SUB AUDIBLE HUM – TALL STORIES

Here is a band from Melbourne who have followed no trends, rather they’ve identified their signature strengths and expanded those into full-scale musical explorations. This is the third album from Daniel Griffith’s progressive indie collective, and it’s a serious and satisfying one. The textures that Sub Audible Hum seem to lock into the most are distinctive – modal four-part harmonies, chanting their lyrics of civil unrest and impending war over a cinematic blend of whispery strings and sinewy electro beats. It’s a colour palette that works well for these songs; from the eerie Bakersfield CA to the fiery sway of Redcoats At The Shore, we’re taken on a journey that tells its own clear musical narrative, regardless of the lyrical intent. Griffith’s lead vocals will invite comparisons to Win Butler of Arcade Fire, but he manages to keep his emphatic croon from going anywhere too close to the laters’ trademark social howling and keeps his delivery detailed and servile to the musical details of the band’s arrangements. It’s hard to fault this album, not for want of trying either – it is an intricately constructed, well-written thing that reveals its finery with repeat listens.

***1/2