Review: The Unthanks - Diversions Vol. 1

An album review for Beat magazine, originally published in issue #1304

The Unthanks - Diversions Vol. 1: The Songs of Robert Wyatt and Antony & The Johnsons (Rough Trade, 2011)

How do you finish a banner year after releasing a critically-acclaimed sophomore record? Well, if you’re contemporary folk act The Unthanks, by releasing a live album of covers, of course. An eclectic one at that.

Doing exactly what it says on the tin, Diversions is an unedited audio document of a one-off performance at the Union Chapel in London, in which the baroque five-piece lend their considerable voices and delicate playing to tributing two maverick singer-songwriters. It’s a warts-and-all account, even including their affable between-song banter, thick with the group’s Northumberland accents.

Review: Penguin Café - A Matter Of Life

An album review for Beat magazine, originally published in issue #1304

Penguin Café - A Matter Of Life (Independent, 2011)

Embracing the torch passed down from his father Simon, Arthur Jeffes carries on the musical legacy laid out by his dad’s own musical collective Penguin Café Orchestra. Though he drops the ‘orchestra’ label, Jeffes Jr.’s own instrumental compositions are no less lush or collaborative. Even without a background in the typically highbrow realm of modern classical, A Matter of Life’s minimalist styling is completely accessible, and is its greatest strength.

Battles - Live @ The Forum (Big Day Out Sideshow), Jan 28

The following is a review originally published and syndicated for Hitz 247, reproduced in its entirety here.

The best way to describe the colossal rhythmic power of a Battles concert is to watch the sea of heads. There’s people bobbing and dancing, others prefer metronomic nodding, while some go for straight-up headbanging. The clinch? It’s all at once and it all makes sense.

Touring as part of the Big Day Out, Battles’ strength as a live unit makes them a reliable festival act, but it’s at sideshows like these that their titanic experimental rock is allowed to unfurl. Flanked by a wall of amps, two glowing video panels mimic a burning sunrise as the trio lope onstage and begin structuring the opening of Africastle. It soon crashes to life, built on visceral syncopations and mean polyrhythms, their instrumental collision of computer precision and processing with a propensity for shattering grooves is both thrilling and occasionally baffling. You often wonder what sounds are being made and how they’re making them, but they’re definitely playing them. Loud.

Introducing... Grimes

If there's one thing the music world loves, it's a kook (cue: Bowie's Kooks) and in more recent times none more-so than the female variant. Enter Canadian Claire Boucher, a performance and visual artist whose time in a bourgeoning DIY scene resulted in the birth of Grimes. A solo musical project she describes as "a quest for the ultimate sensual, mystical and cathartic experience and the vehicle for my psychic purging." You don't get that with Rihanna.

'Just Don't Call Him A DJ' An Interview with Girl Talk

This is an interview I did with Girl Talk for Pedestrian.TV in the lead-up to the Big Day Out, reproduced here in its entirety for the dedicated Ranters amongst you. 

There would be few artists who would forgive a hungover interviewer like mash-up maestro Girl Talk, particularly when the cause is a celebratory night on the town after seeing Steely Dan.

“Oh! Were they good? They’re a cool band, they’ve done so much great stuff. I have sampled some drums, not melodies or anything, just some subtle stuff. One of my favourite samples is from them, used by Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz [whose 1997 hit Déjà vu samples 1977 Aja opener Black Cow]. That is one of the coolest samples and they worked it so well, in my top 20 samples in hip-hop music of all time.”

Even casual conversation with Gillis makes evident his encyclopedic knowledge of popular music and giddy enthusiasm for its potential use and celebratory power - something that anyone who has heard his dazzling pop alchemy or seen one of his gigs-come-party-raves can attest to. And let’s be honest, that’s an ever- quotient of people. If you’ve got an internet connection, you know Girl Talk.

'I Know They're Gonna Love It' Review: The Darcys - Aja

Steely Dan fans can be a fussy lot, but when it comes to covers and tributes, they’re also a starved lot. There’s probably a fairly good reason for this, less to do with their brand of seventies soft-rock falling out of vogue and more to do with the sound musical knowledge it takes to tackle Donald Fagen and Walter Becker’s imposing catalogue; that, and some major chutzpah. As it turns out, Canadian band The Darcys aren’t lacking in either.

Happy Australia Day: A-Z of Australiana

Just a random collection of Australian artists and songs to enjoy on our national day