Reviews
From Issue 37 (Apr/May) of Blues Matters! Visit: www.bluesmatters.com
KEV CARMODY Mirrors
Song Cycles
Sometimes records are just plain odd. What on earth possessed Kev Carmody to
follow Dylan-esque opening track 'Dirty Dollar' and it's folk protest with a
left field electronic trance mash up in the shape of 'Are You Connected?'. Then
we're off into a sweet sounding, '70s acoustic slice of West Coast, with 'Moonstruck'.
Then it's time for a slice of world dub on 'Refugees' before a spirited Ghost
Riders style rant against the President of the United States of America on 'Dubya
Love Ya?' Kev is a man listening to the beat of his own drum while playing a
hacksaw (yes, really!) and railing against the injustices of the world through
whatever medium he sees fit. If Bob Dylan had grown up dropping E instead of
flapping around in the hash infused '60s, then he might have ended up sounding
a little something like this. If that sounds like the kind of thing that tickles
your fancy, then the best of British luck to you. You're going to need that
to go with your medication.
Stuart A Hamilton
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Kev Carmody, Mirrors
Song Cycles Pty Ltd
Music Review, Australian Options, Summer 2005
Jack Humphrys
The continuing themes of anti corporate globalization and the beauty of nature and places visited from the past are reaffirmed from this fine indigenous singer. While not reaching the heights of iconic 90s songs, such as From Little Things Big Things Grow, co-written by Paul Kelly, about the Gurindji struggle for land rights in the mid sixties, a number of tracks stand out. 'Dirty Dollar' looks at the plight of the environment and the talking blues of Refugees is a powerful statement about the causes of that situation in the world. These songs with the critical lyrics, backed by forceful guitar, contrast with the delicacy of songs about places from the varied places Carmody's life has lead him to. Tracks such as Moonstruck, Georgina River and Comin' Home stand out here. As an artist who has defied mainstream categories such as being labeled 'Australia's Bob Dylan', Carmody has always been open to experimentation. However, one track Are You Connected? featuring guitar and a series of mobile phone calls did not work particularly well.
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REVIEW BY SETH JORDAN
Kev Carmody
Mirrors
Song Cycles
The return of Australia's most articulate indigenous voice
Kev Carmody is a bit of a legend in Oz. The son of an Aboriginal mother and an irish father, he released a debut albulm in 1988, Pillars of Society, that was unlike anything previously heard from black Australia. Instead of the country/rock/reggae being pumped out at the time by most Aboriginal bands, Carmody's songs were thoughtful folk-based stories wit insightful, politically aware lyrics. Tunes like 'Thou Shalt Not Steal' and the blistering titles track quickly established him as a powerful new voice in Australian Indigenous music. His iconic 1993 duet with Aussie troubadour Paul Kelly, 'From Little Things Big Things Grow' is still rightly considered a national classic.
Carboy has been slowed down in recent years by chronic arthritis, and Mirrors (also available from www.kevcarmody.com.au) is his first collection of new material since 1995, but thankfully his lyrical fire still burns. Experimenting with a number of styles outside the restrictive 'folk' tag, Carboy pokes fun at modern technology in 'Are You Connected', mourns the treatment of asylum seekers on 'Refugees' and savagely lambastes George Bush on 'Dubya Love Ya'.
Carboy's greatest gift, however, remains his ability to evoke the unique Australian landscape. He checks out a 'Georgina River' waterhole, drives the late night back-roads on 'Comin' Home', pulls over to stare at the desert skies in 'Milky Way', and listens to howling dingoes in the gorgeous 'Moonstruck'. On the instrumental 'Campfire Rain', croaking frogs and the ambience of an approaching storm are laid over simple acoustic strumming and minimalist harmonica.
Mirrors confirms that while the body may be a little less active these days , Carboy's astute mind is still more than capable of creating crucial songs that highlight relevant social issues and conveys his deep respect for the land.
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New Internationist 367 May 2004
Mirrors
Song Cycles CD
Being described as Australia's Bob Dylan could be a hard tag to live up to, but singer/songwriter Kev Carmody has the vision and the versatility that's always marked the American's career. It was 1990's blistering Pillars of Society that put Carmody - and his impassioned songs around Aboriginal rights on the map. The success of Pillars, and subsequent albums such as Bloodlines, was also a wake-up call to many who knew nothing of the 'stolen generation' - Carmody himself was taken from his family aged 10.
Now Mirrors, released with an eye on elections in both Australia and the US, picks up the torch. It's an attractively direct release; Carmody's opener,'Dirty Dollar', sets up a simple but effective dualism between globalization and the concept of a 'pristine land'. 'Are you Connected?' - Its electronic voices almost straying into Laurie Anderson territory - wonders about isolation in the age of mass communication. 'Refugees' could be addressed to disposed Aboriginal people as well as Australia's new asylum seekers.
While these, and other subjects, receive the benefit of Carmody's eloquence,
the real charge lies in their delivery. Mirrors - an album Carmody describes
as techno/funk/punk/grunge - matches style and content in surprising ways. It's
fun and adventurous but many may feel that Mirrors works best in its contemplative
moments: 'Campfire Rain" with it's crackling logs and deluge, or the dignified,
hymnal pace of 'Georgina River". It's here that Mirrors really gives a
sense of transcendence.
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Kev Carmody is back!
Kev Carmody has been much missed since his last original album release,
1995's Images and Illusions. While his live performances continued, some
of us were a little worried by the 2000 release of his compilation album
Messages. Like a retrospective exhibition, compilation albums usually
herald an artist's passing into revered - but retired - status.
Kev was especially missed, because Australian political music seems to
be at an ebb - just when we need it most. In changing times, music gives
a unique voice to cultural dissent. But corporate profiteers have
stitched up the music industry in Australia with mindless audio fairy-floss.
But have no fear: Kev Carmody is back, still full of the powerful
political passion and evocative sense of country that first stirred us
to attention 15 years ago. A self-funded independent production, Mirrors
continues Carmody's label-defying musical style, fully recharged for a
world much changed since 1995.
Using some of his most original music arrangements, Mirrors includes a
contemptuous swipe at US President George "Dubya" Bush and a warm
message of Indigenous solidarity with refugees. These combine with songs
defiantly expressing - and celebrating - a spirit of country and
environment that is defiant of the powers trying to destroy it.
The opening track, "Dirty Dollar", reminds us of what's at stake:
"Eatin' whale meat faster, than they give birth
They're connin' us allÉ it's scientific research
Them chain saws dozers clearin' the trees
`Cos it's so good for the economy
"Dumpin' First World products in Third World lands
Forcing mono-culture into starvin' hands
Executin', jailin', those who say it's unfree
Rich importin' their wealth an' exportin' poverty
"Just wanna know which side you stand
For the dirty dollar or a pristine land"
"Refugees" is a slow, reflective spoken-word indictment of Australia's
refugee policy, comparing it to the brutality of the Aborigines'
colonial experience:
"Seeking refuge, seeking shelter from the
bankers' armoured tanks, will their god extend
compassion and embrace the immigrants
Their crime is seeking shelter from a human
livin' hell they've been captured and imprisoned
as dangerous criminals.
"This land is my spirit, my right is sovereignty
But we exist here alienated as colonised refugees.
As colonised refugees"
This song is somewhat reminiscent of his earlier "Darkside" (Bloodlines,
1993), with a haunting use of reverberating mandolin. The latter was a
tale of Murri life in the urban poor black community in Logan City,
another form of imprisonment by racism. And like "Darkside", "Refugees"
continues to linger long after the track has ended.
Despite the times he writes about, Carmody manages to retain his sense
of humour. "Are You Connected?" is a satire of the alienating use
of
technology today, set in a tongue-in-cheek way to a thudding techno
arrangement. Kev's baffled "HelloÉhelloÉhello" fights
its way through a
funny barrage of automated voice prompts.
"Dubya Love Ya?" is a bitter-funny swipe at the world's most dangerous
man. It's also a sharp rebuke at the religious justifications given for
the US-led - and other - crusades:
"We gentile, infidel, heathen ones
Caught in the cross fire with worse to come
Monotheism that comes from the Middle East
Seem to be based on warÉÉain't based on peace
Torah, Koran, Bible if ya take a look
Take their God's WordÉÉfrom that ol' monotheistic book."
Carmody's deep sense of the beauty of life also continues to shine
through in lush, poetic tributes to the Australian landscape.
"Moonstruck" is a sentimental but lovely song about the magic of
the
outback moon, rendered in a traditional country style with the acoustic
guitar up front.
"Georgina River" is a laid-back celebration of that magnificent river
in
western Queensland, vital to the ecology and Indigenous communities of
that vast region.
In the instrumental "Campfire Rain", the dramatic sounds of a
thunderstorm are skilfully interwoven with a lullaby-like, gentle sway
of acoustic guitar, harmonica and yadaki (didgeridoo). In amongst it,
Carmody manages to play in a handsaw without jarring the arrangement.
Indeed, despite its tight budget, Carmody hasn't sacrificed the
production quality. Together with a talented team of fellow Indigenous
musicians, Carmody has come up with some innovative sounds.
In "El Diablo Blanco", spoken-word poetry is set against a highly
original crafting together of whip cracks and steel-string guitar played
Spanish style. At least in art, the less one has to work with, the more
ingenious can be the results.
Mirrors is a very welcome return from the master bard of Australian
political music.
- "Iggy Kim"
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DIRTY DOLLAR
This song asks the question 'just wantta know which side you stand.....for the
dirty dollar or the pristine land?' It looks at the evolutionary destruction
of this planet's environment and it's people.
ARE YOU CONNECTED?
The impact of technology on the way we humans communicate is becoming depersonalised.
We appear to be conducting virtual reality relationships that we cannot sustain
unless we are "connected" or "wired" to that technology.
Technology will continually evolve to the point where it will completely control
us.
MOONSTRUCK
This song was written for a film sound track called 'One Night the Moon' which was about racism in the 1930's in Australia. This child who died is speaking from the grave to the living.
REFUGEES
An historical observation of the plight of refugees from Adam and Eve and Moses to the present day. It also questions the concept of Monothesism.
DUBYA LUVYA?
This current world superpower must come to terms with the fact that a lot of humanity does not agree with them, and instead of responding with military invasion and occupation, address the questions of why they are viewed as economic and military aggressors.
WHO ARE THEY?
This song looks at what drives corporate globalisation. Who are the hidden strategists that fashion the world economically, militararily and socially?
CAMPFIRE RAIN
This is a soundscape of recorded natural sounds: fire, water, thunder, frogs etc that aurally attempts to enrich the creativity of the human imagination. Also it is about how we, as indigenous cattle drovers lit fires, cooked and ate on the road droving during huge thunderstorms.
EL DIABLO BLANCO
Judaism, Islam and Christianity revere the same monotheistic God. How is it that this theological concept has produced so much conflict over millennia?
GEORGINA RIVER SONG
The Georgina River is in the interior of the Australian continent. It has an enormous spiritual significance to indigenous people from that country because of the freht water it provides and the huge abundance of wildlife it sustains, including of course, the human inhabitants.
MILKY WAY
This song contrasts the ancient spirituality of Indigenous Australians, (which is centred in the enormity of the universe) with the imported hollowiness and emptiness, of the invasion culture.
YOU BEAUTIFUL
An old indigenous friend of mine went permanently blind as a young man in the early 1950's when he and his people witnessed one of the atomic explosions conducted by the British military at Marilinga in South Australia. The authorities did not inform the people in the area that an atomic explosion was about to happen. He said to me that sighted people may be the ones that need 'a white cane and a seeing eye dog'. He said, 'I can sense when a person is beautiful......because they like me'.......
COMIN' HOME
This technological society attempts to construct humanity to serve its ideologies
and theologies. This song is about having the choice to turn off the 'highway
one' they impose upon us. We need to get off 'highway one' in order to rclaim
the spiritual essence of our ancient heritage.
- "Synopsis - Mirrors"
BLURB: KEV CARMODY............ALBUM..............MIRRORS
KEV CARMODY'S NEW ALBUM 'MIRRORS' IS AN AUDIO BOOK WITH IT'S 12 SONGS THE CHAPTERS.
WRITTEN IN FOUR BASIC GENRES THAT EVOLVE ON A JOURNEY FROM FOLK TO TECHNO.
BE PREPARED FOR THIS JOURNEY!!
".......HAVE NO FEAR; KEV CARMODY IS BACK, STILL FULL OF POWERFUL, POLITICAL PASSION AND EVOCATIVE SENSE OF COUNTRY THAT FIRST STIRRED US TO ATTENTION 15 YEARS AGO.
'MIRRORS' CONTINUES CARMODY'S LABEL-DEFYING MUSICAL STYLE FULLY RECHARGED FOR A WORLD MUCH CHANGED SINCE 1995.
CARMODY HAS COME UP WITH SOME INNOVATIVE SOUNDS.....(HIS) DEEP SENSE OF THE BEAUTY OF LIFE ALSO CONTINUES TO SHINE THROUGH IN LUSH, POETIC TRIBUTES TO THE AUSTRALIAN LANDSCAPE.
'MIRRORS' IS A VERY WELCOME RETURN FROM THE MASTER BARD...............
IGGY KIM
GREEN LEFT WEEKLY
- "BLURB - MIRRORS CD"