shaking best. It is only their second release, but the songs on the record sound like the outpourings of a band well used to working and recording together. Guitar work throughout is excellent. The overall feel of the record is urgent, potent, bursting – an achievement to capture on a recording, and suggesting that when viewed live, Buick Six would be a sonic explosion of grinding, grungy rock. The simple bass-guitar-drums line up works in their favour, a pure outlet for their untamed energy left uncomplicated by extra musicians or fussy elements.
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CD Review: The Break – ‘Cylinders’ Single
Review: Lana Harris
The Break was formed from three of the previously in-your-face-political pub rockers Midnight Oil (Rob Hirst, Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey) plus the bassist (Brian Ritchie) from the grungy, always a bit teen-angst Violent Femmes. The love child spawned is nothing like its parents. Instead, it is a fun loving, apolitical coast dweller called The Break.
‘Cylinders’ is the pre release, first impression of the new creation. What is presented is a three and a half minute instrumental surf rock track. Surf rock? If you have ever seen a movie with teens at a beach shack party, circa 1960’s, you’ve heard surf rock. Remember ‘Wwwwwwwwipeout!’ Surf rock. It was repopularised for a while in the 1990’s – the opening credits to Pulp Fiction are overlaid with a revamped version of surf rock in the form of song ‘Misirlou’ and put the genre back into the population’s consciousness.
The Break’s postmillennial take on the genre has a heavier, deeper feel. Darkness washes across the laid back and loose vibes from the sixties, as though a man with sinister intentions is hiding amongst the palms that surround the beach shack party. There is a strong energy to the track, which explodes in your face like salt spray from a crashing wave. The Break thump straight into up-tempo, driving, full band participating music that ebbs and swells as the song progresses. The beach theme and vibes will continue with debut album Church of the Open Sky (released by Bombora Records) promising to be a mostly instrumental surf rock record with tracks named after famous surf breaks.
– The Break available at iTunes
– Midnight Oil available at iTunes
– Violent Femmes available at iTunes
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CD Review: Angus and Julia Stone – Down The Way
Review: Elena Gomez
Down The Way, second album from beloved folksy duo Angus & Julia Stone, sees the siblings put on their Producer hats and travel the globe, touring and recording with the likes of Martha Wainwright and Brad Albetta. They’ve sacrificed their memorable melodies and the arc that seemed to form their debut album, A Book Like This. But what they lose in melodious offerings, they make up in having a much more polished sound. Where A Book Like This was a home movie filmed in sepia, filled with character-forming crackles and perfect imperfections, Down The Way has been steered more professionally. Its homey elements are still present but they have been muted.
– Angus & Julia Stone available at iTunes
The album opens with “Hold On”, in Julia’s fragile voice, and it’s clear from this point that the energy has been amplified, possibly a result of having a three year gap to progress and grow in their sound. There are lulls and swells in Down The Way that make for less passive listening. A little less of ‘round the campfire with last pair of clean undies’ and a bit more of ‘coasty road trip in a car with air-con and an icy-pole’.
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CD Review: The Boat People – Soporific Single
Review: Lana harris
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This second single release from The Boat People is just as surprising as the first single ‘Echo Stick Guitars’ was. ‘Echo Stick Guitars’ showed an electronic, hip-hop side of the Brisbane based quartet. Anticipation and assumptions regarding future singles led to thinking that more of the same would naturally follow. Thwarting expectations, ‘Soporific’ is nothing like its predecessor. ‘Soporific’ is an aptly named track, mellow, laid back indie pop |
with words that had me reaching for the dictionary a couple of times. A break from the lyrics, where guitarist Charles Dugan is given the limelight and solos forth, allows his technical capabilities to shine and gives the track a more complex feel.
The single comes with two B-sides, ‘Flower Water’ and ‘Stereo Pair’. ‘Flower Water’ flows even gentler than ‘Soporific’. It’s a song about waiting for someone who has left, and the questioning and emptiness that comes with it. The music echoes the lyrical content. It is instrumentally sparse, delicate, imbibed with cascading electronic tinkling through the chorus.
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CD Review: Scott Spark – Kathleen EP
Review by: Lana Harris
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Celestes are not only a group of divine girls but also the name given to a small set of orchestral bells played via a keyboard mechanism. Typically used in orchestras, the use of one in a pop song suggests a performer who knows his keys – and Scott Spark is a man who knows his keys. His second EP release, Kathleen, credits five different types of keyboard instruments, including the Celeste and a toy piano – imagine what this man’s music room must look like! The sounds generated by Spark are explored within the boundaries of indie pop, with unique touches added by his technical piano abilities and the gathering of a wide variety of instruments and performers to round out his music. |