Friday, 27 June 2014

Record Review - Ned Collette

Published in the Shortlist section of The Sydney Morning Herald, June 27.

Ned Collette & Wirewalker
Networking In Purgatory
Dot Dash / Remote Control

Australian troubadour Ned Collette, back from Berlin where he’s based these days, brings with him his fifth release, a warm, lush record bursting (quietly) with a clutch of songs that dip and dive like springtime swallows, as intricate as they are robust

His third record with a band, Networking In Purgatory sees Collette in career best form. Beginning with the Beatles-esque ‘At The Piano’, it slowly builds as an album (for that’s what it is, not merely a bunch of songs) – the bouncy, bass-heavy ‘Bird’; the minimal and slightly electronic ‘Vanitas Quack’; the initially jazz styled ‘Helios’, which grows into a high-stepping, beatsy folk jaunt.

It’s a very considered album, one for headphones with time on one’s hands, and it rewards handsomely. Recorded between Berlin and Melbourne, its relatively lo-fi sounds, with Collette’s understated vocal riding shotgun, stand as a high-water mark for anyone looking to use folk as a base from which to really explore.
3.5/5


Samuel J. Fell


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