Loene Carmen

Across her three albums to date, she has proved intriguingly hard to classify - and remains perhaps best described as ‘a beautiful conundrum’ DRUM MEDIA.
Solo debut, the pyschedelic bedroom recorded opus BORN FUNKY BORN FREE - a femme-fatale fronted Hendrix/Velvet Underground freaky reggae dub party! REVOLVER …was followed by the atmospheric fractured blues of SLIGHT DELAY - which featured Warren Ellis (Dirty Three) on violin and bouzouki and Jed Kurzel (Mess Hall) on guitars and harmonica.
New album ROCK N ROLL TEARS, released late 2007, was recorded over 3 long hot summer days in a country barn, collaborating again with Mess Hall’s Jed Kurzel and cohorts Sam Worrad (Holy Soul) & Paul Dunn (Slow Hand) - an anarchic, loose, dreamy, heat fuelled love letter to rock’n’roll.
Last year Loene recorded the album, then roadtested the new songs in New York with Jim White (Dirty Three/Cat Power) , solo and with musical comrades Warren Ellis, Delphine 13, Dimi Dero and Noah Taylor, supporting - and duetting with - Mick Harvey (Bad Seeds) and the Beasts of Bourbon throughout Europe ...in between she composed and recorded a song in Paris for a Rowland S. Howard tribute album, a song for Mick Harvey's Kick The Drugs ep and delivered guest vocals for Paul Kelly's Stardust 5 album before returning to Australia to launch the album and play shows with The Drones, Tex Perkins & Tim Rogers, X, Magnolia Electric Co and more...
SOME THINGS BEING SAID ABOUT 'ROCK N ROLL TEARS'
Jesus was a man, Loene Carmen is a woman and this album is just great.' VICE 8/10
'Loene Carmen might just be a shining light to challenge the patriarchy of Australia's ghostly blues fraternity ...Rock N' Roll Tears is a hypnotic, drowsy requiem....the staggered mess of her compositions are intoxicating.' Andrew Tijs, citysearch
'…She possesses a voice with the depth and yearning of the best blues vocalists... she’s a mesmerising soul siren…an aloof folk singer...the songs from Rock N' Roll Tears have stalked me so closely I may need to take an AVO out on them..' Andy Ryan, yourgigs.com.au
‘There ain’t no lady like Loene Carmen, an artist who can deliver a sonic poison arrow with the sweetness of Cupid’s bow…her third album would no doubt see her hailed in Nashville or London as a singular talent, a female Nick Cave but with more to say…Carmen delivers unforgettable tunes...’ Kathy McCabe, Daily Telegraph
'...gauzy, tear-soaked blues noir...‘Nashville High’ in particular is a shimmering wonder. Deliciously dark, sexy and dead cool...' Daniel Herborn, mess and noise
'Loene Carmen is cool. In fact, Loene Carmen is so undeniably fucking cool that she could have been lifted straight out of a Tarantino movie, and on her third long-player, Rock ‘n’ Roll Tears , her familiarly breathy, sultry vocal sits perfectly atop a combination of dirty blues, rock and country, which bursts from the stereo like a bar-room brawl between The Velvet Underground , Mazzy Star and The Jesus and Mary Chain . And that, I think you will agree, is pretty fucking cool... Skillfully backed by Sam Worrad of Holy Soul , Jed Kurzel of the wonderful Mess Hall and Paul Dunn of Slow Hand , Loene Carmen has once again proved with the pleasingly lo-fi Rock ‘n’ Roll Tears that she is an intelligent, candid songwriter with a voice so seductive that you’d rip your own heart out and hand it to her if she asked you to. Irresistible stuff.kingbobbysix
'…sinfully sexy songs that stay simmering on a low, desert heat, the album is sure to brand its mark on all who listen…a seductively scandalous, dirty kickass, dark blues entertainer. ..a rock’n’roll/blues tour de force… ' Jared James, The Brag (Indie Album Of The Week)
'Rock’n’Roll Tears is a rough gem of an album…give it some of your time and the rewards are considerable…She writes beautiful lyrics. Evocative and sad, they stay with you and the music complements them perfectly. Nashville High is a perfect example. Its simple chord changes slowly work a special magic. A stunning song of longing. And she saves the best til last. The Bee is the album’s last gift…a true treasure. Stripped right back to acoustic guitar, it’s a wonderful attempt to capture a fleeting moment of lover’s bliss. I don’t think I’ve heard a more exquisite song this year…Loene has something very unique and all her own going on.'Ben Michael, Rhythms
' The devilish siren that is Ms Loene Carmen has done it again… Rock’n’Roll Tears puts the slipper in with some seriously live sounding tracks, and somehow she maintains her ‘Juliette Greco cool’, that voice, those eyes…Nashville High uses its kinetic guitar lines to build so intensely without resorting to highhanded dynamic tomfoolery is an object lesson in how to create real tension.' Jason Walker, musicaustraliaguide.com
'...sprawling, husky alt-rock...the dark, sultry vibe of the record is perfect for immoral romance...' Rolling Stone
'there's a slow burning heat and a tensile langour in the songs Loene Carmen writes...' Michael Smith, Drum Media
'...part brooding rock, part country-ish blues and all loose charisma. The lo-fi production courtesy of Jordan Brebach (You Am I, The Church) suits her drowsy rock aesthetic perfectly, especially on the sultry ‘Nashville High’, the gently menacing ‘Oh Yeah’, the beguiling ‘Dirt & Air’ and the relatively funky bombast of ‘Everybody (Makes Me Wanna Lie Down)’. The hypnotic, bluesy vibe that permeates Rock’N’Roll Tears suggests a femme fatale who has listened to a lot of Velvet Underground in her day, but this is filtered through more contemporary sounds which ends up making the album sound (fittingly) more contemporary and more Australian than that single influence. A late-night record that will appeal to both heartbreakers and the heartbroken' Time Off
'... hazy, staggering outsider blues...Carmen utilises her lascivious baby-doll voice and her bleeding, broken country instrumentation to evoke a noirish twilight. ... Carmen is messy. ..Her mascara is streaked with those rock'n'roll tears. .. Her banged-up guitar is out of tune and she doesn't care....wide-eyed, unhinged blues.' citysearch.com.auA COUPLE OF THINGS THEY SAID ABOUT 'SLIGHT DELAY'
Velveteen vocals bubble through a pool of Barbarellas matmos, backlit by Ry Cooder on mescaline, Tortoise-style keys and somnolent beats Loene Carmen inspires devotion from hardcore bikers to art-house boys. Slight Delay, her second solo album, cements the myth in cherry red lipstick. So bring it on, bring all the noise/Lock the doors and call the boys, coos the title track. Youve been warned. Move over, Hope Sandoval. Closing on the sedating Time To Go To Bed, Loene would have you believe this is the heady soundscape with which to drift into slumber. No way. This is the soundtrack for nights of sinful fucking. The kind you were always waiting for.. . PLAN B (UK)

Slight Delay' is a songbook of exquisitely mournful blues elements and intoxicating rock romantics. Against a backdrop of hypnotic spectral notes and minimalistic, loose and lazy guitar, Carmen plies late night smooch music, sexy whisperings and intimate shimmering confessionals, with something of the Gallic cool of Francoise Hardy, and the nouvelle chanson of Mazzy Star, feeding on a diet of fuzzy guitar fudge and vague hints of sour mash. MUSICWORKZ (UK)