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Former opera student Katie Stelmanis has been filling Toronto with the sound of music since she hit double figures – first as a chorister, then with post-punked-up gay grungers Galaxy; solo, and now, as singer-songwriter in this goth electro trio that bears her (middle) name.
She clearly hasn’t forgotten her training. Feel It Break is full of theatrical intensity, its set hung with murky, velvet synths on which her darkly luminescent vocals soar and swim, inherently melancholic, however exultant they appear. With its dancefloor-friendly beats (think The Knife with soul), it’s the sort of record you might stick on just before heading to an alternative club.
Which would be a bad idea, unless you have 47 minutes (or more – it’s addictive) to spare, for Stelmanis, bassist Dorian Wolf and drummer Maya Postepski have created something that plays as a carefully balanced, organic whole, like an inadvertent concept album. That’s more a testament to the skill with which it’s been put together than because it lacks standout moments; in fact, half the songs here could be released as singles, as Austra are as melodic as they are melodramatic.
Opener Darken Her Horse is a fitting curtain-raiser of a spellbinding debut which revives the heavily-eyelinered, Elnett-sprayed corpse of British new wave, and casts it in mists of ethereal magic. Hymn-like, all chords and church choir vocals, it slowly builds to surging, Japan-inflected heights which lead you to the ‘floor to bust your best robot moves. As does last single Beat and the Pulse, which evokes the era’s sleazier Soho scene with keyboard lines redolent of 80s revivalists Fischerspooner and Soft Cell chimes. Elsewhere, Hate Crime, with its plentiful "oohoo"s (as beloved by Katie as Kate) and the gorgeous, incantatory The Choke (which is reminiscent of fellow Canadians The Organ) are hook-heavy enough to get you repeating such unlikely mantras as "Sign / The consent forms" as you make extravagant arm movements around the living room. You might feel a little daft, but the odd lyrics only add to this band’s appealing mystery.
Let’s just hope Austra don’t find their inner recluse any time soon.
--Alix Buscovic
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
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Customer Reviews
of stuff which plunders the past (especially the eighties) and
drags the genre back into focus with cool contemporary elan.
There's something about Austra, however, which sets them somewhat
apart from their contemporaries. There is a strange magic at work
in their new album 'Feel It Break'. This has much to do with the
voice of Katie Stelmanis; it is an extraordinary instrument!
Timeless; kind-of folksy-cum-summer-of-love-cum-classical-android.
(You will have to listen to it yourself and post me your own
attempts at describing it - I'm struggling here) I love it to bits!
Ms Stelmanis is assisted in her labours by bass player Dorian Wolf
and drummer Maya Postepski. There are eleven tracks in the collection.
The formula is a fairly simple one : sparkling synth chords and
arpeggios; four-square beats and quirky quasi-medieval arrangements.
It is the vocal performances, however, which bring the material to
sparkling life. Ms Stelmanis has a big range. She can sound almost
manly in her lower register but when she cranks it up to the top of
the stave she tweets and warbles like a happy nightingale on a warm
June evening! (You can hear her do both on 'The Future). The harmonies
are simple but haunting and the choruses curiously memorable.
I particularly enjoyed the sombre-hued (Bjork-ish) opening track
'Darken Her Horse', which would not sound out of place if played in a
Gothic catherdral by candlelight; the dense grinding textures of 'Spellwork'
(Ms Stelmanis' deadpan delivery is chilling on this one!) and the piano
flurries and wildly witchy vocals of spooky closing track 'The Beast'.
Music for the heart of an ancient oak forest at midnight.
Recommended.
This is a sheer delight. Opera trained singer / founder member / songwriter Katie Stelmanis and her band have put together an album of eleven wonderful tracks, all in minor keys. I think I read that she has said she is unable to write songs in major keys ... well, I bet she could if she wanted to, but why try when she can do very nicely thank you in minor keys.
My fellow reviewer, The Wolf, has suggested we let him know our own description of Katie's voice. Well, to me, it's fragile at times, but when she needs to stretch it for the high notes, she gets there with no problem. Sorry, Wolf, I can't do any better than that; anyway, your description is pretty accurate. The one thing is that it blends and compliments the excellent keyboards, bass and drums to such a degree that it acts as an additional instrument.
The album starts with the very strong "Darken Her Horse" and continues on that very high plain until "The Choke" arrives, which sends the album into the stratosphere - yes, I'm rather partial to this track and have been told I've sung it in my sleep ... hmm! The rest of the album is simply brilliant, until we get to "The Noise", which is another special track.
There is nothing complicated about this album. It's just great tracks of darkly-laced lyrics and jaunty melodies (even minor chord melodies can be jaunty, I think.) The vocals are quite brilliant - I love her voice - and the harmonies are stunning. The other instrumentalists are bassist Dorian Wolf (no relation to The Wolf?) and drummer Maya Postepski, who make Austra a very tight band instrumentally.There is a distinct darkness about the whole album which, for me, adds to the excitement of the album.
I don't know Japan's music well, so will leave comparisons to other, more knowledgeable, reviewers. What I will say is that there are only very strong tracks on this album and it will take an album of utter magnificence to prevent this from being my album of the year. Now there's a statement!
One last point, those who follow music will not find this very interesting and may disagree with this observation, but what is it about Canada, a big country in terms of area but not necessarily in musical terms? You have Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, the Rankin family, Stan and Garnet Rogers and a whole bunch more. Austra is, I would humbly suggest, another example of brilliant music coming out of that country.
A wonderful album and very highly recommended.
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