By 2015 she’d followed her heart and her mate Marlon Williams, for whom she had fallen, to Melbourne. They were living above a pub, both doing the hard yards, taking up support slots around the country, and writing songs...
...Friend and tour buddy, Melbourne musician Laura Jean, was fresh from recording an album with producer John Parish, well known for his collaborations with PJ Harvey. Aldous liked the production she heard, and Parish agreed to produce her follow-up. In mid-2016 she went to Bristol to record with him, the sessions yielding the album Party (2017). She told The Guardian about the working relationship: “Every now and again we’d rub up against each other like two old porcupines about stuff, but he’s so gentle and patient.”
Aldous started to play some of the songs live, and her performances floored people. There’s a one-camera clip of her and Jonathan Pearce playing ‘Horizon’ at Whammy Bar filmed in red-hot close proximity by Steve Abel, with sound recording by Andre Upston. Three bare piano chords repeat before Aldous, dressed in white, snarls up to the mic pulling at her lip. With a powerful, chest voice, and clear enunciation she sings, “Let me put the water in the bowl / for your wounds, babe”. It’s intense. “Here is your princess, here is the horizon,” she gestures. This isn’t the same quivering character from the last album. Aldous has arrived, clearly in focus now. And though some characters are still frail and vulnerable, others are bolshy and know exactly what they want.
She toured throughout 2016, stunning critics and A&R people, and had her pick of record deals. In March 2017, Party was released on the prestigious British label 4AD. Her impressive voice was flanked by chalky clarinet and saxophone, gently plucked guitars and minimalist piano. Some of the album’s songs were still dark and unsettling, but there were moments of bright joy and hope as well.
The New York Times asked about the dramatic range of voices on the record. She replied, “Just like using an instrument, a song calls for different things. They’re all my voices, and they all come from different places of the same thing.”
The music videos that came with the album exploited her beguiling screen charisma and the dance training from her younger years, particularly the video for ‘Blend’, which saw her dancing – in a nod to Apocalypse Now – in a star-spangled cowgirl bikini, a pink pout, white boots and gun holsters. She performed on BBC’s Later… with Jools Holland on the same night as Lorde performed ‘Green Light’. Under the bright TV lights, her facial quirks and theatrics were magnified. Some hated it, some loved it, and Aldous couldn’t care less what they thought.
Party won her an international fan base instantly and she toured relentlessly for the next 18 months. She won the Taite Prize of 2018 and only narrowly lost out to Lorde on the APRA Silver Scroll for ‘Horizon’.
Though ‘Weight of The Planets’ wasn’t included on Party, it was written around the same time, and closed out her sets on that tour. Maybe the lyrics articulate the way she saw herself then: “I can do anything / no one is stopping me / I can be anything / but I’ve got the weight of the planets / I’m lost ...” - Kirsten Johnstone & audioculture
trax:
01 Blend 02 Imagining My Man 03 Living The Classics 04 Party 05 I'm So Sorry 06 Horizon 07 What If Birds Aren't Singing, They're Screaming 08 The World Is Looking For You 09 Swell Does The Skull 10 Blend (ID Remix)
…served by Gaius…
Latin music refers to music originating from Latin America namely Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries of the Americas and the Caribbean. Latin American music also incorporates African music from slaves who were to transported to the America by European and settlers as well as music from Indigenous peoples of the Americas. The first of those encapsulates all music styles generated from Latin countries, such as salsa, merengue, tango, compas, bossa nova and bachata; as well as other styles derived from a more mainstream genre, such as Latin pop, rock, jazz and reggaeton.
traxfromwax:
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