Thalia Zedek Band – Liars and Prayers

Liars and Prayers – Thalia Zedek Band

By Chris Peken

There is a lot to like about Thalia Zedek if you are a stalwart supporter and lover of the Australian independent music scene. Her aching, rasping voice bares similarities to The Divynals’ Chrissie Amphlette; David Curry’s viola playing shares much with The Dirty Three’s Warren Ellis; and her use of piano to complement her blues-based guitar playing has strong echoes of Nick Cave and Louis Tillett. Yet Thalia Zedek is an artist who has remained invisible to the majority over three decades of staunch adherence to the principals of independence and of the integrity of the music. With the demise of her last band Come at the end of the nineties Thalia set about writing and recording under her own name, and Liars & Prayers is her third solo effort. A singularly intense experience, Liars and Prayers combines the desperate passion of Patti Smith and PJ Harvey with the dark knowing of the aforemntioned Mr Cave, albeit with a more primal, raw-nerve-exposed to the elements feel. But beyond the individual parts lies and album decades in the making in terms of refined writing and distilled energy; there is grace and restraint – We Don’t Go – and there’s ragged release – Begin to Exhume – but overall there is an unrelenting, unapologetic, fierce passion. Not for the faint-hearted.

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