Six Strings on Post To Wire
Thanks to the wonderful folk/americana blog, Post To Wire, for having a chat with me this week for their regular Six Strings feature. (and for the 8/10 review) Want to hear me rambling about my parents 70’s dress sense, old Holdens (or was it a Valiant?), boom boxes, Marc Ribot, Neil Young, Dylan, touring with The Church and nostalgia filled tunes? Read the interview here.
May Issue
An Ear To The Earth
★ ★ ★ ★
Opening with a rumbling tuba, Mark Moldre’s second album has you thinking he could be an Aussie version of Tom Waits. But he’s a sweeter singer. Produced by Bluebottle Kiss’s Jamie Hutchings, Moldre delivers vivid vignettes of the lost and lonesome. “You can know where you are and still be lost” he decrees in the downbeat standout, I Don’t Know What’s Become Of Her. He also sings “There are cliches all over the world, because they’re true.” But An Ear To The Earth is filled with delightful detours, switching from blues to roots to jazz. Very tasty indeed. Jeff Jenkins
Laughing Outlaw/Inertia
Mark Moldre
An Ear To The Earth
8 April, 2013
An Ear To The Earth is the follow-up to Mark Moldre’s debut solo album The Waiting Room, an accomplished set of folk-tinged indie rock songs that no doubt gave him the confidence and curiosity to dig deeper into his own songwriting and explore some of the more diverse corners of his musical influences that feature on this excellent album.
The impact of Moldre’s broader palette hits immediately on the opener Everything I Need, a stomping, clattering Tom Waits-ish jazz lurch with a glorious clarinet courtesy of Lee Hutchings. Beneath the old time exterior the song is an ode to a loved one, a declaration of contentment and one of the two most direct lyrical turns on the album. The other is Killer Anxiety, with its bright and uplifting calypso swing belying the song’s dark and honest subject matter concerning panic attacks.
Jamie Hutchings produced the album, and the two share a love of the dismantled and fragmented percussion that populates many of the songs. It gives them a wonderful organic, spacious and brittle feel, and they were very judicious in where they placed the ramshackle elements across the record. The other aspect of the record that stands out is Moldre’s voice; a maturing, world-weary instrument full of grain and character. He is now singing within the songs rather than pushing them along as he may have in the past, and it contributes to some beautiful and emotionally rich moments like the warm and dreamy Madeleine, the jazz croon ofLast Card and the delicate chaos of the closer O, Dreamtime Blues. An Ear To The Earth is exactly what you want from an artist – a record that shows they’re stretching themselves, expanding their art and reverentially experimenting with the great art of songwriting.
Chris Familton
http://themusic.com.au/reviews/album/2013/04/08/mark-moldre-an-ear-to-the-earth-chris-familton/
★ ★ ★ ★
There is a clear and concerted shift from the mostly alt-folk of Mark Moldre’s first solo release, The Waiting Room, to the eclectic mix of sounds found on his second solo effort, An Ear To The Earth. Moldre, a gifted lyricist and melody-maker, manages to piece together different styles, both coherently and beautifully: from the swoony polka sounds and brass instrumentation onEverything I Need Is Here, to the romantic, flamenco-esque guitar work and smoky vocals on Madeleine, and then to a track like Killer Anxiety, whose upbeat pace is at odds with its serious subject matter. Each listen procures more and more appreciation for the varied and purposeful release that is An Ear To The Earth. Katie Davern
The big news is that the release date of my brand new album An Ear To The Earth has crept up on us. It’s already been receiving spins on JJJ, ABC, 2SerFM, RRR and FBi. You can now grab a copy of the brand new 10 track long player at the Laughing Outlaw website…and if you’re so inclined you can snap up a signed copy. It’s worth grabbing a physical copy just to see the excellent art that graphic artist Brett Curzon designed for the booklet. He’s a genius without a doubt. The album was produced by my old friend and musical wizard Jamie Hutchings and recorded live straight to 1″ reel to reel tape over a six day period. It was mixed by Chris Colquhoun (an absolute master of the controls). We’re all super proud of the results. You can pick up the album here:
But, if you’re one of those people who’ve given up buying CD’s you can download a copy on iTunes. Great news is the iTunes version is a bonus edition. It features 2 bonus tracks which were recorded during the Ear To The Earth sessions. One of them is a track that I found difficult to relegate to the sidelines of the album, but I’m really happy to be able to offer it to you now. Jamie and I co-wrote the song together – and recorded it together live, very sparingly – featuring only my vocal and acoustic guitar whilst Jamie played slide guitar in another room of the studio/guesthouse. It’s called Letters and I think for anyone who has purchased a copy of the album already – this is a track worth owning. The second bonus track is a revisit of an old Hitchcock’s Regret song called Small Town – from our first album Regretfulness – which originally came out way back in 2001. You can get the Bonus Edition of An Ear To The Earth here:
Love Mark
x
A couple of months back I recorded a cover of a Bruce Springsteen song called Jesus Was An Only Son from the album Devils And Dust – once again with Jamie Hutchings in the producers chair. As you can see in the pic below we were recording like it was 1984 – straight to a Tascam four track cassette recorder. The song was for a double album full of reinterpretations of Springsteen classics and it’s out now on Laughing Outlaw Records. The limited edition double CD also features extensive liner notes written by our illustrious label leader, Stuart Coupe, who has interviewed Springsteen on numerous occasions. You can purchase a copy of the 22 track release at Laughing Outlaw or on iTunes.
It’s Lord Of The Flies to a calypso soundtrack.
Food fights.
Red jelly.
Cheesy acting and more cowbell.
The first review for Killer Anxiety is in. You can read it here on the Doubtful Sounds website.
The new single has also been featured on the latest whothehell.net mixtape alongside loads of great new Australian tracks – you can listen in here.
Robbie Buck’s wonderful show on ABC Radio National, The Inside Sleeve has also been featuring tracks from An Ear To The Earth. You can hear Robbie talking in detail about the new album here.
You can also hear the opening track, Nowhere At All, on the Roots N All show at Triple J for the next week streaming here.
An Ear To The Earth will be out on Laughing Outlaw Records on April 5.
Here’s the first taste from the upcoming album An Ear To The Earth. It’s a calypso fuelled panic attack. A percussion driven nervous breakdown. Limbo as you sip a tequila and down Valium. An Ear To The Earth will be out real soon……
Produced by Jamie Hutchings. Mixed By Jamie Hutchings and Chris Colquhoun. Out on Laughing Outlaw Records April 5.
I’ll be closing this year by playing one final Sydney show with my good friend Jamie Hutchings before heading into the studio early next year to start recording the follow up to The Waiting Room. This’ll be the last chance to come along and have a listen to a few of the newies before we commit them to tape. I’ll be joined by Adam Lang (Suitcase drums, glock, banjo, lapslide, guitar) Jochen Gutsch experimental multi-instrumentalist from HINTERLANDT will join us on trumpet and bassist Reuben Wills may be joining us for a couple of tunes. (you’ll have to come along to find out). Actually you can see a clip of this line up in action, filmed live at The Vanguard a few months ago, here. Tix are onsale now. Details/online bookings info is on the Upcoming Shows page.
PS In other news a new clip for the song “Troubled Genius” (a song inspired by the Phil Spector murder trial) is now up on YouTube – created by Canadian David Duchow -who has made numerous clips for Oz legends The Church. The clip features a trippy collection of histories troubled genuises….see if you can spot them all.
The Waiting Room has made it into the Top 25 Album releases of 2010 on the Doubtful Sounds site. You can read their original review from earlier this year here. Their Americana themed sister site Post To Wire also placed The Waiting Room in their Top 12 for 2010 alongside Justin Townes Earle, Neil Young, Mavis Staples and Robert Plant.
Mark Moldre 