A scene from the ‘80s American sketch-comedy show Not Necessarily the News: a middle-aged father opens the door to his teenage son’s bedroom to discover the son playing air guitar on his tennis racquet. The father, appalled at this frivolous activity, decries the air guitar antics as ridiculous and exhorts the boy to commit to his studies lest he become a laughing stock. The son, suitably chastised, puts down his racquet and opens his school books. The father returns to the lounge room where a group of fellow parents sits, each holding a makeshift jazz instrument; the father grasps the stand-up vacuum cleaner cum double bass and with a cursory ‘now, where were we?’, turns on the stereo to re-initiate the lounge room group’s domestic mime instrumental performance.
The subtext and relevance of this comic vignette to the debut long player from Melbourne songwriter Nick Sowersby, aka Sunbeam Sound Machine? That regardless of our pretensions, we’re all dreamers, perennially trying to escape the repetition and dysfunction of our daily lives.
One/Sunbeam Sound Machine is actually two EPs. The first, One, was recorded in Sowersby’s parents’ home while the second self-titled EP was recorded in his residences in Fairfield and Collingwood. Stylistically, each EP is different: One has a scrappy tone, the bedroom noodlings of a kid who’s simultaneously endeared and frustrated by the world around him. The Sound of Glass Breaking is delightfully confounding, part protestation, part adolescent confusion, part psychedelic musing; Shake (Sleep Walking) channels the rhythmic attitude of The Feelies and the kaleidoscopic bubblegum pop of Dolly Rocker Movement. Little While is a ‘60s-inspired meander through the contemporary suburban Diaspora; Odd Connection is frantic, a maddening quest for emotional empathy in a world plagued by ephemeral relationships and a disposable aesthetic.
The self-titled EP floats into aural view with the ethereal Whistle While You Wait: lie back, close your eyes, and your cognitive pain has lifted like the dark clouds disturbed by the southern winds. Space Face (Devotion) is the Californian pop track from central casting, all brilliant beauty and myopic hope. Cosmic Love Affair drags you down to the level of the green grass and compels you to appreciate the natural beauty that exists all around us, if only we bothered to look.
M’Love is a love song for the lost generation, all harmonies, simply rhythms and Laurel Canyon pop elegance. And within I Dreamt I Saw You In a Dream lies the key to transcending the superficial monochromatic ugliness of the world around us to reveal the infinite magnificence of the natural world and the human condition.
It’s said that day dreaming is actually a highly productive cognitive space; and if that’s the case, Sunbeam Sound Machine opens a gateway to emotional awareness that is sorely in demand in these dysfunctional times.
BY PATRICK EMERY
Best Track: The Sound of Glass Breaking.
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: ANIMAL COLLECTIVE, LOS SUNDOWNERS.
In A Word: Trippy.
