Wallspace - Nightweather

  by Malcolm Carter

published: 19 / 6 / 2006

---

Review

It’s getting increasingly difficult to know what to expect from independent Laughing Outlaw. Once their roster fell into two camps, the alt. country type thing and the power-pop side. Every once in a while they released an album which wouldn’t fit into any of those genres no matter how loosely, just to throw us off the track. With artists as diverse as the Len Price 3, the Tongues and the 'Inner City Sound' compilation on offer to say the label now has an eclectic list of artists would be an understatement. With this latest addition, the debut by Wallspace, who come from Sydney in Australia, Laughing Outlaw again show that the only thing their releases have in common these days is a guarantee of quality. 'Nightweather' is quite unlike anything released so far by the Australian label and also quite unlike anything else we are likely to hear over the coming summer months. Wallspace are a trio made up of brother and sister Nick and Savannah Eilas and Jason Kingshott on drums. Nick provides lead, acoustic and slide guitars as well as harmonica and synthesizer while Savannah handles the lead vocals and plays acoustic guitar and keyboards. You’ll notice that no bass is listed. 'Nightweather'is produced by Rob Younger (New Christs, Radio Birdman) and mixed by Wayne Connelly best known round here for his work with the brilliant You Am I. How much the sound of the album is fashioned by those two respected folk is hard for us to know but whoever is responsible for the sound should be congratulated. Forget all the comparisons floating about ( P.J. Harvey, White Stripes, Patti Smith) this band have a sound of their own. For sure elements of those artists can be heard along with dozens of others but what this trio have here is something uniquely theirs. They flit from genre to genre and still the album works It doesn’t sound disjointed and that’s down to three things. The production which strangely makes this three-piece sound fuller than a three-piece should but still keeps it basic, an odd thing indeed. That the band can sound so stripped down yet so full at the same time is astonishing. The second thing is that this band is so tight. It sounds like they have been playing together for years and it’s a joy to hear a band who work so well together, an absolute joy. Thirdly in Savannah Elias they have a remarkable singer. Think of all the best female rock/blues singers. The ones who can really sing, the ones that can hold a tune while belting out a song with all the passion and soul they can muster. Not that many is there? But in Savannah Elias we have a true star. Not only can this girl sing, she can, if 'Nightweather' is anything to judge her by, handle any style she wants. From torch ballads like you’ve never heard before, ‘Meet Me Up By The Lighthouse’, through the acoustic folk/blues of ‘Should I Call’ to the rock/blues of ‘Death Of The Call’ to the closing ballad of ‘Ballad Of Charlie Casablanca’, a heartbreaking tale of one man’s struggle in life, Savannah’s vocals are spot on and that’s without mentioning how good she sounds on the songs where the band just rock out like on ‘I Don’t Care’. It’s all here, everything you want or need in a record. It’s a Saturday night album , a Sunday morning album, that 3am album. It’s that thing that very rarely comes our way; the perfect album. If music is in your blood then just the first few seconds of the first song on this album, ‘How’s Your Love Life’, will tell you all you need to know about this debut. By the time Savannah’s vocals come in 18 seconds later you’ll be parting with your money. In 2006 Rock ‘n’ Roll is still alive and well. It’s called ‘Nightweather’ and is by a band named Wallspace.

Track Listing:-

1 How's Your Love Life
2 Stuck Inside the Nightweather
3 Everything I Wanted
4 Meet Me Up By the Lighthouse
5 Should I Call
6 Death of the Cool
7 America Is
8 Where Has the Singer Gone
9 The Future
10 Rosetta
11 I Don't Care
12 Ballad of Charlie Casablanca