New Buffalo, Laura Jean @ TheTroubador, 12/05/2007

Wed 16th May, 2007 in Gig Reviews

The plush curtains and surrounds of the Troubadour provided a perfect background for the gorgeous sounds of Melbourne’s New Buffalo aka Sally Seltmann. A sold out audience showed the popularity of Seltmann’s music, helped by some recent radio play on Triple J. The audience was seated predominantly for the duration of the show and a hushed silence helped to carry her threadbare songs to the back of the packed room.

Early arrivals caught the similarly ethereal tunes of fellow Melbourne songstress Laura Jean who delivered songs from her upcoming new album Edenland as well as more familiar numbers from Our Swan Song.

Initially taking the stage solo, Seltmann was eventually joined by three backing musicians. With the songs anchored sparsely by loops, percussion, clarinet and recorder, Sally herself alternated between an acoustic nylon string guitar and keys for much of the set. Occasionally she would abandon all to dance Sarah-Blasko-style for the front rows. Whilst a languid pace dominated for the much of the set (those numbers with greater instrumentation certainly stood out), she picked it up with a gorgeous rendition of the single Recovery from 2004’s The Last Beautiful Day. Indeed much of the show was reminiscent in tone of her new album Somewhere, Anywhere which is a more bare bones affair than the lush orchestration and electronics which pervaded its predecessor.

Overall, despite the occasional sameness of the pace the show was a beguiling evening of spell binding, mystical pop.