Review Summary: Sydney kids have fun with laptops to create a smooth-running program, despite a few glitches.
The children of Australia are taking arms. Look to any part of the country and young people are taking a serious approach to making and releasing music- and receiving attention for it as well. The most obvious of these is Gold Coast-bred Operator Please, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Sydney-based alternative kids Bridezilla have presented a dark and murky slice of unorthodox guitar rock before their final exams of twelfth grade. Over in WA, retro rock wunderkinds The Flairz have shown a skill to balls-out rock and roll better than those twice their age (Airbourne, anyone?) even before starting senior high. The adventure continues with a mysterious two-piece from suburban New South Wales. With little more than some computer programs and vivid imaginations, the teenage pair of Conor Curtis and Madeline Day, known collectively as the Carnage Visors, have quietly released their debut EP for free on their page.
Midnight Curfew is an ambitious, short set of late-night soundscapes that certainly shows potential for an interesting future.
Musically speaking, there are some wonderful things to be heard here. Whether it’s the outlying wash of piano underscored by flashes of electric beats found on “O, We Love to Be By the Wayside”, the quickly-paced underground vibe of “Please, Walk Past Your Window” or the Dissociatives-style build-up of opener “Translations”, the backbones to these songs are certainly unique and creative. The music is all about minimalism, and in turn just how much once can take in with only two people making the sounds. Respect must go to them for this. It is sad to note, however, that it’s not all pitch black electronica heaven.
Vocalist/lyricist Curtis goes about the fact that he really does struggle to hold a tune vocally by not so much washing his voice with effects as drowning it completely. Thickly layered whispers, cave-like echoes and double-ups, amongst others, are just some of the magic tricks Curtis performs on his awkward love poetry, coming across vocally as a less tuneful Jemaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords. Except it’s not particularly funny- just quite odd. This significantly lets down the bulk of the songs- “I Wanna Be Your Stepping Stone” is a dreamy, spiralling synth-driven instrumental- along with the songs generally lacking a sense of tunefulness or direction. It’s understood that their music is experimental, and thus do not particularly need these musical elements in their compositions; it just feels like they need a bit more to them than is already present on record.
The members of the Carnage Visors are only eighteen years old, and therefore have many more years ahead of them as a group if all goes well. If they flesh out their work, maybe employ a better vocalist and add further dimension to their already interesting music, then the Sydney music scene may be hearing more of this act in the not-too-distant future where the band’s songs seem to take place.
The potential is here. Now to expand upon it.
Take a listen to Midnight Curfew: www.myspace.com/carnagevisorsmusic
