Music:

Member Since: 6/30/2006
Band Website: myspace
Band Members: REVIEW OF JANET'S CD
Spine is the first CD by Janet Swain a singer songwriter who lives in Sydney – that is simple enough it is the next part that is harder to explain. Spine is something of a sleeper, released independently in 2002 by the Songdynasty Label, with not much by way of promotion, tracks on this collection might be claimed by any musical genre – pop, folk, trance, rock, country, alternative, indie.
Spine is a musical picnic, where you get all the delicious layers of sound and style, a trove of contemporary and classical nuance- satisfying even if don’t pick the reference. My Religion starts with a mock processional that uses of dissonance, chant and banked chords, a slinky piece referencing Gregorian chants, while the lyrics are documenting the fall of faith and the short comings of the church, giving another level of sophistication in subject and lyric. Can you do this and still be a song in a pop collection? What ever Spine is doing mixing up genres, it does it very well.
In a way this is the antithesis of mainstream usual pop/rock/country style where complexity means your dial in name brand swelling symphonics. Here is the music is intricate, layers of voice and instrumentation, that shimmer with the intensity of good music. It is tempting to say that some things are plain quirky but this suggests some ambivalence quality and this music is more about natural fun. The humour in odd mix of a country style song like Talk about Suffering, starting off with a gospel riff, segue back to country and pick a quasi-gospel chorus, is funny- is Janet Swain taking the piss?
Swain’s vivid curiosity about all things musical gives this album all the freshness of new music with the confidence and complexity of mature musician. The beautiful ballads, like Talk about Suffering can be heart-rendering simple. This sort of simplicity takes a huge amount of vocal accuracy, there are lovely velvety songs here that show just how fine a voice can be in a pop ballad. Agadez comes across like a mirage – that turns out to real – a type of Bedouin musical hypnosis.
Spine is that odd thing, sophisticated pop or elegant rock, mixing time and place. It does not fit neatly into any particular category –it is hard to avoid the word eclectic. The vocal diversity is underpinned with unusual instrumentation, - Turkish woodwind, Celtic flutes and West African drumming. Moussa Diakite, on electric guitar, who recorded with Salif Keita , is adds a mosaic beauty to the final song on the album, Heavy Head.
The songs give a strong sense of place, you can nearly smell the alfalfa. This is an album that repays the listener. There is folk for the those that like it, pop, a capella and R & B, lush stuff.
Carol Jenkins 2006
Influences: Current favourites are Frou Frou, Ben Folds, Cecilia Bartoli, Josh Pyke, Randy Newman, Sufjan Stevens, Yilpi.
Sounds Like:
Type of Label: Unsigned