Midnight Oil returns with fiery single
Its first new music since 2002 is an another propulsive and provocative offering from a band that has long shown an uncommonly deep respect for Indigenous Australians.
Distorted guitars, a prominent horn line, a thunderous rhythm section and an emphatic lyrical message rooted in Australia’s contentious history of its treatment of Indigenous people: it sounds like Midnight Oil, all right.
After 18 years of studio silence, the Sydney band on Friday returns with an explosive statement named Gadigal Land, its first new music since the 2002 album Capricornia.
In lyrics written by drummer and songwriter Rob Hirst, frontman Peter Garrett sings from the perspective of Indigenous Australians watching Europeans arrive on these shores. “Don’t you bring your poison / Don’t you bring your grog,” Garrett sings in its first verse. “Don’t you bring your smallpox / Sure to kill our mob”.
Later, the narrative in its middle eight captures the scene leading up to the first moment of colonisation: “It’s unfolding, you’re unloading / Your high and mighty prison ships.”
The provocative rock song immediately brings to mind a pair of the band’s classic tracks, particularly the global hit Beds Are Burning in the three-part horn section that drives the melody, while its lyrics recall 1986 single The Dead Heart, where Garrett again sang from an Indigenous perspective: “We don’t serve your country / Don’t serve your king / Know your custom, don’t speak your tongue / White man came took everyone.”
Gadigal Land — named for Sydney’s traditional owners — is another propulsive entry in the career of a group that has long shown an uncommonly deep respect for Indigenous Australians, which was solidified during an enlightening trip into the Western Desert of Northern Territory with Warumpi Band that informed the songwriting for 1987 album Diesel & Dust.
That sense of empathy is on display in the new song, which runs for nearly five minutes and offers a preview to an upcoming mini-album featuring collaborations with Indigenous artists, The Makarrata Project, which is due for release in October.
On Gadigal Land, guest vocalists include Kaleena Briggs and Bunna Lawrie, while Dan Sultan lends his voice and guitar playing. Midway through the song, Gadigal poet Joel Davison says in language, “They told us they were sorry, listen / But I think they’ve made a mistake, because for a long time / They stole my speech and family, see?”
The stirring horn section includes saxophonist Andy Bickers, trumpeter Angus Gomm and trombonist Anthony Kable, while Midnight Oil guitarists Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey largely stay locked in a tight groove driven by drummer Hirst and bassist Bones Hillman.
It is a remarkably strong return for the quintet that formed in Sydney in 1976, called it quits in 2002 — but for a couple of charity fundraiser gigs — and then returned with fearsome intent for a 77-date world tour in 2017 that saw the musicians reaching deep into their past to perform more than 100 songs from across 11 albums.
On Saturday, a performance of Gadigal Land filmed in the studio will receive its world premiere during the broadcast of the National Indigenous Music Awards, which will screen on NITV from 7pm as well as online via Facebook and YouTube.