Label: A Colourful Storm – ACOLOUR035 Format: Cassette Country: Australia Released: 16 Jul 2021 Genre: Rock, Folk, World, & Country Style: Folk
Gloriously hushed and trippy, best yet from Maxine Funke - now on tape.
Deeply mysterious and always emotionally affecting, Maxine Funke has slowly but surely become a key figure in underground music. Over four albums and a number of short run singles she has mapped out a singular and hermetic musical world. Originally released earlier in the year by A Colourful Storm, Seance exists firmly in this inscrutable hidden space. It’s almost too delicate to be true, all rippling guitar, warm tape hiss and a barely there voice absent-mindedly describing everyday objects and private mythology. But, close listening reveals a music that’s quietly tough and knotty, full of darker undercurrents and hints at thin-skinned honesty. For all that they feel like entering a closed world, Funke’s records fit into a long tradition of NZ psychedelia. Think Garbage and the Flowers, Alastair Galbraith, Roy Montgomery, Kiwi Animal, Look Blue Go Purple, Tall Dwarfs etc etc as well as any number of hopelessly obscure lathe-cut records hardly anyone has ever heard. The shakily emotive records Loren Connors made with Kath Bloom and the hyper delicate acid folk of Vashti Bunyan or Emmanuelle Parrenin also seem relevant. But this lineage may not be the happiest family tree, this is stubborn and pleasingly awkward music that speaks softly but holds grudges and refuses to conform. Centrepiece ‘Moody Relish’ is a perfect example of this record’s gnomic charm - impressionistic spoken vocals are scattered across spiralling guitar and slow clicking metronomic drum machine. A Tape edition is the perfect way to encounter the album, as a transporting and intimate listen front to back. Seance is perhaps her best record yet and that’s saying a lot... (Mint / New - shops pls get in touch for wholesale)
