Earshift Music
Australian experimental folk duo Meatshell have taken their unique, previously acoustic-led soundworld in a very different direction for their latest release, including as it does electric bass guitar and electronic textures to swell the imaginative mayhem already provided by sax and double bass.
Helen Svoboda‘s lyrics and vocals are an integral part of this charming place, and the purity and wildness of her delivery is quite an asset, coming over as it does like a folky dream on opener “The Elevator”, the words offering a strange story as the instrumental textures hover over deeply resonant bass. Considering Meatshell is a duo and the songs succinct, the sound is full and scattered with surprises while the main meat, so to speak, of
swooping sax and playful bass act as antitheses, sparking one another into unexpected flights of fancy.
The abstract electronics and burbling bass of “The Kind That Cuts Deep” leap and spiral around like a playful kitten, the scene drifting untethered, a brief loss of structure through which the low-end harmonics shine. It feels as though there is an
elusive rhythm that they are chasing to no avail. Tiny snippets of wild clock factory madness ooze into the most rhythmic track here which involves drummer
Dylan van der Schuyff, who tries to impose a little order which is scattered by the electronics and generally ignored by the voice. The jumping-bean rhythm assists the digital attack of the words and they are thrown into a bubbling pot of distorted blur.
When briefly left to its own devices, Andrew Saragossi‘s sax is an expressive and quixotic thing and on “High Speed Jockey”, Helen gives her best operatic intentions to keep up with the smears as a distorted washing machine offers an approximation of a beat. This leaping from whim to whim is what gives The Elevator Child such charm and the voice changes from track to track. It is a dreamlike lull on “Bliss”, with the sax following suit, soothing in its accompaniment. They turn their back on experimentation for a moment and allow the sounds to unfold languidly, the slow impressionist daubs an antidote to the earlier rigmarole.
The booming bass and skittering housey rhythm of the title track drag us onto a distended dancefloor, the
mantra-like lyrics and looped sax offering an opportunity to lose ourselves; but again it is only for the shortest time before the final track, another dreamlike sundown piece floats past, offering a moment of solace around a guttering campfire before the romantic spoken word interjections of
Roman MC turn it into a redemptive lovelorn coda.
It is a delightful way to end a release that at about
twenty-three minutes is over before you know it; but the ride is well worth the effort. Meatshell’s ideas are varied and their vision limitless, and the fun they appear to be having is a large part of the charm. Long may they continue.
-Mr Olivetti-
Australian experimental folk duo Meatshell have taken their unique, previously acoustic-led soundworld in a very different direction for their latest release, including as it does electric bass guitar and electronic textures to swell the imaginative mayhem already provided by sax and double bass.
