|
Join the Dots is the debut album by
Melbourne's Tobias Cummings and the Long Way Home.
The album is both a continuation as well as a leap
forward from Tobias' first release, the EP You Incomplete
Me. Taking in the numb trauma of Neil Young's sophomore
gem, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, and the dusty
roads that Grant McLennan explored at his most poignant,
You Incomplete Me has the kind of heart-wrenching tug
and sweetly sad overture that left the people who got
hold of a copy know they were in the presence of something
special.
The five tracks are all killer, but the particular
highlights are the delightfully plangent 'Laid to Rest'
and the stunning 'Don't You Know' and - ah, bugger it,
they're all great. Grab a copy and immerse yourself
in it.
Clem Bastow, Inpress, 'Single of the Week'
'Without a doubt, one of Cummings' strongest qualities
is his voice - able to switch between beautifully high
notes and hushed, breathy lyrics without strain. 'You
Incomplete Me' is a remarkably confident, accomplished
and well polished record.
Andrew Ramadge, Beat Magazine, 'Album of the Week'
Recalling Robert Forster's battle-cry of twenty years
ago, 'I haven't come down since Dylan went electric,'
Join the Dots nods at that half-remembered signpost
of the times changin' when music shifted from the fields
to the coffeehouses then to the main stage when an urbane
edge infected those once all too familiar sounds.
Tobias Cummings and the Long Way Home's territory sees
the Appalachians traded in for the Great Dividing Range,
small-town dreaming pitted against rock'n'roll's solipsistic
nihilism and a new Australian flavour brought to bear
on the modern musical landscape.
Produced by Tim Whitten (The Go-Betweens, Underground
Lovers, Art of Fighting), Join the Dots was recorded
directly to two-inch tape, the old way, with a minimum
of fuss and bother and no computer interference. The
resulting sound is one that is both earthy and time-worn
but which, contrarily, is also possessed of a striking
modernity.
Tobias Cummings and the Long Way Home get those smoky,
late-night feelings of dull pain and wan smiling just
so. Bruised emotions and hushed awe - the knowledge
that it's always darkest just before dawn; feelings
that are evident in the quiet grandeur in which this
album is steeped.
Join the Dots is out now through In-Fidelity Records
(via Inertia Distribution).
|
