Cloud Control – Bliss Release (Infectious)
4/5
By: Chris Jones
Down Under, Bliss Release won the Australian equivalent of the Mercury Prize. The Aussie rockers created this dreamy album under the majesty of the Blue Mountains, and it seems that the environment has influenced their music. You can hear the vast openness of the outdoors painted onto their songs amongst layers of analogue reverb, sing-along choruses and harmonic pop. For the UK release they’ve added an extra two tracks just for us Pomms. Nice lads.
The vocals of Alister Wright and Heidi Lenffer are a huge positive to this band’s work - they complement each other perfectly. On ‘Gold Canary’ there’s a campfire sing-along feeling of freedom which as in a lot of the tracks really carries with it a sense of nature. ‘Hollow Drums’ is a slow, almost haunting lullaby with a simple acoustic part that compliments the pair’s voices by remaining very much in the background, the vocals are sung together, but depart from one another slightly at times which gives a really nice spike to an otherwise gentle song.
‘Death Cloud’ is another example of Alister and Heidi’s impressive vocal partnership. ‘Ghost Story’ shares the campfire feeling as it creeps in with a haunting backing vocal that acts as the setup before each lyric, highlighting them, until the Alister belts out the chorus. There’s hanging, drawn reverb all over the track and a hypnotic clapping percussion beat.
‘This Is What I Said’ is the lead single, and also the standout track - so deliciously upbeat, with a cool bass line running underneath with these abstract conversational lyrics about atoms and souls draped over the guitars and the drums and tambourine. The instruments mingle into a charming climax that evokes a soft worry-free panorama that stretches as far as the ear can hear.
Hippie vibes and mysticism abound on Bliss Release; it’s somewhat reminiscent of the psychedelia of the early Jefferson Airplane stuff. Indeed, purely musically, Cloud Control are the best thing to come to the UK out of Australia for a long time. It has to be said that we’re not swamped with Australian bands, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that this is a charming piece of work in its own right, regardless of where it’s from. There’s a nostalgic feel to a lot of the songs, a dusky, earthy colour to their sing-along choruses a plenty that make this a really relaxing half an hour or so. Lovely.
Artists in this article: Cloud Control
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