The Church "Hologram of Baal" (1998)

Hologram of Baal

release date: Sep. 8, 1998

format: cd

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,66]

producer: The Church

label: Cooking Vinyl - nationality: Australia

*Track highlights: 1. "Anaesthesia" - 2. "Ricochet" - 3. "Louisiana" (official video, short version) - 4. "The Great Machine" - 5. "No Certainty Attached" - 6. "Tranquility" - 7. "Buffalo" - 8. "This Is It" - 9. "Another Earth" - 10. "Glow-Worm"

*[all tracks]

11th studio album by The Church (formally, it's the band's tenth but in retrospect Steve Kilbey regards it as the eleventh as he includes the '97 album, released under the name of The Refo:mation, as an album by The Church). The line-up here include Steve Kilbey, Peter Koppes, Marty Willson-Piper, and Tim Powles. The album basically follows the acclaimed Magician Among the Spirits from 1996; however, as Koppes left the band back in '92 after the release of Priest = Aura due to disagreements with Kilbey and Willson-Piper, the remainders continued until '97 as a trio of Kilbey, Koppes, and Tim Powles, who then released Pharmakoi / Distance-Crunching Honchos with Echo Units as The Refo:mation - a unit without Willson-Piper, which at the time made Kilbey suggest another band name. Subsequently, Kilbey, who had tired from internal struggles decided that The Church should release just one more album before finally disbanding. The band then embarked on a farewell tour in Australia, which was surprisingly quite successful, and the grand finale in Sydney convinced all members to give it another shot in the studio. For the first time, they found themselves in full control of the production assisted by the band's new drummer Tim Powles, and with powless at the helm as sound engineer and mixer, they combined the band's original strengths with a new distinctive set of traits. Powles is also mentioned in several places as the person who managed to shelve old internal tensions between Kilbey, Koppes, and Willson-Piper and have them all look ahead. The album was released in Australia on the label Festival Records, in Europe on Cooking Vinyl, and for the North American market by Thirsty Ear and True North. After the release, the band went on their first world tour for many years, which led the group to New York, where Kilbey was arrested and sentenced to community service for buying heroin.

The album generally garnered positive reviews and it remains one of the band's more coherent studio albums, which clearly wins for a special feeling for a whole cast rather than individual strong compositions. There are no fillers and the 'featured highlights' above showcase all ten tracks.

[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]

org. Australian cover

The Refo:mation "Pharmakoi / Distance-Crunching Honchos..." (1997)

Pharmakoi / Distance-Crunching Honchos... [debut]

release date: 1997

format: digital

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,58]

producer: The Refo:mation

label: Phantom Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 2. "Don't Move" - 5. "All See It Now" - 10. "Get Over It" - 11. "Take Your Place" - 14. "Stop"

1st and only album by The Refo:mation, whose full title is Pharmakoi / Distance-Crunching Honchos with Echo Units may almost be considered the tenth studio album by The Church, but there is a particular reason why the album isn't only credited the better-known band. After the critically acclaimed but financially disastrous Magician Among the Spirits (Aug. 1996) both Steve Kilbey and Marty Willson-Piper were preoccupied by their own solo careers as well as collaborative projects, and they remained physically separated as both Kilbey, Peter Koppes, and Tim Powles were in Australia, while Willson-Piper was living in Sweden busy saving recordings for the fifth album by All About Eve, which in '97 was released under the title of Seeing Stars, but he was also writing songs for several artists in '96 and therefore couldn't find time for Australia nor The Church, which is why Kilbey, Koppes, and Powles decided to release these new tracks under the project name of The Refo:mation.

Stylistically, the band has moved more into an electrified rock sphere, as a counterpart to the more experimental '96 album. Powles' technical skills as a sound engineer and mixer may be heard in the production, which contributes with a more dynamic expression. However, the album points in many directions, although, you could argue there's still a subtle balance, and despite the fact that this release doesn't fall directly into the back-catalog by The Church, there is no doubt that the group has found new paths with this album, which later will may found on the albums Hologram of Baal (1998) and After Everything Now This (2002) by The Church. And in this way, the album stands in many ways as a transitional album by The Church and it also explains why Kilbey include this album in the band's discography.

Steve & Russell P. Kilbey "Gilt Trip" (1997)

Gilt Trip [debut]

release date: May 9, 1997

format: digital (2005 reissue)

[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,18]

producer: Russell P. Kilbey

label: Karmic Hit - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Gilt Trip" - 2. "The Onset" - 3. "Tragic Mandarin Love Story" - 4. "Eyes Smeared With the Ointment of Love" - 9. "Happy Endings"

1st studio album collaboration by brothers Steve & Russell P. Kilbey, originally released on Vicious Sloth Collectables, in 2005 reissued on Kilbey's own label Karmic Hit. The album consists exclusively of instrumental compositions composed by the brothers - composed together or alone. The two Kilbeys play all instruments, except on "Tragic Mandarin Love Story", which is the only uptempo composition to feature both violinist Linda Neil and drummer Tim Powles (of The Church).

Musically, it is a type of 'soundtrack' to a non-existent film. It's ambient and atmospheric with an almost organic tone, and some tracks are progressive minimalism, and in some ways the album ties to Steve Kilbey's second solo album Earthed (1987), which also reflects some of the same soundtrack quality.

The two brothers subsequently issued several releases and later founded the project Gilt Trip, but here they have released their first collaboration under their own names, which has its qualities.

Steve Kilbey "Narcosis +" (1997)

Narcosis +

release date: Feb. 1, 1997

format: digital (11 x File, FLAC) (reissue)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,42]

producer: Steve Kilbey

label: self-release - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Somna" - 2. "Limbo" - 6. "The Egyptian" - 7. "Midnite in America" - 8. "Linda Wong" - 9. "Double Exposure"

5th studio album or 'only' an ep re-issue with bonus tracks, or a compilation? The Narcosis EP was released Jan. '92 as a 5-track EP and was Kilbey's final release on Red Eye Records in Australia. In '97 the album was re-issued on Vicious Sloth Collectables under the title Narcosis +, consisting of nine tracks, and then in 2004 released as Narcosis + More with twelve tracks, and at some point [unknown year] it became a digital self-release [this one] again under the name Narcosis + with eleven tracks, but with three new songs compared to the '97 CD version. In all cases, the first five tracks are identical to the tracks from the original ep, however, with varying content [!]. The digital self-release has a total running time of 57 minutes.

The compositions are of experimental nature and fall relatively far from contemporary releases such as the solo album Remindlessness (Jul. 1990) and the three collaboration albums Charms & Blues (Sep. '90), Vast Halos (Sep. 1990), Jack Frost (Nov./Dec '90?) and Priest = Aura (Mar. '92) by The Church. Although the added extra tracks were probably composed later than the first five, the album is nevertheless a reasonably coherent volume. There is, however, a clearer electronic touch to the newer tracks, which in the end appear to be the most elaborate, but in terms of style they are quite a close extension of the other tracks. This is Kilbey all alone and as with his compositions they go in all directions but still maintain a distinct fingerprint, and Kilbey seems to have an inexhaustible well to dip into to come up with new tracks, which always contain quality and originality.

The fron cover is a detail of the original cd-cover of Kilbey with his and Karin Jansson's twin daughters, Elektra and Miranda.

[ bandcamp ]

The Church "Magician Among the Spirits" (1996)

Magician Among the Spirits

release date: Aug. 19, 1996

format: cd

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,68]

producer: The Church & Simon Polinski

label: Deep Karma / White - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Welcome" - 2. "Comedown" - 5. "Ladyboy" - 7. "The Further Adventures of the Time Being" - 9. "Magician Among the Spirits" - 10. "Afterimage"

9th studio album by The Church released on the band's own newly formed label Deep Karma with help from Mushroom Records and sub-label White for the Australian market only. The album was released through other distributors for international and US releases and was re-released in '99 in an expanded and re-arranged edition.

Following Sometime Anywhere (May 1994) The Church were left without a record deal, but Kilbey and Wilson-Piper were still keen to continue, and together with Tim Powles, who took part in the '94 album, the three constitute the band here. Peter Koppes appears on some tracks as 'special guest star'.

On the album, the group continues the musical journey into the more experimental alt. rock they started with Priest = Aura (Mar. 1992) with a clear neo-psychedelic touch with inspiration from German krautrock and British gothic rock but also with some distance to the '94 album and it's tighter production and rhythm programming. The title is with reference to the magician, Harry Houdini - also featuring on the front cover - Houdini is also mentioned among many other famous people on the track "Welcome" and again on "The Further Adventures of the Time Being" - a track with reference to "The Time Being" from the double CD edition of the '94 album. The themes are typical Kilbey-universe, the metaphysical and the spiritual, and the compositions are once again relatively long - varying from four to fourteen minutes, but typically more than five minutes long and thus far from radio-friendly sizes.

With this, The Church cements the transition from mainstream pop / rock to the alternative arena and at the same time it's also a testimony that the group composes and makes music for their own interests rather than commercial reward. The album was (as usual) met by positive reviews, but unfortunately spawned new financial difficulties as the band had set up their own label in order to release the album at all, however, collaboration deals with US distributors going bankrupt meant no profit from all sales in North America, and the band soon found itself more than ever on the brink of a disbandment.

The album appears as one of the group's artistic highlights and follows closely in the wake of the fine '92 album - nice to know of.

[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]

Jack Frost "Snow Job" (1995)

Snow Job

release date: 1995

format: digital

[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,06]

producer: Steve Kilbey

label: Karmic Hit - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Jack Frost Blues" - 5. "You Don't Know" - 6. "Weightless and Wild" - 8. "Cousin / Angel"

2nd studio album by the duo-project Jack Frost consisting of Steve Kilbey (of The Church) and Grant McLennan (formerly The Go-Betweens) following three years after the self-titled debut. The project had lived on for a short period of time in '93 after which the two members went back to their own material. Since then, McLennan released his double album Horsebreaker Star (Dec. '94) and Kilbey has only just been released from the label Arista after the unsuccesful Somewhere Anytime (May '94) by The Church. So in early '95 the two found time to revive their common project. And very much to the same procedure as they launched with the debut, they didn't spend hours in writing and composing songs but more or less brought up ideas and recorded tracks in the studio - much according to the spontaneous songwriting and composing approach utilised by Kilbey at this point of his career. The duo has written and composed 13 tracks and they are assisted by Kilbey's brother Russell credited on organ, backing vocals and as sound engineer, and together with drummer Tim Powles of The Church they are the performing musicians on the album.

Compared to the debut, this is a looser type of album and it ultimately appears as a more incoherent whole. Gone are the jangle-pop and indie pop bits and pieces from the debut, which also pointed in a bunch of directions, but instead of showcasing diferent styles for individual tracks, Snow Job is mostly one huge mix of styles carrying stronger traits of the solo works by Kilbey, and it's simply difficult to sense a presence of and contributions from McLennan. Both McLennan and Kilbey were at this point using heavy drugs, and several songs may refer to their experiences with drugs, e.g. "Aviatrix", "Running From the Body", "Weightless and Wild" and "Haze".

Much like the debut, the album didn't attract much attention, and the project was soon put to a halt.

McLennan produced and played guitar on his sister, Sally McLennan's self-titled and only album from '96 (also with partecipation of Tim Powles and Russell Kilbey) before continuing his solo career and initiating what would result in his fourth and final solo album In Your Bright Ray (1997). Steve Kilbey also returned to his solo career but also began writing songs for the upcoming ninth studio album by The Church, Magician Among the Spirits (1997).

Not recommended.

The Church "Sometime Anywhere" (1994)

Sometime Anywhere

release date: May 31, 1994

format: cd

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,44]

producer: The Church & (Andy) Dare Mason

label: Arista Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Day of the Dead" - 2. "Lost My Touch" - 3. "Loveblind" - 4. "My Little Problem" - 5. "The Maven" - 9. "Two Places at Once" - 10. "Business Woman"

8th studio album by The Church released two years after the significant change in style with Priest = Aura (Mar. 1992) may have been released under the moniker of The Church, but a lot has changed since the rock-solid quartet of Kilbey, Koppes, Wilson-Piper, and Ploog released the international breakthrough album Starfish in 1988. The record company was in control when shaping the sound on Gold Afternoon Fix (Feb. 1990), and with the daring '92 album, you saw the first cracks in a quartet that had only been on a rise since the beginning of the 80s. The drummer was replaced, and then guitarist Peter Koppes left after the 1990 album - and for a time he formed the band The Well together with Richard Ploog, among others, and both Kilbey and Wilson-Piper were busy on their own music projects. Wilson-Piper played in the band All About Eve and Kilbey had started the collaboration Jack Frost with Grant McLennan from the Go-Betweens, so that The Church still existed really could be seen as the last convulsions. Arista still stood behind Kilbey and Wilson-Piper, even though the band was in some sort of disbandment. When it turned out that neither new drummer Daugherty wanted to continue, Kilbey and Wilson-Piper met alone and took advantage of having more freedom to shape the music they wanted. In this way, Sometime Anywhere is the result of a new perspective on music created with bold use of drum machine and synths, although there is also room for traditional drums - here played by Tim Powles, who later ended up as a permanent member of the new formation of The Church and he who also features on the second Jack Frost album Snow Job (1995).

Although the album is largely created through improvs and experimentation in the studio, it appears tighter and on the one hand as more closely connected to the band's previous albums than as a direct continuation of the looser Priest = Aura - and on the other hand, it appears as a mix of the band's previous characteristics and by doing so actually addresses the '92 album - or: somewhere in between. Sometime Anywhere has a duration of approx. 77 min. - something close to the absolute maximum for CD releases, and most tracks have a playing length that challenge the traditional three minutes in popular music. Also, there is no focus on single hits, and only one single was chosen for single release: the song "Two Places at Once", which has not charted on any singles charts. Despite positive reviews, the album didn't perform well, and it became the band's final with Arista, who by then no longer saw potential in the band's music.

Unlike the band's previous album, I actually acquired the album when it came out. After a single listen, I thought the band was once again embarking on an exciting development. Afterwards, I didn't listen to it that much - I found it a bit unstructured, but still with a certain originality, although, I could also found it had the touch of a special production, not far removed from U2's Achtung Baby (1991).

In retrospect, the album hasn't aged as one of the band's best, but it's part of the new improvisational approach Kilbey established in the early 90s and which he has since continued in the many musical projects he has been involved in.

[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 4 / 5, Q Magazine 3 / 5 stars ]

The Church "Priest = Aura" (1992)

Priest = Aura
release date: Mar. 10, 1992
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,78]
producer: The Church & Gavin MacKillop
label: Arista Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Aura" - 2. "Ripple" - 3. "Paradox" - 4. "Lustre" - 5. "Swan Lake" - 6. "Feel" - 8. "Kings" - 11. "The Disillusionist" - 13. "Chaos" - 14. "Film"

7th studio album by The Church following two years after Gold Afternoon Fix (Feb. 1990) and after some time spent rethinking the band's musical direction is a reasonably long affair with fourteen tracks and a total running length of 65 minutes. Drummer Richard Ploog had left the band after the 1990 album and Jay Dee Daugherty, of the Patti Smith Group, had been a substitute on the subsequent tour, and he has now officially become a member of a band who faced another problem as the band's guitarist, Peter Koppes decided to leave The Church just as the album had been finished. However, Koppes agreed to stick around long enough for the end of the band's subsequent tour. Apparently, Koppes had long felt redundant in the creative process, with Steve Kilbey and Marty Wilson-Piper mostly taking control of all relevant decisions.

With the album, we are talking about a decidedly stylistic U-turn, a significant denial of the mainstream appeal the group previously felt pushed into and that's something which clearly separates this one from all of the band's most recent three albums. In relation to the longer-lasting musical quartet called The Church, this album actually marks the end to just that.

With clear neo-psychedelic and experimental tendencies with ambient elements, the release was met with lukewarm reviews and a commercial success that was the appropriate echo. Over time, however, the album has gained a completely different status as something of a game-changer and nothing less than a significant cornerstone in the band's entire discography.

Admittedly, I also dismissed the album myself at the time, just as the majority of critics did in the immediate aftermath of its release, but over the past decades I've bowed in the dust and finally realized the qualities it truly contains. Despite being formed in a time when the band's primary songwriter, Steve Kilbey, found solace in heroin, at a time when he and Marty Wilson-Piper's compositions were heavily inspired by free association and studio improvs - something that must also be seen in contrast to the label's earlier interference in the musical process - in that light, the album actually sounds much of a unified whole, containing many fine compositions. The song "Chaos" (with a length of more than 9 mins.) - reportedly with reference to Kilbey's life situation at the time - may be seen as an example of the new initiatives in relation to songwriting.

Imho, this album is no less than the band's best since the compilation Remote Luxury (1984) - and since Seance (Jun. 1983) when speaking pure studio albums.

Fine recommendation.

[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone Album Guide 4 / 5, Entertainment Weekly 4,5 / 5, Rolling Stone 2 / 5 stars ]

Jack Frost "Jack Frost" (1990)

Jack Frost [debut]
release date: Nov. / Dec. 1990 (?)
format: digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,56]
producer: Steve Kilbey
label: Arista Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Every Hour God Sends" - 4. "Geneva 4 a.m." - 6. "Providence" - 7. "Thought That I Was Over You" - 8. "Threshold" - 9. "Number Eleven" - 12. "Ramble"

Studio album debut from Australian duo-project Jack Frost founded by Steve Kilbey (front figure of The Church) and Grant McLennan (one of the main composers and lead vocalists of The Go-Betweens). The name of the project refers to the pseudonym Bob Dylan used as a producer on his latest album Under the Red Sky (1990) released a few months earlier. The story behind this perhaps uneasy pairing is that Kilbey reportedly contacted McLennan in Jul. 1990, at a time when, half a year earlier, McLennan and Robert Forster had decided to end 'their' band, The Go-Betweens. Both had then begun their respective solo careers, and Kilbey, on the other hand, had found himself in a personal crisis with obvious conflicts within The Church, and he went through a strained relationship with the group's record label, Arista, who had pushed the band's progress in a more commercial direction, although the band itself had other ideas in relation to its musical development.

The most recent album by The Church, Gold Afternoon Fix (Feb. '90) didn't turn out as succesfully as the band, and probably especially the record company, had expected. McLennan was in a position where he had ended his first and only band, a decision and an aftermath that sent him into an emotional slump when his girlfriend Amanda Brown subsequently ended their relationship. So, that's how Kilbey and McLennan met as two 'lost souls' and began this short-lived musical partnership, which led to this very debut and the 1995 follow-up Snow Job.

Jack Frost consists of thirteen tracks with a total running time at just under one hour. In addition to being credited as album producer, Kilbey is credited vocalist, guitarist, bassist, keyboards, and drummer, while McLennan is credited as vocalist, guitarist, and bassist. Along the way on the album, the two switch roles as lead vocalists, and they also [quite] apparently switch roles as songwriters without it being stated who wrote the individual tracks, as they are both credited all tracks.

However, it would be an obvious continuation of the practice McLennan was familiar with from his many years of pairing with Robert Forster in The Go-Betweens. While Kilbey / McLennan are songwriters and composers of all tracks, they have teamed up with Pryce Surplice, who is credited on drums, computers, and synthesizers without being an official member of the project. In addition, some other musicians participate, which includes Kilbey's (Swedish) girlfriend, Karin Jansson on backing vocals. The album was first released in Australia in late 1990 on the Red Eye Records label and later on Arista in early '91 for international releases - actually to positive reviews, but at the same time to very little commercial interest. Two singles were released: Tracks #1 and #7 released in Nov. '90 and Apr. '91, respectively.

Stylistically, the album falls in the box of alt. rock with elements from jangle-pop and neo-psychedelia as well as folk rock. It's in no way surprising that some songs bring memories of The Church while others point more in the direction of The Go-Betweens, but the two bands have always shared the jangle-pop element as a common starting point, even if Kilbey and McLennan have different starting points, when it comes to lyrical narratives but also the musical arrangements. In the simpler arrangements with classic melodic song structure, McLennan focuses on down-to-earth personal relationships centrered on family and love affairs, whereas Kilbey's songs generally are more complex in structure, focusing on cosmic ideas and mysticism. So even though they are both credited as songwriters and composers on all compositions, it's pretty obvious who is actual writer of the individual tracks. In this way, the album is anything but coherent, as in places it sound like the art of compromise, which nevertheless points in multiple directions.

Well, Jack Frost is both an interesting project and an album that hasn't gotten the attention it rightly deserves.

In later interviews, Kilbey - who has been open about his use of illicit drugs, which dates back to the beginning of The Church - has said that it was McLennan who introduced him to heroin and that his usage started during the recording of the songs for this first Jack Frost album.

The pair played some national concerts soon after its release, after which McLennan returned and concentrated on recording the tracks that would later result in his solo debut Watershed (Jun. 1990).

[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]

Hex "Vast Halos" (1990)

Vast Halos

release date: Sep. 28, 1990

format: digital

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,52]

producer: Steve Kilbey

label: self-release - nationality: USA / Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Monarch" - 3. "March" - 4. "Centaur" - 5. "Antelope" - 6. "Hollywood in Winter"

2nd and final full-length studio album by the duo Hex consisting of Donette Thayer and Steve Kilbey, also a privately formed couple. The title has only been released on CD and cassette via Rykodisc in the US and as a digital self-release in Australia. As a curiosity, the album came out at the same time when Kilbey and his (other) girlfriend, Karin Jansson, released their debut album Charms & Blues (also Sep. '90) under the name of Curious (Yellow). Vast Halos is the direct continuation of the '89 debut with more delay and bolder use of echo effects to create a stronger musical spaciousness. All tracks here are credited Thayer / Kilbey and again it's Thayer's vocals alone performing on the songs, which have been further arranged with keyboards, synthetic strings, and the vocals on this function more as musical instrumentation a bit á la Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins. Jangle-pop elements have crept in (Kilbey), but otherwise the album (again) most of all points to earlier dream pop releases of the mid-eighties.

The album garnered even better reviews than the debut, but without promotion it only sold a few copies and Hex only released one single from the album, the track "March".

During this period, Kilbey found himself at a low point with The Church, who, after bad studio experiences, had released Gold Afternoon Fix (Feb. '90) to lukewarm reviews, but Kilbey subsequently released his fourth solo album, Remindlessness (Jul. '90) and in the Summer of '90, he embarked on a new duo-project, now with Grant McLennan from the recently defunct Go-Betweens, and together the two released the debut album Jack Frost by the end of the year.

Vast Halos is quite a nicely arranged album if you are into dream pop in the darker and more moody end of the scale, where Hex leans on the same qualities as Mazzy Star with their debut She Hangs Brightly from May this year, and without being excellent, it is clearly the duo's best and most interesting outing.

[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]

Curious (Yellow) "Charms & Blues" (1990)

Charms & Blues [debut]

release date: Sep. 1990

format: digital

[album rate: 3 / 5] [2,98]

producer: Steven Kilbey

label: Red Eye Records / Polydor - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Silvia" - 2. "Taken by Surprice" - 4. "Charms and Blues" - 5. "Insomnia" - 7. "Serendipity" - 10. "Empress"

Debut album from the duo-project Curious (Yellow) consisting of Swedish vocalist Karin Jansson (formerly Pink Champagne) and boyfriend Steve Kilbey (of The Church, here credited Steven Kilbey) released on Australian Red Eye in Sep. '90, at which point Kilbey also together with his (other) girlfriend Donette Thayer later that month released the album Vast Halos under the name of Hex. For several years, Kilbey has written songs together with Jansson, which have appeared on Kilbey's solo albums or releases with The Church - among others possibly the band's biggest hit "Under the Milky Way" (1988). Curious (Yellow) is the only studio album under a name taken from the Swedish erotic film, "I Am Curious (Yellow)" from '67 by Vilgot Sjöman. 'Coincidentially', a plot in the film is that of a female protagonist who finds out that her new boyfriend is also seing another woman. In the late eighties, Kilbey was in a relationship with Jansson, with whom he had twin daughters and from '88 (with Jansson's knowledge) he also formed a couple with Donette Thayer for a few years.

Musically, the most obvious connection is to Kilbey and Thayer's musical project Hex and its debut album from '89. Charms & Blues is dream pop / indie pop carried in a simple style, which may remind a little of Cardigans meets Cranberries. Kilbey is not quite as prominent in the sound image and on the composition side as he is in Hex or for that matter in the band The Church and in Jack Frost. Most of all, it appears like Jansson's project, which Kilbey supports with his know-how and ability as a producer. He plays on some tracks, he has written two tracks and composed the music on three of the album's eleven tracks in total, but Jansson participates on all songs and she has written nine songs and composed the music on three tracks. In addition to the two main actors, Pryce Surplice also participates as an instrumentalist and composer - he also plays together with Kilbey and McLennan in the duo-project Jack Frost.

Charms & Blues is mostly interesting as one of Kilbey's many releases, but it's not on par with the music from Kilbey's other side projects, nor with the music Kilbey and Thayer released under the Hex moniker.

Steve Kilbey "Remindlessness" (1990)

Remindlessness
release date: Jul. 15, 1990
format: digital (2002 remaster)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,38]
producer: Steve Kilbey
label: Karmic Hit - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 2. "Vanishing Act" - 3. "Life's Little Luxuries" - 5. "The Amphibian" - 6. "Random Pan" - 7. "Pain in My Temples" - 9. "Goliath" - 14. "Music From Commercial for 'Eternity Inc.' " / "No Such Thing" - 16. "Remindlessness"

4th solo album from The Church frontman Steve Kilbey, originally released as a double vinyl lp on Red Eye Records - in 2002 released on the small label Karmic Hit (founded in '92 by Steve and his younger brother John Kilbey). The album is an 18-track release with a total running length of just over 78 minutes. Most of the songs are written and composed by Steve alone, and the material leans closely to the latest studio albums from The Church - a bit of a contrast to other of his more experimental solo releases. The reason for a closer bond with the material from The Church could be the band's dissatisfaction with the studio recordings for their latest album, Gold Afternoon Fix (Feb '90), where the record company interfered in the artistic decisions surrounding the creation of the album - and perhaps Remindlessness therefore could indicate a style of music, which Kilbey & Co. actually were looking for had they been offered more freedom in the studio.

I don't think that the album here is significantly better than the band's 1990 album, but Kilbey's solo releases are undoubtedly less mainstream and the album here represents a stronger independent expression with loans from The Church and its many sources of inspiration. It doesn't contain any obvious hits nor any sing-a-long material, and it's clear that Kilbey at this point has some years behind him since the early jangle pop days with the first albums with The Church.

Musically, the new compositions are somewhat more complex and the lyrical side is the continued focus on universal human subjects and thoughts about existentialism. And to finish the comparison with the latest release from the band The Church, Kilbey's solo album wins in the long run because you never stop discovering new details with each new listen of these rather complex and diverse tracks.

After this, Kilbey contacted musician Grant McLennan of The Go-Betweens and together they founded the joint project, Jack Frost.

The Church "Gold Afternoon Fix" (1990)

from top to bottom:
Koppes, Kilbey, Ploog, Piper

Gold Afternoon Fix
release date: Feb. 22, 1990
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,32]
producer: Waddy Wachtel & The Church
label: Arista Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Pharoah" - 2. "Metropolis" - 3. "Terra Nova Cain" - 4. "City" - 5. "Monday Morning" - 6. "Russian Autumn Heart" - 9. "Disappointment" - 10. "Transient" - 11. "Laughing"

6th studio album by The Church released almost two years after the international breakthrough album Starfish (Apr. '88) and the band's second album on Arista. With the same producer, the company has made attempts to ensure that The Church would follow roughly the same approach and repeat the success, although, the band reportedly had expressed a desire to work with Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones to avoid similar negative experiences as adjacent during the recordings for the '88 album. Needless say, record companies are in a position of immense power and controlling recording settings. Internal conflicts led to the band's exclusion of drummer Richard Ploog after the album's release (apparently due to uncontrollable substance abuse) - some tracks were recorded with drum programming; yet Ploog is credited as the drummer.

Having followed the band from the beginning, this was my first real disappointment with their new music. My understanding was that the band had made a clear decision to make music with a wider appeal with their previous album, but upon hearing them try to repeat the success of music that was so close to the same output, didn't make things much better. With this, I gradually tired of the music by The Church, although, I still saw them as having unfulfilled potential - and the album is certainly not without fine moments, and the knowledge of their previous releases also made me continue to listen to the band, even though most often it was their older albums. With producer Wachtel at the helm here, you see the band playing large-scale tracks with heavy arrangements obviously adapted to satisfy the American market - it provides me with the image of being a driver of a mobile home on an American highway. It's no longer a question of being original or innovating - but what's left is the task of forging while the iron is still hot.

Gold Afternoon Fix was met by positive reviews, but it didn't quite reach the expected sales figures. The album peaked at No. #66 on the US Billboard 200 and at No. #12 in Australia, which isn't bad after all. The problem was that the band had seen better chart positions and that they were left with a negative experience with studio recordings and by being residents in Los Angeles. Richard Ploog left the group after this album and he was replaced for the upcoming live tour by Jay Dee Daugherty (of Patti Smith).

[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]

Hex "Hex" (1989)

Hex [debut]

release date: Jun. 27, 1989

format: vinyl (FIEND 156) / digital

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,26]

producer: Steve Kilbey

label: Demon / First Warning - nationality: USA / Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Diviner" - 3. "Ethereal Message" - 4. "Mercury Towers" - 6. "Fire Island" - 7. "In the Net" - 8. "Silvermine"

Studio debut album by music duo-project Hex, founded by Australian vocalist, bassist, and composer Steve Kilbey (of The Church) with American guitarist Donette Thayer (of the band Game Theory) at a time when they were also a couple. The album was initially only released in the US on the smaller BMG-owned label, First Warning Records and in 1990 also in the UK by Demon Records. In parallel, Kilbey also formed the music project Curious (Yellow) with (other) girlfriend Karin Jansson and together they released the 12'' single, "I Am Curios" (Mar. '88).

In addition to dream pop, the music is also referred to as ethereal wave - a subcategory of dream pop, where the focus is on the more slowly progressive with the use of delay effect. Musically, it is further away from Kilbey's normal compositions, where the jangle-pop element is completely absent and instead replaced by keyboards and then all tracks are recorded with Thayer's vocals.

The album garnered good reviews, but it doesn't really catch on and to me it sounds more like inspired by earlier 80s bands like Cocteau Twins, This Mortail Coil and other 4AD / Creation artists, mainly from the British Isles. Thayer's vocals may sound quite narrow and without the big register, but at the same time it has a charm and warm tone that fits well with the genre and style. All in all, it's nice and fine, but it's not exactly ground-breaking music that you need to know of.

The Church "Starfish" (1988)

Starfish
release date: Feb. 16, 1988
format: vinyl / 2 cd (2005 remaster)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,54]
producer: Greg Ladanyi, Waddy Wachtel & The Church
label: Arista Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Destination" - 2. "Under the Milky Way" - 4. "Lost" - 6. "Spark" - 8. "Reptile"

5th studio album by The Church following a little more than two years after Heyday (Nov. '85) and released on Mushroom in Australia and Arista Records for international releases. Apparently, "Starfish" was Kilbey's nickname for Donette Thayer [guitarist in the band Game Theory, 1986-89], with whom he partly formed the music project Hex in '88 and also paired with - while at the same time still pairing with Karin Jansson.

According to Steve Kilbey the recordings for the album were a rather negative experience, where the band had wanted to make an album that sounded more like live recordings - approaching something immediate and present, but Kilbey, who was the only granted access to the producer's room, was informed that they only did what they were hired to do, and instead, the group was left with an album sounding very different from what they had wanted. At yes, the sound is far from live atmosphere and instead it's been created with grandiose and a voluminous sound. Still, the reception of the album was positive among critics and it sold quite well. Starfish landed at number #11 on the Australian charts and entered top 50 at number #41 in the US where it's still seen as the band's commercial breakthrough.

"Under the Milky Way", written by Kilbey and girlfriend Karin Jansson, was released as the first single and quickly became an international hit peaking at No. #2 on the US mainstream singles chart, the Billboard Hot 100. The track earned the band the "Single of the Year" award with the Australian ARIA Music Awards in 1989, and in 2008 the song was voted Best Australian Song of the past twenty years by readers of The Weekend Australian Magazine. "Reptile" followed as the second single and did less well, and the final single from the album "Destination" simply failed to chart, but the album is the only from The Church to achieve Gold status (selling more than 500,000 copies) in USA. Despite the success which followed the album release, Kilbey has criticized it for being lifeless and sterile.

In 2005, the album was released in a remastered version as a 2-disc Deluxe Edition on EMI Music Australia with a bonus CD containing twelve tracks, seven of which are bonus material (released in 1991 on the compilation A Quick Smoke at Spot's: Archives 1986-1990), three are acoustic versions of tracks from the original album, and the last two tracks were previously released as B-side material on the Australian 12'' single Under the Milky Way.

The front cover shows the four band members, top left: Richard Ploog, Steve Kilbey, Marty Wilson-Piper, and Peter Koppes.

[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]

The Church "Under the Milky Way" (1988) (single)

Under the Milky Way, 12'' single
release date: Jan. 1988
format: vinyl (609 778)
[single rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,56]
producer: Greg Ladanyi, Waddy Wachtel, The Church; Steve Kilbey, The Church
label: Arista - nationality: Australia

Content: A) "Under the Milky Way" (live '88 - live 2013) - - B) "Musk"

Single release from forthcoming studio release Starfish (Feb. '88). The Australian issue is released by the end of '87 on Mushroom (sublabel of Warner Music Australia). The title track is probably the band's most wellknown hit, and it's written and composed by lead vocalist Steve Kilbey together with his girlfriend Karin Jansson.

Steve Kilbey "The Slow Crack" (1987)

The Slow Crack
release date: 1987 (December?)
format: digital (1989 reissue)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,42]
producer: Steve Kilbey
label: Rough Trade Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Transaction" - 3. "Woman With Reason" - 4. "A Favourite Pack of Lies" - 5. "Something That Means Something" - 8. "Ariel Sings"

3rd solo album by Steve Kilbey is like his two previous albums produced by Kilbey himself. The album saw its first national release limited to a vinyl edition on Red Eye Records in late '87, but that album comes without four tracks recorded in '89 (tracks #1, #3, #7, and #11). The song "A Favorite Pack of Lies" clearly features parts of the music from the instrumental track "The Dawn Poems" which is found on the precursor, Earthed (1987), and which perhaps may be seen as a kind of draft for this track with added lyrics. Like the predecessor, this one was recorded, mixed, produced, written, and composed by Kilbey with minor assistance, and again (girlfriend) Karin Jansson is credited as a co-writer on some tracks. Incidentally, the '89 reissue (this one) starts with the track "Transaction", which features Donette Thayer - with whom Kilbey formed the band Hex in '88 - on guitar, and this extended release consists of twelve tracks with a total length of 46 minutes.

At this particular stage of his career, Kilbey is in a fairly productive phase. Together with the other members of The Church, he has thus been behind the studio album Heyday (Nov. '85), his solo debut Unearthed (Jan. 1986), the instrumental successor Earthed (May '87) issued alongside a book of the same name consisting of poetry and essays, and then this album from late '87, after which he was once again ready with a bunch of new songs for The Church with whom he recorded the critically acclaimed Starfish - recorded in '87 and released Feb. '88.

Stylistically, this is more in the same realm as his solo debut and it ties in nicely with releases with The Church. It's alt. rock, indie pop and it both contains jangle pop and elements of neo-psychedelia. Most of the compositions are uptempo tracks with a normal song structure, and the way I hear this album, it sounds more like a kind of 'forgotten' release by The Church - or, it's the kind of material that could easily have been intended for compositions with the band.

Steve Kilbey "Earthed" (1987)

Earthed
release date: May 25, 1987
format: vinyl (clear vinyl) / digital (1988)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,62]
producer: Steve Kilbey [recorded by]
label: Ryko Analogue - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "The Dawn Poems" - 5. "A Loveletter From Sydney" - 6. "Carthage" - 7. "City of Women" - 9. "...The Empire Mourns Her Sun Without Tears" - 10. "Cornucopia" - 11. "Memory (c)" - 12. "Aphrodite" - 16. "Atlantis"

2nd solo album by Steve Kilbey released on Ryko Analogue, a Rykodisc-sublabel used for cassette- and vinylreleases. The vinyl issue is an American import on clear vinyl. As on his solo-debut Unearthed from '86, Kilbey is in charge of most things on this one, thus being credited: played by, recorded by, mixed by, as well as composer and as responsibe for (printed) material. Only a few other people are mentioned as contributors to this album: some who have assisted in creating artwork, some who have helped with mixing and mastering, and also his Swedish girlfriend at the time, Karin Jansson, who is co-writer on track #9. The album is published as a 'musical companion' to his homonymous lyric and essay publication on the modern life of mysticism. The back of the book cover contains the following description of the music: "An album of music which could be seen instrumental to the reading of the book..."

This was the first album I purchased of Kilbey's solo releases, which is probably quite fortunate, because if it had been the other way around and I had heard his actual solo debut first, I might not have considered buying this one, which consists entirely of instrumental tracks. It's quite a different collection of tracks by being far more experimental and more complex. The music is predominantly electronic in the sense that Kilbey makes use of synthesizers, drum programming, loops and tapes, and it's a release that is quite far from what he has released with the band The Church.

Some tracks (#7, #9, #10, #13, and #20) sound much like music inspired by Ryuichi Sakamoto and / or David Sylvian with a constant underlying presence of ambience. Another striking feature of the album is that it consists of twenty tracks and yet 'only' has a total running time of under 48 minutes. Three compositions are shorter than one minute, ten tracks have a duration of one to three minutes, five are between three and four minutes and two tracks are longer than four minutes.

Although, I do believe I acquired his solo debut a few weeks after this, I've always found this one that bit more entriguing. Yes, it's quite experimental, but at the same time it's also rich in ideas, and so it still holds up as quite a timeless work.

Steve Kilbey "Unearthed" (1986)

Unearthed [debut]
release date: Jan. 2, 1986
format: vinyl / cd (1987)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,44]
producer: Steve Kilbey (recorded by)
label: Enigma Canada - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Out of This World" - 2. "Guilty" - 3. "Pretty Ugly, Pretty Sad" - 5. "Judgement Day" - 11. "Nothing Inside" - 12. "Othertime" (acoustic live)

Solo album debut by Steve Kilbey, main songwriter, composer, and lead vocalist of The Church, released on Red Eye Records in Australia and on Enigma Records. The issue I own is a Canadian import issued on the sublabel Enigma Canada. A short instrumental, "Swampdrone" is written by Kilbey's girlfriend Karin Jansson and she contributes with vocals on "Othertime". The instrumental "Famine" (final track) was written by Steve's younger brother Russell.

Musically, this doesn't fall far from the music by The Church, although, it's both more varied and more experimental than what has so far been released by the band. Some of the compositions sound like leftovers and have arrangements that remind you of The Blurred Crusade and Remote Luxury with focus on acoustic guitar, yet there's an uplifting looser atmosphere as perhaps the result of having fewer people involved. Some of the more experimental bits makes me think of David Sylvian.

Unearthed isn't the amazing overlooked debut from one of Australia's best songwriters, but it's like a fine outlet for artistic fascination.

The Church "Heyday" (1985)

Heyday
release date: Nov. 1985
format: vinyl / digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,48]
producer: Peter Walsh
label: EMI - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Myrrh" - 2. "Tristesse" - 3. "Already Yesterday" (video) - 4. "Columbus" (video) - 8. "Disenchanted"

4th studio album by The Church follows nearly 2½ years after Seance (Jun. 1983) and it's the band's first under contract with Warner Bros. The album was released by EMI in Europe and Australasia.

For the first time, the front cover reveals the four members of the band on an album cover [top left corner shows Marty Wilson-Piper, Steve Kilbey, Richard Ploog and Peter Koppes].

I've always had mixed feelings about this album. I had already followed the band for some years and really enjoyed their original sound and style but with this I think some of their uniqueness vanished as they - with aid from a new record label management - apparently aimed for a broader audience.

The album is fine, more so so, without obvious great tracks.

[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5 stars ]