-
- Texture
from novel band
- Augie
March
- The
Globe, December 17
- Reviewed
by Kelsey Munro
-
- You
don't see too many bands taking their
names from novels by Nobel Prize winners,
but then Augie March is not your average
band. They are producing some of the most
carefully structured and beautiful songs
in Australia at the moment, despite
having not yet released a fuul-length
album. Music from the second, critically
acclaimed EP Waltz has earned the
Melbourne four-piece comparisons with the
late great Jeff Buckley - which are
predictable, with an electric guitar-high
falsetto combination - but Buckley's
influence may have been overstated in
this case. Augie March have plenty of
their own to offer.
- Their
music is an interesting blend of an
antique, sad kind of nostalgia, cast most
charmingly in songs like Asleep In
Perfection and Here Comes The Night; and
a strong contemporary perspective. Singer
Glenn Richards' guitar playing at times
sounded like an old wind-up music box, or
something from a gramophone record
particularly when accompanied by the
metronome tick-tcking through Owen's
Lament, and a marching band style
drumroll elsewhere. References to the
likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas
Edison and Helen of Troy appear in the
lyrics. Some of the melodies had an eerie
discordant edge reminiscent of a pianola
reel. There antique elements are modified
dramatically by the crazy post-OK
Computer (Radiohead) noises squalling out
of the second guitar. At times - like the
intro to Moth Ball - the guitarist
produced digital-sounding eeps and blips,
at other times he drenched the mix in a
wash of drilling, dissonant feedback.
It's impressive stuff, which is in ways
merely cosmetic since the bones of the
songs are already so good, bu it deepens
and texturises the music
brilliantly.Richards' beautiful voice was
a little rusty around the edges on the
night, for which he apologised croakily.
He missed many of the high notes,
sometimes taking a deliberately lower
path through the music to save his voice.
The too-loud mix and room-shaking bass
tremors often drowned out the words.
Still, by the last few songs he'd found
the higher registers again, the set
climaxing with an intense delivery of
Future Seal from their first EP. Unlike
their extraordinary recorded output,
Augie March's live performances can be a
bit inconsistent, as Richards
acknowledged. His voice is often fragile
and some of the finer points of the songs
were obscured by the blaring mix. But the
moments when Augie March hit full stride
were incredible and made it all the more
worthwhile.
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