STACK #139 May 2016

NEWS MUSIC

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S ticking a 'PLS DO NOT DISTURB UNLESS DEADLINE-RELATED' sign to the side of my headphones has proven an inelegant but effective way to ensure I got every single sparkly release that I wanted packed into this issue. I probably missed out on several hilarious office YouTube sessions but look, it's the price I pay to make sure you're delivered sterling interviews including Beth Orton, Foy Vance and The Living End, plus myriad excellent reviews such as Modern Baseball, Mossy, Sahara Beck, Cate Le Bon, Luca Brasi, Charles Bradley, PUP and Olympia. You're welcome, dolls! Zo ë Radas (Music Editor)

Cate Le Bon

MELODY POOL L istening to her phenomenal new album Deep Dark Savage Heart , you could certainly paint Melody Pool with the 'old soul' brush – her vocal timbre is that of a veteran, her lyrics full of lacerating beauty, and her chord choices inspired. But in person the folk-pop singer-songwriter is as cute, sprightly and totally charming as a 23-year-old could be – even if she enjoys looking forward to being an elderly witch. “I think I really need to appreciate my youth more because I see all these middle-aged, older women who have amazing style, and I’m like – God. I can’t wait to be that age,” she laughs. “I’m going to have all the floaty smocks and things.” Pool shouldn’t hold her breath to get there because by all evidence, she’s going to pack a ton of punch into those intervening years. Deep Dark Savage Heart chronicles the emotional growth the musician has encountered between her last album and now: “I totally feel like they’re still relevant,” she says of the tracks on 2013’s acclaimed The Hurting Scene , “it’s just that especially when I play them live, they become more nostalgic. I still connect with them, and they were an important part of my life INTERVIEW

O ne of the brightest jewels in Australia's crown of distinguished composers and lyricists, Paul Dempsey, has returned. Strange Loop is a collection of evocative tracks which display clandestine wit, reflections on the weirdness in the mundane, and an exploration of relationships between certain pairs of characters – even if they are denizens of the one body. Intimate and radiant, Strange Loop is a must-listen. PAUL DEMPSEY

Deep Dark Savage Heart by Melody Pool is out now via Liberation. She is also touring this month - check melodypool.com.au for dates.

MUSIC

their melodies are so unusual and beautiful; these strange, high pitches. And they use a lot of notes to their chords that Western musicians wouldn’t think of, really.” Atonal, I suggest. “Yes! I’m really bad at music theory,” she smiles. “Brad [Jones, Pool's producer from Nashville] and the girls would talk about all their technical bullsh-t and I’d be saying, ‘Cool, do the plucky thing.’” She’s referring to City Lights , a great example of the exceptional string arrangements from “the girls” Hayley-Jane Ayres (violin) and Madeline Beckers (cello). “I’m a really lazy songwriter,” Pool promises. “I’ll get my acoustic and play it, and then just terribly explain what I can hear in my head to all the musicians, who try and decipher what the f-ck I’m talking about.” We definitely think they got it, girl. Melody is touring our major cities this month, beginning in Melbourne on May 13 – check melodypool. com.au for details.

at that stage. But I’ve grown into myself, and I’m learning who I am.” Perhaps most symbolic of that point is the fact you can no longer detect the slight American twang at the corners of Pool’s vocals (“I think recently I’ve been singing more like I speak”), but more so is the lyrical delivery and melodic decisions that Pool has crafted into these musical potions. Richard is a cinematic masterpiece with tremolo guitar lines and a Twin Peaks vibe ("When my boyfriend heard that song he said it sounds like it could be in a Tarantino film”); Old Enough includes Celtic-like strings plus the pairing of organ with gentle guitar that sounds like a radar pinging off points on a mountainscape, looking for a path; Southern Nightshade features diving harmonies, a cello moving up from below like an unholy voice, and that Greek guitar technique of flicking the string quickly to create a single trembling note. Pool says she often looks to ‘world music’ for inspiration. “I listen to a lot of Indian music, because

Strange Loop by Paul Dempsey is out May 13 via EMI.

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