Deloris - Elastic Bones

Fri 8th Jul, 2005 in Music Reviews

Deloris have released the single Feather Figure (from last year’s gem Fake Our Deaths) along with an EP of seven “acoustic skeletons of songs” presented by songwriter Marcus Teague. Teague’s writing creeps up on you – he builds and builds on songs with layers of beautiful images – which are perfectly matched by a video included on the CD for Feather Figure by local animator Yuki Wada. It’s a plug it in your ears and hole up in front of the fire type of collection. Perfect for winter days, rain on the roof, hot soup and nice people by your side.

Feather Figure rambles along, telling the tale of a sad Dad who takes light bulbs out of house lights and street lamps, only to kick in and surprise you at the bridge with a burst of bigness. Then acoustic Teague presents his seven tracks. There are some, like Battle, full of sections layered with nothing but a million different Teague harmonies – luckily it’s a nice voice to do such things with. Warm, Spaces and Unbroke are all stripped back versions of tracks from the album Fake Our Deaths and there’s an acoustic version of Feather Figure in Feather. It’s refreshing to hear such things as the shaky accordion on Warm matched with nothing but guitar and gentle vocals. Short Wave and Long Wave are new tracks, with Short Wave just fifty seconds long and mostly radio static. Long Wave paints three different scenarios of dead time. Unbroke shines last, culminating with the simple cleverness of an ever-so-gentle hand-clapping (or is it knee slapping, or finger clicking) percussion.

Deloris present this collection as an ultra-stripped-back and bare acoustic set, letting Teague “pick the flesh from the bones” of fsongs from this group of Melbourne lads who have been around for over seven years now. It’ll be interesting to see what direction they head in next.