No Enter is the second album from Melbourne/Sydney three-piece Bushwalking. Last year’s First Time originated from Ela Stiles’ solo pieces and evolved into a more collaborative work, with the band properly forming as the album was recorded. Fusing the mantra-like intonations of Fabulous Diamonds with the psychedelic looseness of Songs and adding the eccentric, abrasive element of Kes Band, Bushwalking represents the three musicians’ bands on paper, but churns out something new, exciting and unexpected.
Their direct, focused sound is further enhanced on this new recording; No Enter stays true to their foundations, but it’s a heavier, slicker beast. Jess Lucas again contributes the album artwork, the wide open blue eye now a downcast eye painted with green eyeshadow, reflecting this new album’s subtle shift in the weather.
Highlights include the hypnotic seven-minute title track and the fiery, perfectly formed Grey Area. Kes Scullin’s obsession with song titles built around the numbers seventeen and one resurfaces on a splintered, scrappy whirlpool at the album’s centre. Land Lols starts softly but soon dives into a maelstrom of shredded guitars and ringing phones, so it’s up to delicate closer, Always Here, to give us an acoustic comedown after a wild, intense ride that is very much in keeping with their stormy, swampy live sets.
BY CHRIS GIRDLER
Best Track: No Enter
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: Fifteen SUPER WILD HORSES, Commercial Music FABULOUS DIAMONDS, The Fool WARPAINT
In A Word: Inviting
