Rolling Stone Australia September 2017

It sounds absurd, but Grizzly Bear have

carved a career from baroque-pop obfusca-

tion. The US indie band’s knotty creations

veryrarelysoundlikefourguysinaroom

jamming a tune. Instead they’re more slow-

motion unspoolings of woozy sounds, teased and twisted

into treacle-thick compositions so dense and dreamlike

that somewhere along the line you forget how they began.

Painted Ruinsistheband’sfirstrecordinfiveyears,

and that labour shows. “Three Rings” begins as a reverb-

drenched chatter, moving through groaning woodwinds

andblossomingintoaracketoffuzzbass,celestialsynths

and rippling guitar arpeggios, Ed Droste singing, “Don’t

youeverleaveme/Don’tyoufeelitallcometogether”.Those

details and underlying accusations continue on the glam

grooveof“LosingAllSense”,Drosteasking,“CouldIaskof

you not to cut into me?” The band’s lyrics have never been

direct, but the tension throughPainted Ruinsis palpable.

The density of arrangements can tire, but there’s calm

too – “Aquarian” builds until a beautiful sequence of un-

adorned chords; “Systole” opens with a rare bare vocal from

bassist and producer Chris Taylor. Some touchstones call

through the haze – Tame Impala’s modern prog-psych, Ra-

diohead’s anxious percussive web, andWhite Album-era

Beatles.ButforthemostpartGrizzlyBearreturnagain

grownfromtheirownstrangeplot. MARCUS TEAGUE

Emma Russack

Permanent VacationSpunk

★★★

Intimate ironies and minimal

piano strokes from indie girl

Russack’s“EverybodyCares”is

asardonicrejoindertoCourtney

Barnett’s“NobodyReallyCares

If You Don’t Go to the Party”,

cunningly rendered more anti-

social in the voice of a deluded

partyqueen.It’saslightdepar-

turefromaconfessionalinten-

sity that’s maudlin to the point

ofwrycomedyintheslownavel-

gaze of “Migration” and finds

theartistaddressingherself

in third person – “Emma, the

jig’sup”–inthetitletrack.Self-

image is the unsettling focus

of “Blonde” and “Body Goals”,

then it’s sly wit again in “Dream

Man”.Russack’sdeadpanphi-

losophising and spare, lone-

ly atmos weave a puzzling and

compelling spell. MICHAEL DWYER

Tom Cooney

Futureproof

El Niño El Niño/Bird Music★★★½

Hushed folk balladry that proves

unusually spacious

With his lilting voice and deli-

cate fingerpicking, Brisbane’s

TomCooneyembracesthecosy

intimacy of folk music on his

first album in six years. That

workstogreateffectonthepro-

foundtitletrackandtheElliott

Smith-esque “Sinking Feeling”,

while tasteful embellishment

fromMelbournetrioSleepDe-

cade,stringarrangerBiddyCon-

nor and harmony singer Cor-

rinaScanlonhelpleavensome

of Cooney’s post-relationship

brooding.Hemayslotinneatly

next to indie folkies like Iron &

Wine,butCooney’sgiftforclear-

cut, often pastoral imagery and

wide-open atmosphere makes

Futureproofwell worth poring

over in its own right.DOUG WALLEN

The Angels

Brothers, Angels and

DemonsLiberation★★★

Five-decade journey from jug

band stoners to legends

Asstartlingasitistohearthe

Angels in their primitive form

asapot-smokingjugband,it

can’t compete with the late

1970sAngelsattheirshadow-

boxing peak. So, this 36-track

archivetrawlisstrictlyforcom-

pletists.Besidesjugbandram-

bles and acoustic Brewsters, in-

cluded is a brace of recent tunes

with Dave Gleeson, plus half a

dozen live tracks from 2010’s

Symphony of Angels, the last

line-up to feature iconic front-

man Doc Neeson and bassist

Chris Bailey, now both gone,

andanorchestra(notagoodfit).

Thepickofthelitteristhehand-

fulofclassiceradeepcuts:Dark

Room’s “I’m Scared” still kicks

like a mule. JEFF APTER

Jep and Dep

THEY’VEBEENCALLED

No Drums Records★★★½

Second album from enigmatic

Sydney folk duo

ThesultrymusicofJepandDep

is for solitary nocturnal listen-

ing. Channelling Tom Waits,

ScottWalkerandsomeelements

of Serge Gainsbourg, the duo

forge a reverb-happy shimmer

on each of these taut, concise

songsthatarefurtherenhanced

by Dep’s admirably sensitive

production. Jep’s voice, mean-

while, possesses an absorbing-

ly lived-in quality, worldly rath-

er than trained, and combines

with Dep’s more limited croon

nicely on “My Berlin” and “Un-

requited Requiem”. While not

exactlyeclectic(stickingfirm-

ly with the neo-gothic noir),

THEY’VEBEENCALLEDis su-

premelyatmospheric,andrevels

in the shadows BARNABY SMITH

Grizzly BearPainted Ruins

Sony★★★½

Grizzly Bear’s

Dense Fifth

Atmospheric fifth album from a unit now

expert at composing experimental folk-pop

September, 2017

Reviews

84 | Rolling Stone | RollingStoneAus.com