Transmissionary Six - Transmissionary Six
by John Clarkson
published: 13 / 2 / 2002
Label:
TS
Format: CD
intro
"Immensely rewarding" and "cinematic" debut from new Seattle-based group, which features former Willard Grant Conspiracy guitarist Paul Austin and Walkabouts drummer Terri Moeller.
Transmissionary Six are a new group from Seattle, which features the Walkabouts' Terri Moeller on drums, percussion and vocals, and former Willard Grant Conspiracy member and co-founder Paul Austin on guitars, piano and banjo. Initial reviews of the band's eponymous debut album, which was recorded over three nights in November, have largely drawn the duo comparisions with Mazzy Star, the Red House Painters and Tindersticks, but while the Transmissionary Six sound has a similar brooding, intense quality to all these acts, it is, however, also more cinematic and in part is reminiscent as well of a David Lynch film soundtrack.Austin's reflective,carefully constructed guitar lines have a similar eerie evocativeness to an Angelo Badalamenti composition, while Moeller, who leaves the singing in the Walkabouts to front woman Carla Torgerson, proves herself to be a vocalist of immense, previously unheralded talent with a set of spooky,ethereal vocals that bring back memories of 'Twin Peaks' and Julee Cruise. Austin has said that the lyrics on 'Paper Party Hat' were all taken from conversations overheard in a mental institution. Overall though the album's wording has been kept deliberately obscure and oblique, the listener being left to make up his or her own mind about what is being sung. A far away voice on 'Hollis and Applegate' soothingly chides the listener to "relax to sleep", but 'Mothball' finds Moeller enigmatically warning of an "accident". 'Marooned' meanwhile tells of "an air tight plan" that has been "busted" and gone "to Hell". The implication anyway is that beneath the beautiful surface veneers of this record the stuff of nightmares lie and that, again like with David Lynch in his films, things have gone violently askew and wrong. While 'Transmissionary Six' will be given a larger scale release on the Oregon label FILMguerrero in May, it is currently only available in a self-released edition of 1000 copies through selected web sites such as this one. Atmospheric, mysterious, and resultingly immensely rewarding, it is an early contender for the one of the albums of the year.
Track Listing:-
1 Short Wave Hello2 Rodeo Satellite
3 Clay Man Down
4 Mothball
5 Marooned
6 Hollis and Applegate
7 My Paper Party Hat
8 Dog Eared
9 Submarine
10 Short Wave Goodbye
Band Links:-
https://www.facebook.com/TransmissionarySix/https://thetransmissionarysix.bandcamp.com/
interviews |
|
Interview with Paul Austin Part 1 (2023) |
|
| In the first part of a two part interview, both parts which we are running consecutively, guitarist Paul Austin talks to John Clarkson about the reformation of his band The Transmissionary Six after a decade-long absence, and their new album, 'Often Sometimes Rarely Never'. |
| Interview with Paul Austin Part 2 (2023) |
| Interview with Paul Austin and Terri Moeller (2003) |
| Interview with Paul Austin (2002) |
reviews |
|
Cosmonautical (2008) |
|
| Uplifting and epic-sounding chamber pop on fifth album from previously melancholic Seattle-based band the Transmissionary Six, which is their most accessible album to date |
| Radar (2006) |
| Get Down (2005) |
| Go Fast for Cheap (2003) |
| Desoto (2002) |
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