The Very Last
of The Fringe Reviews
Leonardo's Bride
Spiegeltent
Music ( FOUR STARS )
Apparently being groomed by Mushroom Records as their Next Big
Thing after Garbage, this Australian four-piece sit down on stage
like a sedate jazz or folk act, initially coming over as low-key. But they
leave you an hour or so later scorched, chilled, transported and hauled
through the depths, while still not entirely sure how they did it.
Abby Dobson's remarkable singing, both the sound and the mesmerising
style of her delivery, is the key intoxicant, but one with a delayed-action
effect - only rarely does she really let rip and belt it out, yet the
layers of phrasing and feeling are compacted in her voice to a recurrently
spine-tingling depth; imagine some half-candied, half-blistering blend
between Marianne Faithfull, Shirley Manson, Edie Brickell and a female
Feargal Sharkey.
Then there are the songs themselves - all original, mostly by guitarist
Dean Manning; literate, passionate compositions with titles like The Problematic
Art of Conversation and 41 False Starts, laced with strains of blues, soul
and dust-bowl country, underlain by raw rock aggression.
The arrangements centre on the arresting harmonic teamwork between
Manning and his bass player Patrick Hyndes, while Jon Howell displays an
admirably sure hand on the drum kit. Given this calibre of writing and
musicianship, fronted with Dobson's unmistakable star quality, we could
indeed be seeing a lot more of these four.
Sue Wilson
The Scotsman, Scotland, 7th September 98.
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