THE AUTUMN ISLES – KALEIDOSCOPES

THE AUTUMN ISLES – KALEIDOSCOPES

A fixture in the Perth rock music scene, the Autumn Isles are a very Australian band – in more ways than one. The groups’ debut album Kaleidoscopes was produced by Shaun O’Callaghan who has worked with Western Australia’s own Eskimo Joe, John Butler Trio and Gyroscope. And much like their local contemporaries Tame Impala, the Autumn Isles are preoccupied with a brand of nostalgic psychedelic rock all too pervasive in contemporary Australian music. The effects-laden guitar solo on Into December is a Hendrix rip-off, and Of A Setting Sun makes us think of everything – Beatles, Flaming Lips, Fleet Foxes – except original ideas and sounds. Singer Alex Arpino’s voice recalls Bernard Fanning’s, and Mystery To Hide could easily be any track from Powderfinger’s most recent (and blandest) album. The quirky lyrics are a saving grace, but even these recall US indie-poppers The Shins at times  – “and off with the quagmire/and time for the jailbreak” from Throwing Stones, for instance. The inclusion of a brass section on several tracks breaks up the general monotony, but brass in a rock setting is by no means a new or revolutionary idea. The Autumn Isles are treading the path of many Australian rock bands before them – JET, Wolfmother, Tame Impala – in that their music is not always bad but, unfortunately, not always original. The title of mid-album track Just Like The Others ironically proves to be strangely prophetic. ** 1/2

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