You may draw a Blank, but they’re a hit

ROCK

Blank Realm, Illegals in Heaven

(Fire Records/Bedroom Suck) ****

Blank Realm want to mess with your head, in the nicest possible way.

Actually, let’s rephrase that, since I’m not sure if Blank Realm “want” you to do anything. They sure make music that messes with your mind though, just like those garage-psych and Krautrock bands that drew them to make music in the first place

But there have been no five-year plans, no heavy-duty management, no blockbuster promo campaigns, and no expectations beyond anything but making music they love in their own sweet way.

And yet Blank Realm are a band out of Brisbane winning fans around the globe, touring Europe, signed to hip UK label Fire Records, playing major festivals such as Glastonbury and getting rave reviews all over. All on the back of this one thing: they make great music. That’s a nice old-fashioned story about a band formed by siblings Daniel, Luke and Sarah Spencer, plus guitarist Luke Walsh.

They’ve been together since 2007, but last year’s Grassed Inn found them harnessing their experimentation with a more classic approach to songcraft — choruses to love even — and this nine-track gem gives that an even more solid foundation.

Blank Realm are a phenomenal live band, where structure is secondary to an intensity of feeling, a kind of sonic rapture that is hard to find these days. At a Blank Realm gig, you get the feeling anything could happen.

On record, they still sound exactly like themselves, Walsh’s extraordinary guitar jangle and crunch leading the way but now contained within more concise songs and melodies without losing touch with the wonder of that more experimental early work.

They know how to pull right back now: Dream Date is a ’60s-fired reverie that doesn’t need anything more than Dan Spencer’s vocal, a precisely strummed electric guitar and some drums. At the other end of the spectrum, No Views howls like corrugated iron being ripped from the roof in a hailstorm — drums, keys, guitars throbbing. Costume Drama also unwinds at a frenetic pace. Elsewhere, there is much room for beauty and for vocalist Dan to catch his breath.

Cruel Night moves slowly around interwoven slide guitars; Flowers in Mind is as colourful as its title suggests; Gold sits on a Velvet-esque floor tom beat, shimmering synthesiser from Sarah and one of Daniel’s most wistful (an adjective absent from any Blank Realm reviews until now) melodies.

Topping all of this is the six minutes of Too Late Now, an epic headphone trip with guitars cascading amid a swirl of reverb and a lyric that, like the music, offers more questions than answers. They build to a Wall of Blank Realm that envelops the listener in its glow.

Blank Realm have achieved lift-off. Hold on, old fans and newcomers alike are in for quite a ride. Blank Realm play The Foundry, Fortitude Valley, tonight. Doors open at 8pm.

Noel Mengel

Inside We Are The Same by Steve Kilbey and Martin Kennedy

ROCK

Kilbey Kennedy, Inside We Are the Same

(Inevitable) ***1/2

In which Steve Kilbey continues his furious rate of work, which only seems to have accelerated in the past few years. Following last year’s new album with The Church and a year of hard touring with his main band and other projects comes this fourth album in collaboration with Martin Kennedy of Australian band All India Radio. Yes, there are electric guitars and Kilbey’s voice, melodies, lyrics and distinctive bass lines, which means this work shares plenty with what he does with The Church. Songs like Amenia and Shegaze have that epic sweep and guitar-bursting-clouds thing. Others have a gentle electronic pulse: the ambient synthesiser glow of Amenia II gives way to the electronic murmur of This Is The Universe, topped by a contribution from a children’s choir. Female vocals are also used judiciously throughout
. Would Kilbey be better served by concentrating on The Church? Plainly Kilbey doesn’t agree, he believes that creativity is a muscle that needs to be exercised, and on the evidence of recent work he is fighting fit.

Noel Mengel

CLASSICAL

Greta Bradman, My Hero

(Decca) ****1/2

Australian soprano Greta Bradman’s operatic star is rising, as did that of Joan Sutherland when opera maestro Richard Bonynge took notice. With a talent springing from the musical prowess of her maternal and paternal ancestors, Bradman has sung professionally since 2010 but winning the 2013 Australian International Opera Award to study in Wales with Dennis O’Neill marked her for success. Bonynge knows a great voice when he hears it, and when he heard Bradman he embraced her talent, preparing and conducting her for this CD with the English Chamber Orchestra. Bradman’s distinctive technique and keen intelligence light up choice opera morsels from florid Handel, Bizet, Verdi’s deeper shades, Bellini’s dramatic bel canto in Casta Diva, operetta and popular items such as Edelweiss, When You Wish Upon a Star and My Hero of the CD title. She can toss a gossamer note, float a stratospheric phrase with aristocratic ease, or provide gutsy, dramatic shadings with substance, all spun into a liquid legato, flowing and soaring effortlessly.

Patricia Kelly

ROCK

Gin Wigmore, Blood to Bone

(Island/Universal) ***1/2

Heard more often than seen in Australia (her music has been used in ads for Alfa Romeo and Heineken), New Zealander Gin Wigmore has thrown the switch yet again with her third album, Blood to Bone. While her 2009 debut, Holy Smoke, heralded a sassy R & B approach followed up by the rockier Gravel & Wine (2011), this one is, in her own words, “diverse and heavy”. As one of three co-producers (with Stuart Crichton and Joakim Alund), Wigmore fills the first brief, performing all her own backing vocals and pushing her voice to falsetto extremes on a couple of tracks. As for the “heavy” side of the equation, lead single New Rush sets the tone. Riding an ’80s-flavoured sequencer riff propelled by explosive drums, Wigmore wails a hookline that summarises her new approach: “Got a feeling that I can’t go back.” A samey, syncopated electronica pervades the other nine tracks, though even the quieter of these are shot through with a sense of determination. She’s ready to move on from pushing cars and booze and take on the world.

Phil Stafford

REISSUE

The Doors, Other Voices/Full Circle

(Rhino) ***1/2

It’s a measure of how underplayed and underappreciated these two post-Jim Morrison efforts are that this lifetime Doors fan either had no idea, or had forgotten, they existed. Paradoxically, they demonstrate what accomplished songwriters and musicians the surviving members were in their own right, yet how reliant they were on Morrison’s presence, literally and figuratively. Echoes of earlier songs are everywhere: In the Eye of the Sun’s guitar warble (Cars Hiss By My Window), the haunting keyboards of Ships w/Sails (Riders on the Storm), the jaunty guitar outro of Tightrope Ride (Land Ho!). The second of the albums is more experimental, with soul, jazz and Latin explored and impressive instrumental breaks on multi-part tunes Verdilac and Free Bird. The closest they get to Morrison-esque vocals is on the bluesy Good Rockin’. Obviously it couldn’t last without Morrison’s poetry-in-mojo, and these are like footnotes by a band who weren’t quite ready to finish when they lost their main man.

John O’Brien

JAZZ

Miles Davis At Newport, 1955-1975

(Sony/Legacy) ****

Securing Miles Davis to appear was an essential part of the growth of the Newport Jazz Festival, established in 1954, and each played a vital role in the other’s success. Newport was the festival where careers were made, where jazz musicians could play to some of their biggest audiences and make fans for life. It was where trumpeter Davis played in 1955 as part of an all-star band put together for the occasion including pianist Thelonius Monk and saxophonist Gerry Mulligan. Davis’s performance of tunes like Round Midnight attracted the interest of the Columbia label, setting in motion the career of one of the giants of jazz. This four-CD set traces Davis’s ever-changing sound, from the cool jazz of the ’50s to the superb quintet of the ’60s with Herbie Hancock on piano to the fierce funk grooves of the ’70s, wah wah pedal on the trumpet and all. Some of these tracks have been available previously but this collection tells the story of one of the 20th century’s most fearless musical innovators during the most important years of his career.

Noel Mengel

ROCK

Last Dinosaurs, Wellness

(Dew Process) ***1/2

When I first started writing about Brisbane music, 25 years ago, releases by bands still living here were a rare occurrence. Now they arrive frequently, sometimes two in a week. In the case of this musically polished quartet, the sound aligns with ’80s bands, such as ABC and Orange Juice, melodic, funky and danceable. Evie sums up the approach with a thunderous bass, swarms of keys and guitars and a melody that urges you to sing along. It is a summery kind of sound, with added pep from the disco-fired rhythms of songs such as Apollo, which would sound just as attractive under the mirror ball as on the live stage. The band mostly plays at a brisk tempo and builds up some huge layers of sound, all quite effective when taken a few tracks at a time. By album’s end my ears were looking for a mix that favoured more light and shade. But look for these bright, poppy tunes to light up a festival stage near you this summer.

Noel Mengel

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