There seems to be somewhat of a hype surrounding this Melbourne four-piece. And maybe a three track EP may not be enough evidence upon which to base a judgement as to whether it’s justified, but to these ears they’re not quite there.
By Fire is far from bad. It opens very strongly with the five minute title track, which is a very slinky, breezy groove, with vocalist Nai Palm’s sultry, soulful voice crooning sweet nothings over the top, and suggests a super-cool take on modern funk/soul. So far, so good.
It’s the choice of the two other tunes that has you scratching your head just a little, especially in the context of such a brief release. Laputa is two and a half minutes of formless sound, some bumps and whistles, and what sounds like some spontaneous, unstructured vocals performed over the top. Soul/funk music is all about the groove, and there’s not much of that going on here.
Molasses fares a little better, the groove is back, however it sounds just a little disjointed, and the track seems to lack focus and cohesion. This tune sounds like they’re trying a little too hard to do something different with soul music, and it just comes across sounding just a touch contrived, instead of just letting it flow. It sounds like they are trying to create a new genre, ‘prog-soul,’ and while they must be given full marks for attempting this, it seems they haven’t quite hit the mark yet.
Will prog-soul become a thing? Who knows, but maybe we should watch these guys closely to see if they can make it happen.
BY ROD WHITFIELD
Best Track: By Fire
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: THE BAMBOOS, THE BRAND NEW HEAVIES, OZOMATLI
In A Word: Evolving
