Locust Music 
Function : The Secret Miracle Fountain (AU,2006)***'
This album shows lush, lukewarm and moody indiepop within a rock context seeing the medium as an art form. It has been recorded in over ten countries over a 3 ½ year period with the participation of too many friends to name them all, but with an overall consistent moody sphere effect. Leading figure is Matt Nicholson who led the band and project evolution.
This is the first real album after a couple of limited releases. The moody, partly double layered echoed piano piece “Prayer in tonal Forest” used background sounds of a recording with some clicks (as if it came from an older recording on CDR which when storing it for too long always shows such extra sounds because of natural oxidation), which fit the music pretty well with its crickets and insects-like sounds until similar natural sounds come in and participate too. Many tracks are songs with a perfectly accompanying band, which almost surrounds the song with waters and sounds in the air, with moody and dreamy experimental band spheres.
The mixing is done very cleverly, with a creative modern sound. Even the more ambient parts have very alive and quick evolving patterns, and waves. When I see Matt’s influences and musical interests I can see where he found relatives in ideas. I can grab some similar clever ideas like I found for instance with Tunng. In some way for the big production also Sufjan Stevens comes a few times to mind, although the musical aspect here is much more worked out as a true experimental element.
“New Music for Bowed Animals” shows many more loops on top of each other, like waves on a shore. “The Broken Shaman” used a fragment of a performance of vocalist and percussionist Lakshmi Shankar and Subash Chandran, for another more ambient driven track. Lead vocals on "Sinai (freedom doesn't care what I do)" are by Stephanie Watson. The last track, "Beloved, lost to begin with" adapted a text by Rainer Maria Rilke.
A great, pretty long in length, album which fits perfectly with the newest heroes on the edge of the singer / songwriter teritory.
