(Forensic Audio/Inertia)

Fine mini-album from Perth three-piece

Although this seven-track album from Perth outfit Umpire is the group’s debut, the trio have honed their craft since 2006, resulting in an unusually assured record for first timers. Geoff Symons’ sensitive, haunted tenor is given dramatic tension by Michael Lake’s almost narrative approach to guitar playing, hanging back providing spidery notes in the more contemplative moments, and rising to wall-of-sound sonics when an emotional wallop is needed. The group’s skilled subtlety is highlighted in the slightly spooky Our Insides Are Maps, while they rock thoughtfully in the Built To Spill-tinged Feed Swans Chocolate (great title – reminds me of Alan Partridge’s on-air insult to a farmer played by Chris Morris: “You feed beef burgers to swans”). Umpire also let go for hook-laden guitar pop in the superb Streamers, experiment with drum loops and piano in the short-but-sweet Paddlesteamers and uncover a collision between Psychedelic Furs and Tortoise in closing track Vapours Wrecked Your Knives, blending appropriately understated post-punk crooning and hypnotic guitar/xylophone patterns. All in all, an immensely promising debut from a band definitely worth keeping an eye and ear on.

****

MATT THROWER

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