On the cover of Timescape, a tiny redheaded toddler stands on a giant sundial as a vast landscape stretches behind her. This marriage of time and nature is the defining theme of Anglo-Irish folk group The Portraits’ second and latest record, a blissfully varied collection of songs brimming with subtle emotions and an array of eclectic instruments.

The best thing about Timescape is that it doesn’t evoke an immediate reaction. My first listen was a nonchalantly unimpressed wade through the 40 minutes that make up the record, and it made very little impact – but on each listen since I’ve been able to uncover something subtle that I love in each pithy little song. Perhaps saying so isn’t really professional in the sense that album reviews are supposed to be – after all, aren’t we supposed to remain somewhat objective?

But this is exactly the point of Timescape. It allows us to throw away our inhibitions and freefall into an unexplored world, forging a very real personal connection with Jeremy and Lorraine Millington, the brains behind The Portraits who also have a deeply personal connection themselves, as creative collaborators for more than a decade and, more recently, husband and wife.

The intro and verse of the opening track ‘Poppy Song’ are not particularly striking, but the delicate warmth of The Portraits comes flooding in as soon as the bright chorus hits. Lorraine’s breezy vocals, reminiscent of early Andrea Corr, are beautifully underscored with the simple accompaniment as she paints an evergreen picture: “tell me eternal green / under your endless sky / how you are so serene / knowing all the truth you hide?”

This melding point of nature and time is explored further in the nine tracks following, awash in both cynicism and hope. From the facelessness of celebrity in the darker flavour of ‘Fame’ to the finiteness of life explored through earthen metaphor in ‘Precious Red’, Jeremy and Lorraine offer a fresh outlook on both the bright and dark sides of life using mental scenery created both through words and music.

The employment of instruments such as cellos, ethnic flutes and trumpets, as well as the usual piano and guitar, makes Timescape an experience that really fits its name. It seems to borrow from world music, with African-inspired bongos providing the beat for many of the songs. In both a musical and lyrical sense, Timescape shows intelligence and diversity – focusing on all aspects of life to which anyone can relate, it also focuses on different facets of musical composition and innovation.

‘Real World’ illustrates this perfectly – beginning with a harmonised refrain, it proceeds to lurch into an upbeat ditty about the transition from childhood into adulthood whilst a jangling percussion ensemble rattles cheerily over an effervescent harmony. Though the subject matter is far from cheery, The Portraits make it gorgeously listenable – and make me think that maybe “progressing into the real world” won’t be so bad.

There are some questionable decisions sometimes, such as the very mechanical-sounding drum fade at the start of ‘Poppy Song’ which detracts from the lithe feeling of the rest of the song, and the production of the songs could do with more polishing as it feels a little rough around the edges at times. But sometimes it’s this rawness that makes it feel the most personal, like an honest poem scribbled hastily on a piece of paper.

If this record doesn’t strike you straight away, don’t give up hope – I’m not saying that it’s perfect, but it is overflowing with so much promise and passion. Put it on your iPod and take a walk down to a lake or river on a warm day, and sit there soaking in the world around you and the radiance of this music. I promise you it will be worth the effort.

TRACK LISTING:
01. Poppy Song
02. Fame
03. Autumn
04. Bitter
05. Precious Red
06. Real World
07. See Through You
08. Shield
09. Virtual
10. Windfall

DOWNLOAD: Poppy Song (m4a)

See that face? That is the 10:30am face of Giselle A. Nguyen who, in a flurry of reckless passion, purchased tickets to see Simon & Garfunkel. For $285. For one ticket.

However I will be seeing them TWICE in just a bit over two months! (Add a few extra billion of those for effect).

That little bank card that I’m holding is not going to be impressed though. We’re in a recession! I’m a struggling arts student! I don’t have a steady income!

Fuck, I really can’t properly justify this, can I?

Do not try this at home. No really, don’t.

I don’t know about you, but a large chunk of my teenage years was marked by one word: ANARRCHHYYYYYY! And whilst I wore my wrist cuffs and black eyeliner and Chuck Taylors and Sex Pistols shirt, there were two bands that I listened to religiously: NOFX and Bad Religion. No really, RELIGIOUSLY. Linoleum supports my head…

Well it looks like it’s my 15 year old self’s lucky day, because these two seminal 90s punk rock bands are heading to Australia, TOGETHER, this September. Don’t miss out on tickets to what promises to be a fierce punk show featuring two bands who aren’t afraid to voice their opinions.

Tickets available from April 24 through your usual outlets.

DATES
Thu September 24: Metro City, Perth
Sun September 26: Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide
Mon September 27: The Palace Theatre, Melbourne
Tue September 28: The Palace Theatre, Melbourne
Thu September 30: Hordern Pavilion, Sydney
Sat October 2: Brisbane Riverstage, Brisbane

Brisbane singer-songwriter Helen Franzmann has one of those delicate girly voices that makes you feel like you’re sitting in a dark room by yourself with a ghostly presence lingering nearby. That voice is the focal point of her debut album Glorio where, under the name McKisko, she shares her haunting visions.

An unexamined listen to the album’s nine songs would suggest that McKisko is simply another singer-songwriter project that sails along calmly in the general folk vein, but a closer inspection reveals that the simplicity of these tracks is actually quite deceptive.

Whilst most of the tracks fall into a familiar guitar/piano/voice structural ground, it still manages to avoid triteness – ‘Thankful Tangle’ is a gorgeously straightforward song with a simple acoustic accompaniment, and the beautiful ‘Marcel’ is a stripped-back moment of introspection, with a distant trumpet and acoustic guitar providing companionship to Franzmann’s utterances to a clandestine lover. Often it’s this modesty in composition that allows the sombre lyrics to really take effect, whether they be dark moments of morbidity or innermost secrets spilled into song.

The more unconventional tracks employ a wide range of instruments – opener ‘How We Are’ begins with an uncomplicated electric ostinato accompanying Franzmann’s musings on escapism, but culminates in an atmospheric mixture of glockenspiel, cello, bowed guitar and spooky background vocals and buzzes that swirl steadily on as Franzmann’s dreamy voice fades. Similarly, an eclectic mix of tin drum, hand claps, brass, strings and melodica can be found on ‘A Difficult Crossing’, the album’s most upbeat and experimental moment.

At just over half an hour, Glorio is not an exaggerated album but rather one that presents its ideas with vulnerable precision. As a debut it is a markedly fine effort with some confident forays into previously unexplored territory, and serves as a fitting introduction to an up-and-coming talent.

TRACK LISTING:
01. How We Are
02. The Hollow Boat
03. Jackson Curse
04. A Difficult Crossing
05. Undertow
06. Marcel
07. Silence Slowly
08. Thankful Tangle
09. Into the Night

DOWNLOAD: Thankful Tangle (mp3)

Interview for Mink Magazine

He went from being an assassin gangster one day to a mute rapist the next. He’s plotted conspiracies against great political leaders and, most recently, has become a smooth criminal – guns, drugs, women, the whole shebang.

So how exactly has he managed to pull off all these gritty acts without securing himself a nice little spot in prison or, as a matter of fact, any reprimand from the criminal justice system at all?

The answer is simple – Paul Winchester is an actor with the most dedicated intentions to make his unconventional roles believable.

“I really enjoy immersing myself in a character and basically being able to take myself to a different world,” he says. “People have got to connect with what you’re doing – either they like you or they’re repulsed by you, but they’ve got to have an emotional reaction.”

Born in Northern Ireland and relocating to Perth at the age of nine, Winchester’s imagination was sparked at an early age when, like many other little boys, he saw the Star Wars films and decided he wanted to be Luke Skywalker.

From there it was a quick road to discovering his affinity for performing, starting with home puppet shows and progressing to weekend acting classes, clowning around with the high school circus and participating in stage shows both at school and at the local theatre.

“I never felt comfortable being myself when I was younger and I really felt like acting was an outlet for me to be anything I wanted to be,” he muses. “I certainly didn’t have that confidence in my real life. So you know, it’s a way of building your self-esteem.”

After high school, Winchester was accepted to study musical theatre at the prestigious Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), where he studied until 1993. But it wasn’t long before he realised that his true passion was for film and television and so, in 1994 at the age of 22, he packed up and left for Sydney.

He’s been building on his career since, dabbling briefly in film production as well as acting in commercials, TV programs (with guest slots on Packed to the Rafters and All Saints), short films and feature films, including 2007 blockbuster Gabriel.

But the three years he spent studying theatre didn’t go to waste – he says they actually expanded his artistic horizons.

“I really think that the theatre background has given me the ability and the skills to broaden the kind of characters I can play,” he says. “What it’s done for me is it’s given me the ability to play character roles or roles that don’t necessarily fit your type.”

And considering the strange characters that Winchester has pulled off in the past couple of years, it seems that transforming from self to character has become second nature, whether it be by method acting or simple internet research – “I inevitably have to do research because I don’t go around being a brutal axe murderer!” he jokes.

In his latest film, Sweet Marshall, Winchester plays the suave Marshall, a high flyer who has it all but is entangled in a deceitful and messy web – a character whose sense of humour he related to, and also the first hero-type character he’s played.

Sweet Marshall was produced and shot entirely by students of the Participate Film Academy – an experience that Winchester says was different in a good way.

“It didn’t always run smoothly and there were mistakes made,” he reflects.

“Shooting crews can be a bit slower but they were incredible. There were only ten [students] involved but they were producing this whole film, coordinating the whole thing…everything. It was a huge undertaking and I still can’t believe they did it.”

So did the end product meet his expectations?

“They won’t let me see the whole thing until the premiere, will you believe it?” he laughs. “They want to keep it as a surprise. So I’ve seen bits and pieces here and there, and it looks fantastic.”

But whilst he is inspired by working on films, Winchester, like many other actors, finds that the trouble with his career of choice is that work – and subsequently income – is inconsistent. So in order to stay constantly involved with his passion and also make ends meet, Winchester co-runs Point Break Drama School on top of his acting commitments. Since 2002, along with co-founder and fellow actor Adam Stewart, he has taught the joys of performing to adults and children alike, an experience which he sees as being helpful to not only aspiring actors, but also to himself.

“You see firsthand what you’re doing for people,” he says, “and in the process it’s made me a better actor because I’ve been talking about my acting craft for seven years and clarifying a lot of stuff for myself.”

As Shakespeare once said, there’s method in the madness – while watching Paul Winchester on-screen can be a disturbing experience, it’s all a carefully calculated procedure and in the end he’s just playing a part. But this man is so passionate about his art that it literally jumps to life, and to say that he has a bright future ahead would be a gross understatement.

“I feel like I’m kind of hitting my full stride now,” he says.

“I’m in the zone and ready to take on the next big role that comes along.”

Sweet Marshall premieres at Hoyts Fox Studios on April 22.

Channel [V] and Max Music recently welcomed me on board as a reviewer for their websites, and have just sent me my first record to critique. Upon opening the package and being met by a copy of Chris Isaak’s Mr. Lucky, I winced – but then realised great lol-potential in it. So secretly, I was hoping this album would be all kinds of terrible, because I wanted to be amazingly hilarious and witty and start this review with the line “Baby did a bad, bad thing by making this record”.

But unfortunately for me – and fortunately for self-proclaimed lucky crooner Mr. Isaak – it’s actually not that bad.

The man behind pre-00’s hits ‘Wicked Game’ and ‘Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing’ (which I haaaaated as an eleven-year-old) is back with his first album of original material in seven years. Mr. Lucky offers 14 songs spanning genres from blues to country to rock to just plain good old pop, all of which are accented with his sweepingly grandiose voice and its dynamic range.

The album opens with a rattling twang before Isaak launches into the controlled rollick of ‘Cheater’s Town’, followed by the more introspective and heart-wrenching sob story that is ‘We Let Her Down’. Isaak’s voice is a great conveyer of emotion, ranging from a quiet croon to a heavily passionate sonority. He also uses his manly charm to woo not one, but two popular chanteuses on this record – Trisha Yearwood joins the party on the mushy I-miss-you ballad ‘Breaking Apart’, whilst Michelle Branch lends her breezy vocals to ‘I Lose My Heart’.

Isaak doesn’t limit himself to the downbeat sappy ballads, though, showcasing a number of genres on the album. ‘We’ve Got Tomorrow’ adopts a simple country feel coupled with jangling guitars and a steady percussion thud, with some feel-good brass kicking in halfway through, whilst ‘Very Pretty Girl’ oozes some serious skeeze with Isaak’s now seductive voice beckoning in any ladies who might be listening. The fantastic ‘Take My Heart’ is a Nat King Cole flavoured retrospective that calls to mind silent movies and top hats, and Vegas comes to you with the album’s swing finale ‘Big Wide Wonderful World’ – jazzy saxes, slow finger-clicking vocals and all.

But the main critical point that really emanates from this record is that, overall, I’m not convinced that it will help Isaak win over a new generation of fans. Though the production is crystal clear, there is something about his lyrical and musical composition that can be incredibly (and seemingly unironically) ‘80s, more often than not verging on cringe-worthy.

Take, for example, ‘You Don’t Cry Like I Do’ – if the song title itself wasn’t enough, consider these lyrics: “You don’t cry, cause you don’t need me now, you don’t want me / You don’t want me, you don’t love me / That’s what kills me”. Team that up with a delicate tinkering piano and soaring guitars, as well as layered male vocals culminating in a syrupy plead of a bridge, and you have yourself some grade-A cheese. Obviously any ballad will have at least a slight element of corniness, but Isaak really outdoes himself in this capacity, resulting in an album containing many moments that really should have been left in the ‘80s.

So I was right and wrong in my initial preconceptions of this record – whilst Chris Isaak didn’t do a great thing, it wasn’t a bad, bad one either. For long-time fans, Mr. Lucky contains the genre-hopping that you’d expect, with some really wonderful moments, but for newcomers or naysayers, it may not be enough to sway you. Perhaps if Isaak dropped the cheese he’d be able to achieve some songwriting worthy of sharply focused attention – the upbeat and creative songs on this record show that the potential’s certainly not lacking.

TRACK LISTING:
01. Cheater’s Town
02. We Let Her Down
03. You Don’t Cry Like I Do
04. We’ve Got Tomorrow
05. Breaking Apart (with Trisha Yearwood)
06. Baby Baby
07. Mr. Lonely Man
08. I Lose My Heart (with Michelle Branch)
09. Summer Holiday
10. Best I Ever Had
11. We Lost Our Way
12. Very Pretty Girl
13. Take My Heart
14. Big Wide Wonderful World

DOWNLOAD: Take My Heart (m4a)

If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like if The White Stripes were Australian, wonder no more – Melbourne five-piece The Smoke are pretty much exactly the same band.

Their debut album Blood Orange adopts a DIY garage-punk ethos and delivers thirteen songs that are solid, sure, but lack any real originality. Everything from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs-esque cover art, to singer Dane Robertson’s Jack White-tastic drawl coupled with a simple three-chord progression in the aptly-titled opener ‘Good Morning Jack’, suggests that The Smoke are a band that have absorbed their influences to an extent where they become them – to both their benefit and detriment.

There are a couple of great moments on this record – first single ‘Defeat Retreat’ features an Aussie accented gang vocal heavy chorus perfectly suited to the mainstream airwaves, while ‘Baby’s Got The Shakes’ and ‘Cut the Brakes’ both adopt a Springsteen flavour of infectious country rock, complete with rollicking guitars and handclapping choruses. The poignant ‘Night Flight’ is the album’s only taste of semi-acoustic introspection, with both strummed and fingerpicked electric guitars gently underscoring Robertson’s subdued vocals.

The problem with these songs, though, is not that they’re not well composed or well executed, but rather that they don’t offer anything new. Obviously the formula works, as it has worked for countless bands before, but that’s precisely the issue – it makes them blend in.

Before the album’s minute-long instrumental close, Robertson muses, “I’m just a boy chasing a dream of fascination, lust, love and everything in between”.

That dream should continue to be chased, but with a stronger unique vision – Blood Orange will please fans of the genre, but may leave those hoping for some home grown innovation thirsting for something more.

DOWNLOAD: Defeat Retreat (m4a)

The most exciting tour news of the year is finally set in stone, with legendary folk duo Simon & Garfunkel set to return to Australian and New Zealand shores mid-year for their first visit here in 25 years.

The duo claim this to be their last ever reunion, so don’t miss out on what is set to be one of the most incredible tours to hit this country in many years. The once-in-a-lifetime opportunity won’t come cheap, with tickets selling for up to $380, but I daresay it will be worth it.

Presale starts at midday on Monday April 6, and tickets will be available to the general public on Friday April 17 through Ticketek.

DATES
Sat June 13: Vector Arena, Auckland
Sun June 17: Entertainment Centre, Brisbane
Sat June 20 / Sun June 21: Acer Arena, Sydney
Thu June 25 / Fri June 26: Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne
Tues June 30: Entertainment Centre, Adelaide
Thu July 2: Burswood Dome, Perth

Allow me to preface this review with a warning, or perhaps an admission of sorts: I am a bit of an electronic music noob. There is very little in the electronic genre that I listen to frequently, and even less that I’ve seen live (out of the hundreds of bands I’ve seen, this was probably the second electronic one).

But despite not being anywhere close to an electronic music connoisseur, M83’s Saturdays = Youth was one of my favourite records of 2008 with its mix of contagious dance and spacey ambience. And so it was with great enthusiasm that I went along to see Frenchman Anthony Gonzalez and his three friends kick up what I hoped to be an electronic storm at the Metro Theatre last night.

Even with the little knowledge on the topic that I have, I’ve always considered electronic music to be widely about spectacle. Everyone’s heard about the explosiveness of a Daft Punk concert, in terms of the combination of lights and music (did I just indirectly make a Cut Copy reference? Yeesh, sorry) – and arguably that’s what makes it such a huge event. The marriage of these infectious beats with several hundred badass light spasms is what gets people talking, right?

Apparently I really AM an electronic noob, because M83 proved to me that I was wrong. So, so wrong.

Accompanied by an additional bass guitarist, keyboard/vocalist and a drummer curiously seated behind a cage-like structure of Perspex glass, Gonzalez launched right into ‘Run Into Flowers’ to start the night off, bleeding slowly into the frenetic energy of ‘*’. The thing about watching a live electronic set is that sometimes they’re not actually doing all that much, with a lot of the electronic beats coming from a pre-recorded synth box, and so without lights there’s nothing really to watch – it sounds pretty amazing, but they’re not always playing and when they are, it’s not much to write home about in terms of visual titillation. And for almost the entire set the band stood in a dark purple light with little to no variation – which did match their huge spacey sound, at times, but generally didn’t give us anything to look at, either.

‘Kim & Jessie’, the deliciously ‘80s-flavoured lead single from Saturdays, was intensely let down by a job very poorly done at the mixing desk (and, in unrelated but equally annoying news, the photographer douche who insisted on snapping a photo of my boyfriend and me at the very moment it started. Jesus.). The huge soaring riff was made almost completely inaudible by a mix-up with the levels, and in the middle of the song the two singers’ voices were distorted to a high screech. What could have been an excellent performance song instead felt terribly lackluster – even in the parts where they weren’t fucking up, it just didn’t sound or feel like any fun at all.

I’m sounding horribly cynical, aren’t I? Truth be told, I did love a few moments – my favourite song of the set, ‘Graveyard Girl’, was an early arrival and the sound was so punchy and spot-on that, much to my self-disgust, it made me dance a little jig and smile a huge smile (EVEN DESPITE THE LACK OF LIGHTS, WHICH WOULD HAVE MADE IT SO RAD). ‘We Own the Sky’ (or, as Gonzalez sings it, zeeeee sky) was incredibly atmospheric and saw a definite vocal chemistry between Gonzalez and female vocalist Morgan Kibby, and ‘Teen Angst’ sent my brain flying somewhere up above the earth.

Also, can I just say that I really, really love French people and whenever Gonzalez nodded shyly at the crowd and said “sssssank you”, I melted a little. No seriously, I love French people.

But it was only at the very end, encoring with ‘Couleurs’, that M83 proved what the rest of the gig really could have been. With bursts of bright yellow light merging with the purple that shrouded them, as well as excellent sound, the one-song encore was as explosive and invigorating as I’d hoped the entire show would be.

Certainly it’s a step up from M83’s last visit to Australia just over a year ago where, playing in a Midnight Juggernauts support slot, they rocked up sans equipment and played for ten minutes before farewelling the crowd. Yeah, awesome.

But looking at last night’s gig non-comparatively, it was still a pretty big letdown. Clocking in at just under an hour altogether, what could have been one of the year’s most exciting gigs was instead a very mediocre one, let down further by shit sound guys and a lack of creativity on the visual performance side of things (which could have pushed it from okay to good, even great).

I feel almost the same way as I did at the end of that Ryan Adams gig in 2007 (with the lights being matchies, too). God damn.

Set:

Run Into Flowers
*
Graveyard Girl
We Own The Sky
Teen Angst
Don’t Save Us From the Flames
Kim & Jessie
A Guitar and a Heart
—
Couleurs