McKisko - Glorio

Sat 11th Apr, 2009 in Music Reviews

Australian music is becoming at danger of drowning in its own self-hype. Remember, we are the country that launched a thousand Jets and allowed Andrew Stockdale to bring on Wolfmother v2.0. Thus, when a record lands in your lap that is not only remarkably accomplished, but actually very good, it is a far more difficult proposition than it used to be to accurately describe why it is so without releasing waves of opinion throughout the blogospheres and beyond.

So let’s get through the obvious stuff first: McKisko doesn’t sound very much like anything you’ve heard, unless you tune into Triple J every time you’re in the car and refuse to listen to anything before 1993. She has toured with the kind of people that get the scenester set salivating – Bon Iver and Jose Gonzales among them – but she does not share much in common with them apart from her prevalence for acoustic guitar. In fact, her debut album shifts tones so dramatically that if it weren’t for her voice, you’d be lucky to know it was being recorded by the same person.

Compare A Difficult Crossing – which comes armed with an Evermore-style snare beat, brass parts left over from Radiohead’s Amnesiac sessions and an insistent melody that is at once angular and soothing – with the gorgeous opener How We Are, which plays around with free time almost as much as Jackson Curse, entirely dictated by its creator. Make no mistake, Helen Franzmann has a tremendous voice, but it’s her musicality (she plays pretty much everything within her capabilities on this album) that really makes it a delight to listen to.

It’s not a pop record, it’s not an indie record, and it’s not something they’re liable to start pimping on FBi either. I fall short of calling this a ‘classic’ because those observations are usually better made with the benefit of hindsight, but it comes pretty damn close. This is going to be the LP that sweeps all of the critical awards (like the AMP) in the coming year, so do yourself a favour – pick it up and get educated early. Rest assured people will be talking about this for a long, long time.

Glorio is out now on El Nino Records.