The White Room - WhiteRoom Music

Mon 25th Sep, 2006 in Music Reviews

Melbourne band The White Room have finally dropped their debut long player, White Room Music, and it is an absolute gem. This is not just a collection of tracks, but a heaving, pulsating, sweating, grunting beast of transcendent expression. A rare and precious magic is encapsulated here, mostly derived from singer/guitarist Marc Collis’ brutal honesty and raw emotion – his pain, his angst, his fury and his frustration, but also his strength and integrity. Indeed his life and his music are intermingled in such an elemental way, creating a blinding sincerity that will forever elude most artists. Collis suffers from brittle bone disease, a condition that confines him to a wheelchair, and his passion radiates from the speakers, desperately tangible. It is as though we can feel his breath on our necks and hear the clenching of his jaw…

Opener and lead single ‘Enemies Closer’ is a vitriolic war-cry directed at his former friend, made all the more compelling because the track was recorded only hours after the crystallisation of the betrayal that inspired it. Collis penned every song on the album except for ‘Nerve’ and ‘First Page’, which were written by his sassy drummer sister Steph Collis. She steps up to the plate on these tracks, displaying fiery and dynamic vocal stylings.

The instrumentation and song structures are solid but conventional, with Ben Jarvis on guitar and Barry Brauer providing strong bass lines. Produced by Phil McKellar (Grinspoon, Silverchair), who stripped away the over-production, White Room Music owns an organic, uncomplicated, almost lo-fi, sound reminiscent of the band’s live gigs. As Collis has stated, the emphasis was on performance, not perfection – an ethos that allows their potent emotion to be extolled and represented more authentically.

Collis himself has a classic voice, from the falsetto-tinged verses of ‘Enemies Closer’, to the melancholic intimacy of ‘Unbreakable’ and the supple power of ‘Vicious Girl’. His anarchic and emotive accentuations are well executed.

White Room Music is an impressive debut and the future looms large. With a national tour underway, check for gig information at www.thewhiteroommusic.com.au – they are worth your support. Not often does such a supremely genuine band come into the fray.