Joined together again

The new album Tjungu, or “joined together”, is the record Neil Murray and Sam Butcher always meant to make but never did.

Tjungu, the latest release by Neil Murray and Sammy Butcher

FOLK/COUNTRY

Tjungu

Neil Murray & Sammy Butcher

Island Home Music

3.5 stars

Tjungu, by Neil Murray & Sammy Butcher

Forty years ago, budding whitefella songsmith Neil Murray first sat down for a jam with blackfella guitarist Sammy Butcher. Murray had just blown in to Papunya, an Aboriginal settlement in the NT desert, and Butcher soon sought him out: “You got a guitar? Let’s play.” That introductory line is reprised, word for word, in Waiting For Sammy, the closing track from the pair’s new album, Tjungu, or “joined together”, in Butcher’s Luritja tongue. It’s the record they always meant to make but never got around to until sessions began in Adelaide three years ago. Since then they’ve also put down tracks in Alice Springs, Tennant Creek and Sydney, with co-producer Jim Moginie (Midnight Oil) and drummer Bill Heckenberg, from Murray’s band, the Rainmakers. It’s an eclectic set, though the constants are Butcher’s inventive atmospherics and Murray’s slight yet distinctive vocals, augmented on the choruses by the guitarist’s niece, Crystal Butcher, a fine jazz singer. Moginie chips in on keys and takes a co-writing credit on the standout track, Wind In My Head/Anangu Way, one of three with a spoken word passage (in Luritja) from Sammy B. Musically, Tjungu harks back to the Warumpi Band, co-founded by the duo in 1980, and Butcher’s guitar sound also betrays the influence of his heroes: Chuck Berry, Mark Knopfler, and 50s country stylist Chet Atkins. The composing credits may be Murray’s, but most of these stories are Butcher’s. He “stands alone on Ulumbaru (mountain)” in the gentle opener Fine Open Country, tips his hat to his longtime wife on the reggae-flecked Sweet Love, touts the elders’ store of knowledge in Libraries — lamenting how those precious oral histories are lost on the young — and, in Pikilyi, condemns the theft of his grandfather’s lands by white cattlemen. With its nod to Pete Seeger, Where Have All The Painters Gone? references how Papunya was the birthplace of modern Aboriginal dot painters, while Long and Dusty Road and Bush People salute the desert dwellers who still live on country “in the tribal way … as they did long ago”. - Phil Stafford

Smooth Big Cat, by Dope Lemon

FOLK/FUNK

Smooth Big Cat

Dope Lemon

BMG

3 stars

Folk-funk delivered through a haze of guitar, banjo and mandolin is Angus Stone’s gift to listeners with Smooth Big Cat. Stone established his credentials in his double act with sister Julia, but Dope Lemon is a less formal beast, where he invites a gang of friends to jam on random musical instruments. Recorded in Stone’s studio on his farm in Byron Bay, the album is a throwback to 1960s and 70s folk. Hey You sets the vibe, traversing Fleetwood Mac’s dreamy percussive sounds along with Dylan-esque smoky-voiced melodies. This isn’t a showcase of variety; its 10 tracks could really be one that meanders across vaguely different instrumental terrain every five minutes. Highlight Lonely Boys Paradise introduces a bouncy, synth-infused funk element to inject some energy; Give Me Honey contains a raft of favourite primary school woodwind instruments. Coastal folk-funk for daydreaming. - Cat Woods

“Let’s Rock”, by The Black Keys

ROCK

“Let’s Rock”

The Black Keys

Easy Eye Sound/Nonesuch

3.5 stars

The first half of the 2010s saw Akron’s finest duo transform into arena-fillers — almost unrecognisable from their lo-fi garage-blues salad days. A much-needed break came in 2015, with Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney occupied by everything from solo albums to BoJack Horseman. “Let’s Rock” is their long-awaited return, and in many respects lives up to its mission-statement title. Go is the most urgent they’ve sounded in years, while Shine a Little Light simultaneously maintains the groove of their 2010s output and adds some much-needed grit. They were never going to turn out a rough diamond like 2003’s Thickfreakness after the mega success of singles Lonely Boy and Gold on the Ceiling, but it’s still nice to know that time away has given them perspective on the Keys’ legacy. In a moment when the closest thing to a charting rock band is Imagine Dragons, their return is perfectly timed. - David James Young

Beloved, by Peak Twins

INDIE POP

Beloved

Peak Twins

Our Golden Friend

3.5 stars

A humble duo grown into a seven-piece ensemble, Melbourne’s Peak Twins make slow, sumptuous pop that’s heavy on atmosphere. There’s a soupy timelessness to it, blurring delicate shades of Roy Orbison and the Everly Brothers with spiky distortion and other more recent earmarks. Joel Carey delivers lead vocals like some poised pre-rock crooner, which makes for a cosy fit with the sighing romantic defeats he describes. “Heaven knows you’re gonna be alone,” opens fiddle-kissed country detour Heaven Knows, while lead single Water offers more encouragement with self-help-style wisdom like “You’re much more than a fly upon the wall”. Groggy and depressive by design, this second album could work either at face value or as a deadpan subversion of melodramatic balladry. Whichever way you hear it, there’s no denying the haloing warmth of such graceful arrangements. - Doug Wallen

Dracula, by David Stanhope and his orchestra

OPERA

Dracula

David Stanhope and his orchestra

Tall Poppies

4.5 stars

For opera companies, the designation “opera in three acts, for eight singers and full orchestra” is terrifying. A smallish cast and no chorus, OK, but a large orchestra? Surely a recipe for budget blowout. David Stanhope has worked long enough around Australian opera traps to offer a solution: a computerised score of virtual instruments. Dracula, his 100-minute opera, originated in a workshop performance in 1990. Almost 30 years later, it appears in a splendid realisation, largely self-funded and recorded under the composer’s supervision. The stellar cast, including such luminaries as Peter Coleman-Wright and Lorina Gore, sing Stanhope’s Britten-like score with lyrical and dramatic fervour, close-microphoned so diction is crystal clear. This impressive double album package should be a tantalising calling card for opera companies throughout the country. - Vincent Plush

-

Artist of the Week

Singer-songwriter Anna Laverty shares her top five songs on high rotation.

01. New Year Swim Team

A song that captures NYE’s tipsy, nostalgic, hopeful feeling.

02. Human, I Am Cash Savage & The Last Drinks

The song that grabs me the most from Cash’s album last year.

03. Electric Anaconda TEK TEK Ensemble

An explosion of fun, but with super intricate compositions.

04. Society Ainslie Wills

This song blew me away when I first heard it.

05. Ngurra Kardajala Kirridarra

I love the sentiment the music conveys. Our universal language.