Flying Scribble
We're A Chameleon
The new album from Melbourne duo Flying Scribble is a confounding labour of love, writes BABETTE GLADNEY.
A decade ago, Flying Scribble's Louise Terry and Gray Taylor were playing together as two-thirds of shambolic Brisbane pop group LOVEPACK alongside Mark Barrage (née Gomes). Like their erstwhile bandmate, Terry and Taylor migrated south to Melbourne, bringing with them a fervently independent approach and a mindfully slipshod aesthetic seemingly informed by cosmic kitsch, cut'n'paste and an eye for skewed theatrics.
The cohort's realisations of these ideas diverged somewhat. While Barrage honed his editing chops to create a heavily bent electronic futurism, Flying Scribble embarked on locally infamous week-long practice sessions filled with non-Western percussion, electronic drums, organs and synths. It's these extended rehearsals which have occasionally puzzled Flying Scribble's peers over the first four years of their existence. As somebody once gleefully remarked, "They work really hard, but just never seem to get any less sloppy!" That's not to say their sloppiness isn't a charm, and often it comes at the behest of ambitious instrument juggling and, in Taylor's case, curve-ball rhythms.
The pair's recording of We're A Chameleon has been similarly insular, with the duo only turning to Electric Dreams impresario Cornel Wilczek (Qua, Magic Silver White, Super Melody) for mixing. It's released on their own, newly minted Queen Silver Enterprises. So we might assume it's a largely unmediated expression of the band's vision.
“There is constant tension between order and disarray that can sometimes be distracting, with stretches of song tight enough to make you really notice when the playing comes unstuck.”
The record comes at the tail of a tentative sequence of live performances, with schedules ranging from frenetic (especially on international tours, as you'd expect) to sporadic. Even so, Terry and Taylor (sorry, but it's catchy) have mustered a following for their spacey, keyboard-driven pop songs. At the same time, their shift from earlier “indie approved” inspirations (Broadcast, Electrelane) to something reflecting what can only be described as gypsy/carnival music - driven home with romping organ riffs and thumping, heavy-swung beats - has raised a disapproving tastemaker eyebrow here and there.
If there's a broad issue to be found with We're A Chameleon, the most prominent would be its apparent struggle for dynamics and, ahem, groove. (I am ashamed for having used the word “groove”. It won’t happen again.) This is perhaps unsurprising given the instrumentation – the on/off wobble of vintage organs, the uniform attack of keyboard bass pedals, with the expressive chug and pluck of a guitar nowhere to be found – but it's emphasised by singing that often begins in too lofty a position to move any higher as songs progress. Think of Pikelet's most operatic Grammy-grabbing moments and you're halfway to understanding Flying Scribble's everyday conversational tone.
We're A Chameleon is propelled by an undeniable creative energy that has vocals doubled, keyboards multiplied and samples and live drums replacing each other effortlessly, as on ‘Keep Going’. It's only when Taylor's timing falters that we're reminded of her penchant for playing electronic drumkits, and it clicks (ha!) that it's probably been played, rather than programmed. There is constant tension between order and disarray that can sometimes be distracting, with stretches of song tight enough to make you really notice when the playing comes unstuck.
Through the collection's 11 pieces, Flying Scribble do indeed come across as chameleonic sorts. Bouncy live favourite ‘Puzzlemind’ provides a catchy refrain dressed in subtle synth squips and boings while suffering a little from the aforementioned lack of dynamics. ‘Porthole’ is one of the group's more carnivalesque numbers, built around a sort of stunted tango rhythm before it unfolds into a trimmed drum figure that nods to breakbeat patterns, accordion dutifully puffing. Songs like lead single ‘Animation In My Head’ endear the band to fellow Melbournians ninetynine (think The Process and earlier) – a comparison that makes more sense the longer you indulge it. Terry's lead vocals, while substantially more prone to soaring, sometimes bear the fragile mark of ninetynine’s Laura MacFarlane, while Taylor's drumming can be as inviting, bombastic and clumsy as Cameron Potts' was in their heyday.
The album is at its most sonically pleasing when it shies away from puff-chested pomp and indulges a rawer, simpler form – such as on the cheeky, tropicalia-inspired "Coconut Walk" or its swinging successor "Tricks in the Thick", which could easily have been recorded in the US in the late ’60s. And although it sounds like a whole bunch of other songs nobody can quite remember the name of, the disco-injected jubilant climax of ‘Tree to Tree’ is a compressed spray of pep that stands as the album’s most diverse composition. Honestly, it could have done without most of the organs, but it still registers as the album's triumphant highlight.
The record closes on a somewhat weak note: its title track, resembling ‘House of the Rising Sun’ as sloppily rendered by an organ-toting church band, or a more Enya-influenced Beach House. It's a slightly odd end to a confounding album that sounds like the labour of love that it is. As with any labour of love, there can be challenges of perspective to overcome. We're A Chameleon is full of conviction and abandon – and adventurous treatments – and in that sense of a "record", it’s a deeply textured document of a colourful pairing. Its pervasive messiness and restless aesthetic are hard to turn away from, and its idiosyncrasy is a purist's dream.
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Flying Scribble’s We’re A Chameleon is out now through Queen Silver Records/MGM Green.
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Hmmm...intriguing album and review. Will have to investigate further.
I heart the scribz. Keeping time is overrated...
This is insanity! Grays' timing is impeccable! Even when she's off on a magical tangent timing and rhythm prevails.
So excited for the launch. These ladies are freaking awesome!
This review is very confusing...
I'm confused too. It's like Babette is describing not just a different band to the one I hear when I listen to Flying Scribble, but several different bands within the same review. Still, I'm happy to have it proven once again that music is in the ear of the behearer.
For my money, Gray is one of the best drummers around. I've never heard her play anything that wasn't 100% intentional.
Overall it's a good review, right?
Seems to be a positive review with reservations. I sometimes notice a mildly wonky-time edge to Gray's drumming (or the band generally, I don't know)... maybe it's just what you pay attention to? I have a friend who said something about reading an article about music perception - some people intuitively focus on the vocals, some listen to the drums, and so on.
I didn't really find this review confusing although admittedly it's quite long and mashes together positive and negative criticisms (do reviews normally separate these a bit more?).
Lovepack played at my house many many years ago. I think it may have been New Years, but that ho9use all sort of blends into one long spazz.
You're a drummer aren't you, untold? Would you find it odd if someone compared you to a programmed drum machine but called you clumsy and wonky at the same time?
I always admire Gray's great ear for the tone of percussion. Her use of twin snares is cool - one stuffed with newspaper to give it a different sound.
Well, I wouldn't really find it odd if someone compared me to a programmed drum machine if i was playing an electronic drum kit!
I think Gray is a really interesting drummer, in fact one of those most adventurous in Melbourne and beyond. The only thing I am saying really is that I do think FS can be a bit unhinged timing-wise - not that I mean to make a point of it, or that it bothers me that much. I only say this because the review mentions it and people seem to disagree strongly (where I don't necessarily).
I've been lucky enough to watch Gray drum for probably a decade now, it's always been an absolute treat. My understanding of percussion is about zilch, but she has that flow and placement that I find in the Jim White's of this world.
Maybe that is something some people don't respond to automatically. I think people who dig jazz and non-rock beats instantly latch onto it though.
It's not really any Dirty Three form that I notice, I'm thinking more his work in stuff like Nina Nastasia.
I just think that Gray often messes with time placement and will go from playing back on the beat, to ahead of it and then almost dragging it so far behind that it sounds out of time, but I believe it's her intention so I wouldn't say it's out of time. I would say more that she has complete control over her instrument and sometimes messes with conventional time. Perhaps this is confusing to people who are used to hearing 4/4 pop/rock drumming but I think it's one of the best qualities of this band.
But, by all means people have different ears.
For sure. And Venom P Stinger and Cat Power as well. It's playing with the music rather than setting the pace, I reckon.
Thanks for articulating in technical terms what I meant, Patinka.
In a side note, I was playing a Peter Jefferies track the other day and someone said 'What's this? I thought it was a Cat Power song''.
Ha ha.
Tuns out she also covered a This Kind of Punishment song as well.. funny times.
What I really don't get is the Cameron Potts comparison. I mean, most ninetynine songs sound like Cameron is doing a Keith Moon impersonation over the top of delicate pop songs. I don't get that vibe at all from Flying Scribble.
Or the smell....
lol
Who writes a review under a pseudonym taken from a Don DeLillo novel?
i don't get it. is it written by a jealous ex?
did jon tjhia write this?
I'm bummed I'm going to miss the Melbourne launch. Play more shows, ladies!
fuck me, I'd hate to actually see how people would react if this band actually got a bad review.
don't fuck with northcote yo
There'd be blood in the streets.
blood and owl broaches.
*brooches
Can't really abide with the review either -- I would never consider FS to be 'sloppy' -- more like fuck wow thats wild stuff going on with the timing.
Taylor is astonishing at the drums and Terry ... confidently singing and playing with both hands and feet at the same time whilst locking in with Taylor perfectly -- the fact they have these skills and make truly beautiful and not wanky music is unbelievably awesome in these parts/time.
to me that comparison makes less sense the more I indulge it
Yey! I thought I was going to miss the launch this weekend, but suddenly realised it's NEXT weekend.
Whether you agree with the details of this review or not, there's no escapingbthe fact that this band morphed into an oompah-gypsy-vaudeville act.
I find it hard to believe that if y'all weren't fond of these two ladies on a personal level that you'd be defending their stylistic transformation. oompah-gypsy-vaudeville bands don't generally get a lot of love around these parts otherwise.
Debating the skill of the musicians is really missing the wood for the trees (excuse the cliche, but it applies here)
This is a good LP. That is All.
The album launch is tomorrow night at The Workers Club...