Although an active presence in Australia’s indie scene infrastructure since 2009, Brisbane’s Bedroom Suck Records has remained a fairly low-key operation internationally, aside from a relatively fleeting distribution and co-release relationship with London’s Fire Records in the 2010s.
This has caused challenges at times in keeping fully abreast of the label’s distinctive releases — notably from the impressive likes of Boomgates, Lower Plenty, Blank Realm, Ela Stiles and Mess Esque — let alone catch many of its artists in a live setting. Yet the effort required remains worthwhile when it comes to this still plucky, if now less prolific, curatorial outpost — as this freshly pressed platter from Sienna Thornton unquestionably attests.
Acting as the latest ambassadorial outing from the Bedroom Suck community and following on from 2018’s enigmatic eponymous LP under the somewhat off-putting Cyanide Thornton moniker, Birding Out captivates as an idiosyncratic creative deposition from its own little corner of the world.Featuring Thornton taking on lead vocal and multi-instrumentalist duties throughout, with subtle but intrinsic input from Shaun Fogarty (tenor sax), Luke Brennan (acoustic guitar and percussion) and four back-up singers, this is an album both rich and spare in its beatifically imaginative arrangements. As a whole, the ghostly spirits of Cat Power’s majestic – Melbourne-recorded and Tren Brothers-augmented – Moon Pix are summoned across the eight gathered pieces, along with echoes of the bucolic hauntings from fellow Antipodean Aldous Harding’s self-titled 2014 debut, but Birding Out is not just a straightforward cross-blending exercise.
Including additional and more inscrutable elements mixed into its musical palette, as well as lyrical explorations infused by Greek mythology and wider philosophical projections, the collection transitions airily but weightily through its cryptically alluring passages.
Once entered, Birding Out proves to be a labyrinthine world that’s hard to leave without getting lost several times over. An elegiacally stunning statement, in short.
-Adrian-
