Last Dinosaurs "KYORYU" (2024)

KYORYU

release date: May 21, 2024

format: digital (13 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,12]

producer: Last Dinosaurs, Oscar Dawson & Scott Horscroft

label: Nettwerk - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Keys to Your Civic" - 3. "Self-Serving Human Being" - 4. "Paranoia Paradise" (feat. Glaze) - 5. "14 Occasions" - 6. "Wait Your Turn" - 10. "Afterlife"

5th full-length studio or a compilation (?) album by Australian dream pop and indie pop quartet Last Dinosaurs following 1½ years after From Mexico with Love (Oct. 2022), which again followed Yumeno Garden (Oct. 2018). Since their 2022 album, the band released two EPs, RYU (Nov. 2023) and KYO (Apr. 2024), and the tracks from these two actually constitute KYORYU, basically reducing the album to a compilation, but then this has become a quite common promotion procedure - regardless, what you may think of it. But it means that the first five tracks are identical to KYU, and tracks #7-13 are all taken from RYO. The digital issue (from the band's bandcamp site) comes with one extra track (track #6), and the total running time clocks in at 49 minutes.

It's all fine melodic indie / dream pop focusing on harmony-driven arrangements. At times it's a bit too slick, a bit too sugary. For my taste. I find, there's a turn towards K-Pop music on this, but it's nevertheless nicely executed. I just don't suspect, it's an album I will return to that regularly. I simply miss more edge, and a bolder original sound.

2023 'RYU' ep

2024 'KYO' ep

Robert Forster "The Candle and the Flame" (2023)

The Candle and the Flame

release date: Feb. 3, 2023

format: digital (9 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,38]

producer: Robert Forster, Karin Bäumler, Louis Forster

label: Tapete Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "She's a Fighter" - 2. "Tender Years" - 5. "I Don't Do Drugs I Do Time" - 8. "Go Free"

8th studio album by Robert Forster in his own name follows three years after the fine Inferno (Mar. 2019) and is like that released on the German label, Tapete. His wife Karin Baümler plays a more vital part than normally, as she has become the center of these new songs after having gone through cancer treatment. Aparently, most songs were already written before her diagnosis, but both album title and the first song here sets a tone that nicely fits with the rest of the songs.

Forster is as always a good narrator, and for that this album should be valued, although, you could argue that he doesn't hand us much new with this one. The first track is a bit off in respect to the colour of the album with it's rougher and energetic starting tone, which in some ways point back in time and reminds us where he began a long lasting musical career with Grant McLennan. The rest is more so-so - nothing daring in style and more simplistic folk with Forster strumming his guitar as support to his personal stories and not a whole lot in musical arrangements other than Adele Pickvance or his son Louis on bass as support to his and Karin's vocal harmonies. It's also a family thing with Robert and Karin being joined by their son and daughter Loretta, who plays second guitar.

I'm sure folk enthusiasts - people who send thanks to almighty Dylan - will embrace this as a warm and mature classic-styled album, but for me, I've heard better from this songwriter giant and it just doesn't provide me with enough substance, melody nor originality to have it on rotation that often.

[ The Guardian 4 / 5, Pitchfork 7,5 / 10 stars ]

Last Dinosaurs "From Mexico with Love" (2022)

From Mexico with Love

release date: Nov. 4, 2022

format: digital (10 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,48]

producer: James Angus

label: Nettwerk - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 2. "Look Back" - 3. "CDMX" (4,5 / 5) - 5. "Auto-Sabotage" - 8. "The Hating"

4th studio album by Australian indie pop quartet Last Dinosaurs following their so far best album Yumeno Garden (Oct. 2018).

The album showcases a bolder mainstream sound, somewhat in contrast to their recent turn to a more complex rock-sound but it's also a return to the soundscape of the debut, although, with the implication of more nuanced arrangements perhaps more suited for a radio-friendly target.

From Mexico with Love both contains uptempo beats, well-placed guitar-hooks and then some recycling with loans from previous songs, which doesn't establish the album as one of the band's more original ones. The song "CDMX" is the one stand-out single with a happy-go-lucky indie pop lightness and equal share of lush blue-eyed pop and the right amount of Cardigans charm, which really proves the band's potential. The album as such is good, it's fine, and it's also a bit on repeat, although, it's far from mediocre.

[ Atwood Magazine review ]

Lisa Gerrard & Jules Maxwell "Burn" (2021)

Burn

release date: May 7, 2021

format: digital (7 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,04]

producer: James Chapman

label: Atlantic Curve - nationality: Australia / Northern Ireland, UK

Track highlights: 1. "Heleali (The Sea Will Rise)" - 2. "Noyalain (Burn)" - 3. "Deshta (Forever)" - 5. "Orion (The Weary Huntsman)" - 6. "Keson (Until My Strength Returns)"

Collaborative project between Australian Lisa Gerrard and Northern Irishman Jules Maxwell, with the latter acting as live keyboardist on several occasions in Gerrard and Brendan Perry's duo project Dead Can Dance after their reformation in 2012. The album has a duration of only 35 minutes and consists of seven compositions with running lengths from four to six minutes. Gerrard alone is credited five tracks, while two tracks (#2 and #3) are composed by Gerrard and Maxwell in collaboration.

Musically, it's neo-classical with influence from darkwave, world music, and with hints from electronica, just as it has been the case with other works by Gerrard, e.g. The Silver Tree (2006) and which has charachterised releases by Dead Can Dance. Burn is, however, something else. The rhythm sections are shaped solely by programming or by bass and synth-bass with Gerrard singing on all tracks in an unknown or indistinct language - her very own metaphysical language, where her voice only functions on an instrumental level. That said, it's quite a sonorous, distinctive, and powerful instrument Gerrard possesses. She blends her alto voice beautifully in and out of progressive rhythmic loops and occasionally swings her vocal up into higher spheres clothed in mysticism of the East and sometimes with a well-developed technique taken from the scene of opera. Multi-instrumentalist Jules Maxwell adds rhythm, electronics, synth-bass, and grandiosity in appropriate measure and otherwise lets the music unfold in beautiful harmony with Gerrard as guiding instrumentalist.

It's original, beautiful, unpretentious, and yet wide-ranging. Since the early eighties, Gerrard has been responsible for strong original releases with Dead Can Dance - together with Hans Zimmer, she created the musical counterpart to the cinematic side of "Gladiator" (2000), and she has generally become an acclaimed soundtrack composer for a long series of films starting with soundtracks under the name Dead Can Dance back in '89 for the film "El niño de la luna" (aka "Moon Child" - not released as a soundtrack until 2019). They gained more recognition with their music for Ron Fricke's remarkable "Baraka" (1992), after which they released several soundtracks. As soloist, Gerrard first collaborated with Pieter Bourke on the music for "The Insider" by Michael Mann in 1999, and most recently in 2017 she and Peter Orr stood behind the soundtrack to "2:22" by Paul Currie. Gerrard has been nominated for dozens of international awards and she has received around 10 major awards for her work as a composer.

Burn is a certified gem of an album that should find wider recognition. Highly recommended!

[ Gaffa.dk 5 / 6 stars ]

2021 Favourite releases: 1. Mogwai As the Love Continues - 2. Thåström Dom som skiner - 3. Lisa Gerrard &
Jules Maxwell Burn

Olivia Newton-John / Electric Light Orchestra "Xanadu" (1980) (single)

Xanadu, 7'' single

release date: Jun. 1980

format: vinyl

[single rate: 2,5 / 5] [2,54]

producer: Jeff Lynne / John Farrar

label: Jet Records - nationality: Australia / UK

Tracklist: A) "Xanadu" - - B) "Fool Country"

Single release by Olivia Newton-John and Electric Light Orchestra with the title track taken from the 1980 musical film "Xanadu" directed by Robert Greenwald and featuring Newton-John. The A-side is credited Jeff Lynne of ELO, and the B-side is a track performed by Newton-John and credited John Farrar.

I think, that I may actually have purchased this item without really knowing the song yet. I didn't watch the film, and possibly just got it on sale 'cause I never was a fan of Newton-John, and especially never fell for the music by ELO. I do know, however, that I didn't play this on many occasions.

Robert Forster "Inferno" (2019)

Inferno

release date: Mar. 1, 2019

format: vinyl (tr429lp) / digital

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

producer: Victor Van Vugt

label: Tapete Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Crazy Jane on the Day of Judgement" - 3. "Inferno (Brisbane in Summer)" - 5. "Life Has Turned a Page" (live) - 6. "Remain" - 7. "I’ll Look After You" - 9. "One Bird in the Sky"

7th solo album by Robert Forster following Songs to Play (Sep. 2015) is Forster's second album on German label Tapete. It offers nine new compositions, all of which except track #1 with lyrics by William Butler Yeats, are credited Forster himself, and the album was produced by Australian Victor Van Vugt, who previously, among other things, produced for names such as PJ Harvey, Beth Orton, Nick Cave, but he was also sound engineer on Forster's debut Danger in the Past (1990) - just as he is credited on a large number of Australian releases in the 80s and 90s before he chose to settle in New York and here he established himself as producer in mainly the singer / songwriter category. As with the predecessor and Forster's debut, wife Karin Baümler participates on this. Forster has a certain thing for belonging to a band rather than standing on his own, so the album is actually credited the band 'The Magic Five' consisting of Earl Havin on drums and bongos, Michael Mühlhaus on piano and keyboards, Karin Baümler on violin, glockenspiel and backing vocals, Forster himself as vocalist and on acoustic and electric guitar, and with Scott Bromiley on bass, electric & acoustic guitar, synthesizer, organ and backing vocals. The latter also featured on the 2015 album (which he co-produced with Luke McDonald and Forster).

Stylistically, Forster never strays far from the traditional singer / songwriter and folk rock scene rooted in the 60s and 70s. His lyrics about human relationships, sadness, happiness, friendships, the past and the present carry these songs, with a predominantly gentle instrumentation treated with melancholic bits and hints of jangle pop.

Thirteen years have passed since Forster lost his songwriting friend and the other founding member of The Go-Betweens, Grant McLennan, but he still fills - both in Forster's music as well as in his lyrics. Strictly musically, McLennan was the one who came up with the fine harmonies, and in his autobiography "Grant & I" Forster explains how they wrote the music for The Go-Betweens, and it's quite clear that McLennan (from Forster's perspective) had a particularly natural gift to write good songs, while Forster himself always had to struggle more with his music, and when he occasionally plays with more catchy harmonies, thoughts easily falls on the importance of his old friend.

Inferno is another series of fine songs from a musician who has clearly always felt, he had been born in the wrong era, but he is a highly original rhyme and soundsmith, who makes his mark with manners without making a huge fuzz about himself. The album may not be his absolute best, but it's far from the ordinary or copy mode, and it contains some of the freshness he launched with his 2015 album and to that he adds a little more depth to his fine lyrics.

Recommended.

[ allmusic.com, The Guardian 4 / 5, 👍Pitchfork 7,7 / 10 stars ]

Fritz "Pastel" (2021)

Pastel

release date: Feb. 12, 2021

format: digital (9 x File, FLAC)

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

producer: Fraser Marshall

label: Inertia Music - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Sweetie" - 2. "Arrow" - 3. "Pastel" - 4. "She's Gonna Hate Me!" - 7. "Die Happily" - 9. "Jan 1"

2nd studio album by Australian music project Fritz (stylised FRITZ) consisting of Matilda Murphy (aka Tilly Murphy) on vocals, rhythm guitar and bass, Cody Brougham on (lead) guitar, and with Darren James on drums. Or at least that's what you could think, and then in the band's music videos you may also see a (second) bass player and a keyboard player, although the band members apparently only count Murphy, Brougham, and James. Matilda is also credited as songwriter and composer. The band is based in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, and before Pastel they released the self-promoted album FRITZ in 2017 - which makes Pastel the band's debut on an actual label.

It's music somewhere in between The Vaccines, Jezabels, and Dum Dum Girls with clear inspiration from My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, Breeders and Swedish The Radio Dept. with a balance between light noise pop, classic dream pop and what perhaps should be referred to as pop-grunge. The album consists of nine songs with a modest running time of just under half an hour.

It may be the kind of music that sounds as if made in the 90s, but it has a naive freshness and unimpressiveness that could stem from the fact that the band members have only just stepped out of their teenage years. Musically, it could be described as somewhat narrow - both in terms of production sound and in the variation of the individual compositions - but it's nevertheless delightfully refreshing at a time when music is something that ideally requires a new producer (or preferably several) for each track, and where the compositions should ideally be piled up in countless soundtracks and advanced arrangements to perhaps cover up the fact that the good songs are basically missing. After a quick spin, you might feel like uttering 'was that it? I mean, the whole album?' And yes, it is kinda short, sweet and most of all, it sounds promising for the future, so we have another real alternative to Eilish (and bro), Del Rey, multi-billionaire West and all the other overrated and overproduced hitmakers.

Recommended.

[ 👍Awfultrackrecord.com 3,5 / 5 stars ]

Robert Forster "Songs to Play" (2015)

Songs to Play

release date: Sep. 18, 2015

format: digital (10 x File, FLAC)

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

producer: Robert Forster, Luke McDonald & Scott Bromiley

label: Tapete Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 2. "Let Me Imagine You" - 4. "And I Knew" - 6. "I'm so Happy for You" - 8. "Turn on the Rain" - 9. "I Love Myself and I Always Have" - 10. "Disaster in Motion"

6th studio album by Robert Forster following a full 7½ years after The Evangelist (Apr. 2008). Apparently, most of these songs were written in 2010 / 2011 but weren't recorded until around five years later. Forster has explained that he needed a break in his music career, and initially had set himself up for a five-year hiatus, which then turned into seven... It was a period during which he wrote music articles and simultaneously worked on his autobiography. The album has been made completely without former collaborators Adele Pickvance and Glenn Thompson. Forster clearly wanted to make a fresh restart and in their place he has invited the two members from Australian The John Steel Singers: Luke McDonald and Scott Bromiley - both as multi-instrumentalists. Forster produced the band's 2010 debut Tangalooma and together they then played some of these songs, which would end up on Songs to Play, and here the two are also credited as co-producers. Forster's wife, Karin Baümler, previously participated on his albums playing violin and doing backing vocals, but on this, she has played a fuller part on all tracks, and together with drummer Matt Piele from Forster's tour band, they all form the new backing 'band', which of course gives the output new colours.

Although McDonald and Bromiley have been given rein to contribute with their ideas, it's still very much a Robert Forster solo with lyrics and music credited the man himself. The style is laid in an acoustic contemporary folk rock characterised by strong bonds to classic rock & roll in its simplest form. At times it's uptempo without being danceable rock and the songs appear with a marked lightness compared to the gloomier tone on his previous albums.

Songs to Play is an album where the music has come to the fore and Forster successfully acts as a classic singer / songwriter without being weighed down by his former achievements, suppressed emotions and the melancholy, which have been natural traits in the past, and by that, the album could pave the way for a new dynamic in his original musical realm. In any case, it's not an album, as the predecessor, that sounds like falling in between The Go-Betweens and a solo album - it's definitely a pure Robert Forster release on which he deals with the present.

The front cover is a photo of Robert and Karin's daughter Loretta Forster.

Recommended.

[ allmusic.com, PopMatters 3,5 / 5, The Guardian 4 / 5 stars ]

Nick Cave & Warren Ellis "Carnage" (2021)

Carnage

release date: Feb. 25, 2021

format: digital (8 x File, MP3)

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

producer: Nick Cave & Warren Ellis

label: Goliath Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Hand of God" - 2. "Old Time" - 3. "Carnage" - 4. "White Elephant" - 6. "Lavender Fields" - 7. "Shattered Ground" - 8. "Balcony Man"

First actual duo-project credited Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, long time collaborators in Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, who most recently released Ghosteen in 2019. However, since 2005 when they made music for the performance "Woyzech", they have co-written music for a large number of performances and films - which are also available as soundtrack releases. Ellis has been a member of The Bad Seeds since the '97 album The Boatman's Call, but has featured on the band's albums since '92, and his role in the band has only grown over time. In '97 he had a minor part playing violin and keyboards as 'extra spice' to the band's sound, from the 2001 album No More Shall We Part he was also credited some compositions, from the 2008 album Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! he is a distinctive composer and multi-instrumentalist, and from Push the Sky Away in 2013 he is now credited as composer along with Cave on all tracks, and thus the musical center of the band has shifted to being exclusively a pair collaboration in recent years, with Cave providing lyrics and Ellis supplementing with music. Therefore, the album here is not a huge surprise, since this is how they have worked on their recent three studio albums. The music with The Bad Seeds has thus transformed over the years from being alt. rock towards an increased focus on Cave's lyrics to being a kind of poetic recitations with evocative background music.

On Push the Sky Away you'll notice percussion, bass, and guitar, but it's with instrumentation such as violin, cello, and keyboards as the main sound sources, and there's a stylistic interference with elements from jazz, Tindersticks, and something reminiscent of Tom Waits' experimental style. This new and more naked soundscape becomes even more evident on Skeleton Tree, and with Ghosteen the rhythmic element is now completely absent, replaced by Cave's insistent vocal and Ellis's keyboards as spheric tapestry.

On Carnage you'll find a progression towards more complex compositions, where guitar, bass, and percussion are occasionally heard - mostly on "Old Time". In that way it sounds more like the continuation of Skeleton Tree rather than Ghosteen, but most of all it's a new chapter in the book of human pain, sorrow, and suffering as experienced by Nick Cave. From being a direct dramatic writer who told about crooked existences and people living in the shadows of society, Cave has grown over the past decade into a more lyrical playwright who talks about existential aspects of life and death.

The album has been met by positive reviews - but that's nearly always how it works for Cave. He is, if anything, a critics' darling, and the album has landed several international top-10 positions, including number #2 in Australia, number #3 in the UK, Belgium and in the Netherlands, number #5 in Germany, and a number #1 position in Scotland and Portugal.

It's a nice and fine acquaintance without fillers but perhaps also the slightly expected release. However, the music is good, the lyrics compelling and the level high. It's an album that wins over time because Cave and Ellis are just great together.

Recommended.

[ allmusic.com, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone 4 / 5, Gaffa.dk 5 / 6, NME 5 / 5 stars ]

John Travolta / Olivia Newton-John "You're the One That I Want" (1978) (single)

You're the One That I Want, 7'' single

release date: Mar. 1978

format: vinyl

[single rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,38]

producer: John Farrar

label: RSO - nationality: Australia / USA

Tracklist: A) "You're the One That I Want" - - B) "Alone at a Drive-in Movie (instrumental)"

Single release taken from the 1978 musical film "Grease" by Randal Kleiser. I think I may have purchased this particular item myself at the age of 14, probably after watching the film. I can't say that I was a fan of neither Newton-John nor of Travolta, but I do recall liking the film and the energy of the title track.

~ ~ ~

This post is part of MyMusicJourney, which enlists key releases that have shaped my musical taste when growing up and until age 14. Most of these releases come from my parents' and / or my older brother's collection.

Robert Forster "The Evangelist" (2008)

The Evangelist

release date: Apr. 21, 2008

format: cd

[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,78]

producer: Mark Wallis & Dave Ruffy

label: Tuition - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "If It Rains" - 2. "Demon Days" (solo live) - 3. "Pandanus" - 4. "Did She Overtake You" - 5. "The Evangelist" - 6. "Let Your Light in, Babe" - 9. "It Ain't Easy" - 10. "From Ghost Town"

5th studio album by Robert Forster is his follow-up to Warm Nights (Sep. 1996) and thus released a full 12 years after his most recent solo album - and there are a various reasons to that [see The Friends of Rachel Worth, album #7 by The Go-Betweens], which among others things involves the re-formation of The Go-Betweens in '99 and, in particular, the sudden death of Forster's musical friend, Grant McLennan, May 2006. The two songwriters had begun work on what should have been the band's tenth album together, and three of these are included here - as tracks #2, #6, and #9. One year following McLennan's death, Forster resumed his solo career with a series of concerts featuring Adele Pickvance and Glenn Thompson, and in the autumn of 2007 the trio returned to the same studio in London where they had recorded the band's final Oceans Apart (2005) in company of McLennan and producers Wallis and Ruffy, now to record this very album.

Musically, it doesn't fall far from the band's final outing, and in Forster's solo discography it's perhaps a little cleaner than most his other albums, although lyrically it naturally includes the grief over his painful loss. The album also stands a bit on its own in that it contains much of the soul and colours of The Go-Betweens and in that way positions itself somewhere in between Forster solo and the band, which also was put to rest with the passing of McLennan. And by containing tracks written for the band, it's bound to be very special. Nearly all Forster's solo albums have a certain unfinished quality to them, but The Evangelist appears quite elaborated as a whole, and together with his solo debut Danger in the Past (1990) this clearly stands as one of his best. Then is it even Forster's best solo? And yes, I think it is - and then it's probably his only solo album, which was partly made with the help of McLennan.

Highly recommended.

[ allmusic.com, Q Magazine, Slant 4 / 5, 👍Pitchfork 7,6 / 10, Uncut 5 / 5, The Guardian 3 / 5 stars ]

Icehouse "Primitive Man" (1982)

Primitive Man
release date: Sep. 20, 1982
format: vinyl / cd (2002 remaster)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,88]
producer: Iva Davies and Keith Forsey
label: Chrysalis / Diva Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Great Southern Land" - 2. "Uniform" - 3. "Hey, Little Girl" - 4. "Street Cafe" - 5. "Glam (instrumental)" - 7. "One by One" - 9. "Mysterious Thing" - 10. "Goodnight, Mr. Matthews"

2nd studio album by Australian synthpop and new wave band Icehouse following two years after the bands debut Icehouse (1980) - released under the name of Flowers. This album is quite extraordinary as it's basically a solo-project release as lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and only songwriter of the band, Iva Davies, recorded all songs of the album all on his own only with some help from co-producer Keith Forsey. The album is still released as a band effort, although, credits on the album leave no information about this. Apparently, Davies wrote and composed all songs, supplied backing vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass, and drum programming, and then Forsey added percussion to the recordings. After this, the rest of the band then gathered up with Davies to promote the album for a following live tour. And for that, the band presented a new line-up with Iva Davies on vocals, guitar & keyboard, Michael Hoste on keyboards, John Lloyd on drums, and then adding three new members: Bob Kretschmar on guitar, Guy Pratt on bass, and Andy Qunta on keyboards & backing vocals.

Primitive Man was met by critical acclaim and peaked at number #3 on the national chart list, it topped the list in New Zealand, peaked at number #5 in Germany and it was a small hit in most of the Scandinavian countries. The single "Hey, Little Girl" remains the band's best-selling single. It was, however, surpassed by two positions in Australia by the release of the first single "Great Southern Land" peaking at number #5, but it didn't make noteworthy entries except for in New Zealand.

The album was the first I came across by this great Australian band. As I recall, it was quite popular in the Fall of '82 / Spring of '83. Stylistically, it blends various styles of art pop, new wave, and sophisti-pop, which really wasn't a familiar style back then - but the album really was one of the first true sophisti-pop albums leaning on Roxy Music, David Bowie, Japan, and probably influencing upcoming artists like Simple Minds, David Sylvian and The Church. At the time of the release I found it too mainstream sounding, although, in retrospect, it really is a strong and most vital album.

Highly recommended.

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

The Go-Betweens "Oceans Apart" (2005)

Oceans Apart
release date: May 3, 2005
format: 2 cd (Deluxe)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,88]
producer: Mark Wallis and David Ruffy
label: Lo-Max Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Here Comes a City" - 2. "Finding You" - 3. "Born to a Family" - 4. "No Reason to Cry" - 6. "Darlinghurst Nights" - 7. "Lavender" - 8. "The Statue" - 9. "This Night's for You" - 10. "The Mountains Near Dellray"

9th and the irrevocably final studio album by The Go-Betweens following just over two years after Bright Yellow Bright Orange (Feb. 2003) sees a reunion with producer Mark Wallis, who stood behind the acclaimed 16 Lovers Lane (1988). The 2 CD Deluxe edition comes with the addition of a live recording from The Barbican Concert Hall, London, Jun. 27, 2004.

For once, the quartet is intact compared to their most recent album but what makes the biggest difference here is concerning the actual production of the album. Forster and McLennan themselves were in complete control when producing the band's last two outings, and these are both quite good, but when listening to Oceans Apart, you clearly sense the bond to 16 Lovers Lane. It's not just similar, as it doesn't merely copy what was successful on the '88 album but the new collection of songs has a presence of the same 'multi-layering' without obvious attempts in reproducing the instrumental contributions by Amanda Brown and John Willstead of yesterday.

Another significant positive quality is that it feels and sounds like a band effort, whereas the two previous albums had an unmistakable imprint of the Forster / McLennan guitar duo weaving on all tracks. Here, it's as if bass, keyboards, additional guitars, and drums all contribute to colour the whole picture and, overall, create a sonic complexity that fits together ever so nicely. That said, the songs demonstrate the two songwriters' abilities as skilled storytellers and the end product is no less than the band's second best studio album - ever.

Oceans Apart won the prize for best Adult Contemporary Album at the Australian Grammy Awards in 2005 - first time happing for Forster and McLennan - and as a new experience, the album made its mark on the albums chartc in a number of countries besides Australia. Two tracks were released as singles: tracks #1 and #2, which didn't garner significant chart entries. And that's maybe not too strange, because it's the album itself that appears as a coherent strong album, basically without fillers. It's just extraordinary well-made from start to finish.

Unfortunately, just as the band was finally experiencing growing international recognition - again, the project was brutally interrupted when Grant McLennan suddenly died of a cardiac arrest around the anniversary of the album's release on May 6, 2006. With McLennan's passing, The Go-Betweens ended for good and Robert Forster returned to his solo career and subsequently released the album The Evangelist (Apr. 2008). In 2007, two recurring awards were founded: an annual prestigious Australian honour award "Grant McLennan Lifetime Achievement Award", as well as the annual 1-year music scholarship "Grant McLennan Fellowship" awarded emerging talents in Queensland.

Highly recommended.

[ 👍allmusic.com, Blender, Uncut 4 / 5, 👎Rolling Stone 3,5 / 5, The Guardian, Mojo 5 / 5 stars ]

Lisa Gerrard "The Silver Tree" (2006)

The Silver Tree

release date: Dec. 5, 2006

format: digital (14 x File, FLAC - 2007 reissue)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,88]

producer: David Badrick & Lisa Gerrard

label: Rubber Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "In Exile" - 2. "Shadow Hunter" - 4. "The Sea Whisperer" - 6. "Space Weaver" - 8. "Serenity" - 10. "Towards the Tower" - 12. "Devotion"

2nd solo album by Australian artist Lisa Gerrard follows more than a decade after her solo debut The Mirror Pool (Aug. 1995). This doesn't by any means suggest that Gerrard isn't a highly productive artist. She often releases music with collaborating artists, and she has made a golden career from her engagements as soundtrack composer. In '96 she released a so far final studio album, Spiritchaser with the duo-project Dead Can Dance (together with Brendan Perry). In '98 she released the collaboration album Duality with Pieter Bourke, and also with Bourke, she made the soundtrack to Michael Mann's The Insider (1999), the soundtrack to Ridley Scott's The Gladiator (2000) composed with Hans Zimmer - an accomplishment that sky-rocketed her composer value - and again with Bourke she composed the soundtrack to the biographical sports drama Ali (2001), the soundtrack to Whalerider (2003), the collaboration album Immortal Memory together with Patrick Cassidy (2004), and the soundtrack Salem's Lot (2004) with Christopher Gordon to a TV-series. And it doesn't stop with this, as Gerrard has also delivered compositions and vocals to songs appearing on various other releases including TV-series, movies, documentaries and as performing guest on other artists' releases.

Lisa Gerrard works on a classical arena with trained classical intrumentalists and composers, but she also works with artists from a "popular" music culture, the experimental electronic music scene and often on music labeled as neo-classical. On top of this, Gerrard has made it her trademark to blend national folklore from various parts of the world, and not seldom you will find traces of music inspired by traditional folk from the Balkan area - sometimes incorporating tones from an Arabian / Middle East tradition - all brought together in an original colourful blend with her timeless ethereal signature. She has become an acclaimed vocalist with a vocal range of three octaves, and when performing her own songs, she often sings in her own made-up language, sometimes referred to as 'glossolalia'.

The Silver Tree was nominated the Best Album Prize at the Australian Music Awards in 2006, and it may be an album that brings many of her former releases to mind, but it's not a matter of picking bits and pieces from her past and mixing it all together anew. It's more the result of a skilled artist's inspiration overflown with her quality trademarks that makes it a highly original album. It's both electronic, ambient and neo-classical, and not necessarily styles that are present in all 14 compositions. As in styles, the songs vary in tempo, in cadence, in mood but it's all cleverly woven together with Gerrard's delicate touch - be it in the arrangements of the single composition or in the tone of her singing voice. The tracks also vary in running times with the shortest playing for only 1½ minute and the longest for more than 10 minutes. In between there's nearly everything. It may be based on electronic rhythm beats, on hymn-like ambience, or progressive darkwave, but still it remarkably works as a coherent release.

I've always fancied the music with Gerrard's partecipation and it never ceases to amase me, and it always reminds me, what an absolute great artist she is! She has been awarded many prizes for her work, but in my mind, she is way to overlooked an artist and deserves much more recognition - as composer, as vocalist, and as performing artist.

Highly recommended!

Hans Zimmer & Lisa Gerrard "Gladiator" (OST) (2000)

Gladiator (soundtrack)

release date: Apr. 25, 2000

format: digital (35 x File, FLAC) (20th Anniversary Edition, 2020 reissue)

[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,06]

producer: Klaus Badelt, Hans Zimmer, Ridley Scott

label: Universal Music Classics - nationality: Germany / Australia

Track highlights: 3. "The Battle" - 5. "Sorrow" - 6. "To Zuccabar" - 9. "The Might of Rome" - 15. "Elysium" - 17. "Now We Are Free" - *19. "Now We Are Free (Juba's Mix)" - *25. "Rome Is the Light" - *35. "Now We Are Free (Maximus Mix)"

*2020 Anniversary Edition

Soundtrack to a Ridley Scott directed epic drama starring Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Derek Jacobi, Richard Harris, and Oliver Reed (who passed away 1 year before the film premiered). The soundtrack is like the film an acclaimed work in its own rights, and all music here is credited Zimmer & Gerrard in collaboration and with Gavin Greenaway conducting [The London] Lyndhurst Orchestra.

The original soundtrack runs for just over one hour and counts the first 17 tracks - the remaining 18 tracks have been added to the 20th Anniversary Edition; however already in 2001 the soundtrack was released in this version as a 2-disc CD edition for the European market doubling its running time.

The music is held in a classic (heavily) orchestrated frame. The music is pompous but quite fitting to the likewise dramatic imagery side of the film. At times I notice a strong influence from Morricone and some inspiration from Richard Wagner but then aren't all great composers inspired by others? What really works on a higher level here, is that themes and styles go hand in hand with the images and the story, and yet as a standalone piece of work, this soundtrack still works quite nicely; although, I prefer the more progressive compositions and especially those featuring Gerrard's enigmatic vocal performances.

Gladiator (OST) is one of those rare soundtracks where everything is in sublime synergy. I may prefer more experimental and subtle soundtracks but this is one to cherish.

[ 👍allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]

[ Hans Zimmer on the making of the soundtrack ]

Dead Can Dance "The Serpent's Egg" (1988)

The Serpent's Egg

release date: Oct. 24, 1988

format: cd (2008 remaster)

[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,92]

producer: Brendan Perry, Lisa Gerrard, John A. Rivers

label: 4AD Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "The Host of Seraphim" (4,5 / 5) (live 2018) - 3. "Severance" (live) - 4. "The Writing on My Father's Hand" - 5. "In the Kingdom of the Blind the One-Eyed Are Kings" - 6. "Chant of the Paladin" - 7. "Song of Sophia" - 10. "Ullyses"

4th studio album by Dead Can Dance follows 15 months after Within the Realm of a Dying Sun and is like their recent two albums produced mainly by the duo and in collaboration with John A. Rivers on four tracks. All songs are credited Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard with the former singing lead vocals on three songs (tracks #3, #5, and #10), whereas Gerrard once again proves her stunning vocal on the remainders. The album consists of ten songs with a relatively short total running time at around 36 minutes.

Compared to the predecessor, The Serpent's Egg is also experimental, less electronically-founded and even more stripped to the bone regarding the musical arrangements. On this, not only Gerrard lives up to her almost usual brilliant vocal standard but Perry also delivers some of his best performances. The album is without fillers and it showcases the duo's originality and capability to keep renewing itself as front runners withtin an alt. rock sphere bonded to classical works and to no particular dominating style, which in itself is so rare.

The album is no less than a timeless classic and highly recommended.

[ 👍allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]

Dead Can Dance "Within the Realm of a Dying Sun" (1987)

Within the Realm of a Dying Sun
release date: Jul. 27, 1987
format: cd (2008 remaster)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,72]
producer: Dead Can Dance, John A. Rivers
label: 4AD Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Anywhere Out of the World" - 3. "In the Wake of Adversity" - 5. "Dawn of the Iconoclast" - 6. "Cantara" - 7. "Summoning of the Muse"

3rd studio album by the duo-project Dead Can Dance following 1½ years after the fine Spleen and Ideal and much like that, this is also produced by the duo in collaboration with John A. Rivers.

The album marks the continued journey within the duo's own stylistic soundscape of neo-classical darkwave and with a subtle addition of electronica. It's pompous and it's ethereal without the dreampop-sound that shaped the debut from '84. This is lighter and more simple without audible electric guitars - instead, it employs keyboards, synths, dulcimer, and classical orchestra representation by organ, strings, oboe, and brass.

Compared to the predecessor, there's a stronger emphasis on classical instrumentation on this as well as more simple compositions with a progressive ambient touch.

Another recommended release from the duo.

[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]

The Go-Betweens "Bright Yellow Bright Orange" (2003)

Bright Yellow Bright Orange
release date: Feb. 24, 2003
format: digital (10 x File, FLAC)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,66]
producer: The Go-Betweens
label: Trifekta - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Caroline and I" - 2. "Poison in the Walls" - 3. "Mrs. Morgan" - 6. "Crooked Lines" - 8. "Make Her Day"

8th studio album by The Go-Betweens released 2½ years after The Friends of Rachel Worth (Sep. 2000) is once again with a changed line-up in the 'supporting roles' of a band that is essentially no more than a duo-project. Now officially, the band is back as a quartet with the two founders at the front, the songwriters and composers Robert Forster and Grant McLennan, who are both credited on vocals and various guitars (Forster is also credited on organ and piano). As on the predecessor, they are here backed by bassist Adele Pickvance, who is also credited on keyboards and backing vocals, and then new member Glenn Thompson is seen on drums, electric guitar, organ, keyboards, and backing vocals. Beyond these, only a small duo of string instrumentalists are credited musical contributions.

Stylistically, there are no major changes since the 2000 revival release, but as a positive contrast, this is a much more cohesive collection of songs, with the two songwriters actually sounding like they've been working together on the new tracks and not 'only' have met in the studio with a handful of their own individual tracks, as they had become accustomed to in the years after their break-up in '88. The album contains an expected even number of 10 new tracks, which typically indicate five songs by Forster and five by McLennan, only this time they don't make a big fuzz about telling us who wrote what song. Instead, all tracks are credited Forster / McLennan, although they are believed to have contributed roughly equally with lyrical and musical contributions. They match each other in unison - and not that they didn't do that before, but it's as if they rise together on more optimistic notes, and perhaps the title suggests exactly what is seen on the cover - the only album by the band without actual photos of the band members - a reflection of a lighter lyrical content. Fact is, many of their earlier songs were woven and soothed in bittersweet melancholy. In contrast, they here sort of narrate in lighter spheres adding tailored vocal harmonies and chamber pop arrangements. The only thing I miss are a number of distinctive strong songs, and seen as a whole the album is perhaps a bit too cohesive with the two songwriters tiptoeing along more or less down the same path on golden rays of sunshine.

Expectedly, Bright Yellow Bright Orange was met by positive reviews and was even nominated, without winning, Best Album at the Australian Music Awards but The Go-Betweens now sound like they have found their footing and are back on course again. And nevertheless, it's always a pleasure to hear new songs with this classic songwriting duo.

[ allmusic.com, Blender, Q Magazine, Uncut 4 / 5, Rolling Stone 3 / 5, 👉The Guardian 5 / 5 stars ]

Icehouse "Icehouse" (1981)

Icehouse [debut]
release date: Jun. 1981
format: digital (1990 reissue)
[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,08]
producer: Cameron Allan
label: Chrysalis Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "Icehouse" [same song by Flowers] - 2. "Can't Help Myself" [same song by Flowers] - 4. "Walls" [same song by Flowers] - 6. "We Can Get Together" [same song by Flowers] - 10. "Not My Kind" [same song by Flowers]

Studio album debut by Australian band Icehouse; or actually: the international debut 'cause fact is, in Oct. 1980 this band was called Flowers, and they released the debut album Icehouse exclusively for the Australian and New Zealand markets on Regular Records. Flowers was founded in '77, and the debut album provided some entries on the Australian charts and the band soon signed with Chrysalis, who wanted the album released worldwide. Songwriter, lead vocalist, guitarist, keyboardist and oboist Iva Davies was the band leader and together with bassist and backing vocalist Keith Welsh they founded the band, who were joined by keyboardist Michael Hoste - who is replaced during the recordings of the first album by Anthony Smith, and together with drummer John Lloyd they were Flowers. Now with a record contract with Chrysalis the quartet was sat out to re-record both music and vocals, and the company wanted Flowers to pick another band name for the release, since a Scottish band were already called Flowers, so they came up with the title of their first track for new band name. The two albums (Flowers' Icehouse and Icehouse by Icehouse) appear almost identical. The '80 album was released with eleven tracks - one more than the Icehouse album, and then the track order is different.

Stylistically, it's in the category of uptempo synthpop and pop / rock with influences from especially Ultravox, Gary Numan, David Bowie, early Roxy Music, and T. Rex.

I didn't listen to this until some point in the 90s, and by then found it of little interest but simply had to hear it 'cause Icehouse's sophomore album, Primitive Man (1982) was such a distinctive and originally strong release. Despite also being 'synthpop', it's still quite far from their more famous album(s), and what really strikes me - of course listening to it from a later point - is how little original it sounds. It is very much with Ultravox, Gary Numan, Roxy Music and Bowie in mind that you listen through (nearly) all of these songs.

Only a must for collectors.

[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]

"Icehouse"

by Flowers (1980)

Dead Can Dance "Spleen and Ideal" (1985)

Spleen and Ideal
release date: Nov. 1985
format: vinyl (CAD 512) / cd (1986 reissue) / cd (2008 remaster)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,06]
producer: Dead Can Dance & John A. Rivers
label: 4AD Records - nationality: Australia

Track highlights: 1. "De profundis (Out of the Depths of Sorrow)" - 2. "Ascension" - 4. "The Cardinal Sin" - 5. "Mesmerism" - 6. "Enigma of the Absolute" - 7. "Advent" - 8. "Avatar" - 9. "Indoctrination (A Design for Living)"

2nd studio album by Australian neo-classical darkwave band Dead Can Dance, who at this point have been reduced to a duo consisting of singer, drummer & percussionist Lisa Gerrard (who would later become an acclaimed film composer) and British multi-instrumentalist Brendan Perry. The album consists of nine compositions with varied durations from approx. 3 minutes to the album's longest track "The Cardinal Sin" of approx. 5½ minutes, and with a total running length of just 38 minutes.

In terms of style, the music here can only poorly be compared to other contemporary releases. In its time it fell under the category of post-punk, which it really never was. I think the closest critics could rightly describe the style as was gothic rock and experimental rock - perhaps with a touch of art rock, but seen from a music historical perspective it's nothing less than a modern cornerstone, which has only gained greater recognition over time. It's difficult, and perhaps impossible, to imagine contemporary works by artists such as Jocelyn Pook and Anna von Hausswolff, but also Chelsea Wolfe and Lingua Ignota, and basically: the whole wave of contemporary artists in neo-classical darkwave without pointing to the legacy of Dead Can Dance and perhaps this album in particular.

I purchased Spleen and Ideal on vinyl back in the mid-80s without having any knowledge of the band or of the music they played. All I knew was that 4AD Records put out music with super-interesting names and pretty original artists, and the band oozed that particular post-punk edge that (to me) connected them to bands like Bauhaus, Modern English, This Mortail Coil, and Joy Division (which admittedly came out on Factory Records). However, I also remember the first time I listened to the album and was really disappointed. It wasn't at all like the other bands I knew of. And it wasn't even close to some of the ones mentioned here. I tried repeatedly to listen to the album but always ended up putting something else on. Luckily, I kept the album, although in the late 80s and early 90s I got into a really bad habit of selling off early 80s albums that I didn't listen much to in order to finance newer music with a stronger appeal.

When I finally re-listened to Spleen and Ideal again in the 2010s it was like a sheer revelation. How could I have failed to understand the obvious qualities of this very album?! No, it doesn't sound like anything else from the early or late 80s - except subsequent albums by Dead Can Dance. It's enchanting and beautiful music sounding like timeless tones that call for a kind of ceremonial gathering. The beauty of it is that you can simultaneously let it fill you without thinking about cultural or religious boundaries. But above all, it's remarkable how little it shares with other music originating in the mid-80s.

Highly recommended.

[ allmusic.com 4,5 / 5 stars ]

[ collectors' item ]