RAVE Magazine Single of the week

Tuesday, 29 September 2009 21:58

Bad Luck / King Of Palm Island

(Independent)

The Holy Sea are a group that essentially sound like a compendium of Australian rock – a Perth-to-Melbourne group boasting sonic references to all our fi nest locals, without aping anything in particular. The theme of their new second record Ghosts Of The Horizon backs up this homegrown sound, tying together stories and opinions of Australia’s history of the past 221 years. Quite a goal. Bad Luck begins, continues and ends in much the same vein as The Go-Betweens’ Here Comes A City – a relentlessly chugging urban machine, full of dark alleyways and phrases that you can only glimpse before they’re gone. Maybe it’s so engaging because this paved urgency is completely at odds with the lyrical matter – melancholic and even intimidating loneliness set in the endless South Australian outback.

I think. It’s a song that needs time to dissolve. King Of Palm Island starts by immediately recalling another Australian standard, this time the laidback, bitter-tinged gentility of Flame Trees, and maybe it’s no coincidence given this song is also a magnifi ed view of a small rural town. However, given it’s a study of the Palm Island community from the point of view of the policeman involved in the death in custody for Mulrunji Doomadgee, you can guess it cuts a lot deeper than talking about old glory days with mates at the pub. The incisive ‘real’ Australia of Paul Kelly, ripped open with the sharp-toothed ocker drawl of The Drones? That puts you on the right track, but despite all these stellar comparisons, The Holy Sea have their own distinct voice, and it’s honestly exciting to know there’s a whole album of it coming.

Simon Topper
Rave Magazine