Faux Pas
Waterfalls
4 Track, EP (2009, Independent)
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Related: Faux Pas.
While The Avalanches dick around with their follow-up to Loveless, er, Since I Left You, Australian glitch-pop has been left in capable hands. Mountains in the Sky, Pikelet, Gotye, Barrage, Qua and now Tim Shiel.
Calling himself Faux Pas (a pseudonym is usually required when you’re one guy making the racket of 10), Shiel’s latest EP, Waterfalls, lives up to its promise of “aleatoric party music … employing synthesisers, samples, friends and whatever else comes to hand”. One of the “friends” is Aleks, from Aleks and the Ramps, who adds banjo picks and strums to the first track. There's also a sample from experimental Sydney outfit Underlapper on 'Renfield's Dream'.
Like his hero Cornelius, Shiel approaches his craft with a melodic and naturalistic ear. He blends the acoustic and the electric with a deft touch, and makes thematic transitions appear seamless. Opener ‘Chasing Waterfalls’, quite possibly the feel good hit of the summer, builds to a crescendo of beeps, blips and electronic horns before a glorious mid-song, mid-tempo deconstruction. Ambient closer ‘Live From Doom’ is the only blemish here. Improvised live by Shiel it lacks the imagination of its peers.
The EP is available via Shiel’s website for free. What a shame. Someone needs to give this guy some money.
by Darren Levin
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