What’s Your Utopia?
Hidden Shoal
Songwriter, Michael Dolan, has teamed up with half of the members of Apricot Rail for his band, Perth. With such a pedigree, there is little doubt that Perth are going to be one of the most cinematic and calming bands to come from these parts. What’s Your Utopia? has a sense of the upbeat in its prevailing mood, even if it is not always reflected in its tempo.
While not as word-shy as Apricot Rail, Perth still use vocals sparingly as a musical tool, but they are at their most prominent during Greasy Moon. It is not that Perth have nothing to say, or that they can’t hold a note, it is just there are no need for words when the music is as expressive as that found on What’s Your Utopia?
Old At Heart has the slow burn that Múm have always used to great effect. The tune that is over well before acceptances has the sound of somewhere between living inside a video game and sitting in an oriental garden. Treading the lines between electronica and post-rock is an artform that Perth excels at without trying to be too clever or overblown.
When Pavement sang I Love Perth all those years ago, they sure as hell weren’t wrong!
CHRIS HAVERCROFT
