23 November 2010
With the rise and rise of Brisbane’s recent emissions like Yves Klein Blue and Hungry Kids Of Hungary, big things are expected from the city’s latest offering, The John Steel Singers.
The shoegazing sextet have big, erm, shoes, to fill, but they have a few advantages when it comes to their debut album Tangalooma; there’s more of them, they had Brisbane luminary Robert Forster (ofThe Go-Betweens) produce the album, they use wacky instruments like an autoharp and a vibrating shaver, and their debut was triple j’s Album Of The Week not that long ago.
Named after a tourist spot off of Queensland’s Moreton Island, you’re immediately confronted with images of family holidays, sandy hair or ocean swims; and that’s exactly what the band want you to think. On the surface Tangalooma is an innocent anodyne, with spiralling instrumentals that make you feel all fuzzy inside, but when listened to from start to finish with both ears ready, you’ll either feel tricked or pleasantly surprised.
Opening with Your Favourite Perversion and the lyric “I propose we take our clothes off,” the band maintains their schoolboy perversions whilst still sounding suave and musically developed. This short track (at just 1:55) is the most lyrically dependent on an album where the instruments provide a creeping backdrop that moves an inch forward with each new song. ...Perversion and following single Overpasscreate a false pretence of thick storytelling, leaving bouncy instrumentals at the wayside. It’s not until the third track where they perform the ol’ switcheroo.
Cause Of Self lets the keyboards and percussion sing the catchy chorus and verses while the shared vocals act as unnecessary counterparts which wouldn’t necessarily take away from the track had they not been there. The same goes for past tracks Rainbow Krautand Evolution, which have been polished with a mix of melancholy and ‘60s nostalgia. Forster must be commended here for stripping back the originals, making room for each band member to stay indispensable.
The orchestral pop in Masochist bounds through the brass and horns sections, the vocalists seem blissfully unaware of the jaded lyrics they’re singing; “you’ll die alone if you won’t settle down, the masochist with marriage on his mind.”
The John Steel Singers know exactly what kind of ‘sunshine and lollipops’ reaction they’re music emotes, but behind the swirling strings and echoed percussion in tracks like You’ve Got Nothing To Be Proud Of and Dying Tree, lies a downbeat of layered understanding that will have you discover something new each time you come back.
The shoegazing sextet have big, erm, shoes, to fill, but they have a few advantages when it comes to their debut album Tangalooma; there’s more of them, they had Brisbane luminary Robert Forster (ofThe Go-Betweens) produce the album, they use wacky instruments like an autoharp and a vibrating shaver, and their debut was triple j’s Album Of The Week not that long ago.
Named after a tourist spot off of Queensland’s Moreton Island, you’re immediately confronted with images of family holidays, sandy hair or ocean swims; and that’s exactly what the band want you to think. On the surface Tangalooma is an innocent anodyne, with spiralling instrumentals that make you feel all fuzzy inside, but when listened to from start to finish with both ears ready, you’ll either feel tricked or pleasantly surprised.
Opening with Your Favourite Perversion and the lyric “I propose we take our clothes off,” the band maintains their schoolboy perversions whilst still sounding suave and musically developed. This short track (at just 1:55) is the most lyrically dependent on an album where the instruments provide a creeping backdrop that moves an inch forward with each new song. ...Perversion and following single Overpasscreate a false pretence of thick storytelling, leaving bouncy instrumentals at the wayside. It’s not until the third track where they perform the ol’ switcheroo.
Cause Of Self lets the keyboards and percussion sing the catchy chorus and verses while the shared vocals act as unnecessary counterparts which wouldn’t necessarily take away from the track had they not been there. The same goes for past tracks Rainbow Krautand Evolution, which have been polished with a mix of melancholy and ‘60s nostalgia. Forster must be commended here for stripping back the originals, making room for each band member to stay indispensable.
The orchestral pop in Masochist bounds through the brass and horns sections, the vocalists seem blissfully unaware of the jaded lyrics they’re singing; “you’ll die alone if you won’t settle down, the masochist with marriage on his mind.”
The John Steel Singers know exactly what kind of ‘sunshine and lollipops’ reaction they’re music emotes, but behind the swirling strings and echoed percussion in tracks like You’ve Got Nothing To Be Proud Of and Dying Tree, lies a downbeat of layered understanding that will have you discover something new each time you come back.
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