Siskin River: The Hours They Keep
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Siskin River: The Hours They Keep

Australia’s Women In Docs and Sweden’s First Aid Kit prove the popularity of adventurous female acoustic pairings, and Siskin River – from Ramornie NSW -show the same promise. Sibling harmonies have a special appeal. Shalane and Tullara Connors bring that innate interplay of voices and phrasing to this debut album. The unexpected comes at hearing such angelic voices deliver the dark and daring observations of these tracks.
First single ‘Up’ speaks on behalf of the dead―a man returns from the grave only to find a world of woes. Greed, corruption and a ravaged environment send him yearning back to the quiet of his resting place. As the tracks unfold, the lyrics are no less challenging. They observe on ‘Fickle Friends’ that these gmake fearless lovers, only because they know that there are many othersh. The duo even manages to make ‘My Favourite Things’ (The Sound of Music) sound ominous in a manner that might be expected of Björk. Grim fairytales abound with the rueful ‘Alice’ shifting rhythmic gear mid-song and medieval carnival cautionary tale ‘Fairytale Harlots’ with accordion and dancing hand claps. ‘If I Was King’ marches up to the sing-along banquet table.
Guitars are perfectly sparse when required, a righteous backbone to sonic musings free of redundant flourishes. Elsewhere, the licks are bluesy and beat-driven. Folk crosses into the meandering territories of roots. Production duties were handled by ARIA award nominees Robin Mai and Nicky Bomba with a video to accompany ‘Up’ featuring animation by Clayton Jacobson (‘Kenny’). There’s every reason to expect these women to grace stages and studios long into the future.
By Chris Lambie