East Brunswick was my first proper home in Melbourne. At the time it was an area with understated charm: some old shops, the odd pub and the collage of Californian bungalows and post-war brick monstrosities that characterise Melbourne’s inner-north suburbs. The fact that our financially astute landlord had purchased the property for a princely sum a couple of months previously was prescient of the subsequent rise in the suburb’s real estate value.
West Brunswick, the opening track from East Brunswick All Girls Choir’s new record Seven Drummers (the title is an ironic nod to the band’s revolving door of drummers), subliminally locates East Brunswick in contrast to the industrial-suburban sprawl of its western cousin.
There’s an emphatic tone in Marcus Hobbs’ voice: the resilient spirit of The Band, the bridled idealism of Dylan and the Antipodean intensity of The Drones. Mon Ropos (Charlie’s Jam) channels The Dirty Three in a dishevelled Brunswick flat; Dirty Bird is the wailing of a man condemned for social dislocation and emotional dissolution.
Golden Ninne is possibly a pop song – at least a song within which can be discerned the faint rays of hope. The title of 14 Clay Gully Court sounds like one of those far-flung addresses to which you’d travel in order to pick up a second-hand brown lounge suite; the track itself sends you off on an intense journey down a long suburban road, but at least you get something worth keeping. Darius is restrained and reflective; Redtop is rock’n’roll in a backyard littered with weeds, empty cigarette packets, broken chairs and an occasionally functioning barbeque. And if a trip on Russia’s primary airline was anything as comforting as Aeroflot, maybe the Cold War would’ve had a different ideological outcome. But it didn’t, and that somehow means East Brunswick All Girls Choir came about – and that’s a very good thing indeed.
BY PATRICK EMERY
Best Track: Redtop
If You Like These, You’ll Love This: THE DRONES, LEONARD COHEN and THE DIRTY THREE
In A Word: Brunswick
