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Transmissionary Six have five star musical credentials.
They are duo of Terri Moeller and Paul Austin. Their
respective careers as drummer of The Walkabouts and
guitarist/songwriter of The Willard Grant Conspiracy mark them out as
alt.country royalty. Radar is their fourth LP and it's an object lesson
in the genre.
Aided and abetted by various supplementary musicians the pair
have produced an intoxicating blend of country noir and indie pop
filtered through 1950s production values. This is Nick Cave and
The Handsome Family playing poker and drinking moonshine in a
crumbling hotel. Moeller's vocals are bruised and whisky soaked,
Lucinda Williams if she had been raised on Sonic Youth.
Paul Austin has touches of Grant Lee Philips and Richmond
Fontaine's Willy Vlantin romantic ache. The music swirls in
trembling vapour trails. Brooding, full of taunting echo's of
heartbreak and life on the wrong side of the tracks.
The bass note that opens the LP goes off like a back porch
shotgun. A suitably ominous beginning to In Spades. The rumbling bowed
piano and Austin's reverb drenched vocals creep under your skin. The
guitar solo is blackened and thorny, imagine Neil Young if he
joined The Bad Seeds. It's tense and full of apprehension. The
following Radar rattles past on power pop drums and bassline that
sounds like the Stooges on a hoedown. The whole LP is wrapped up
in a warm fug of gentle distortion and slap back echo - Sun Studio given
an alt.country twist.
The subject matter could easily become morbid or melodramatic.
Yet this is a lighter listen than it may appear. The melodies are so
strong and the vocals so heartfelt that you are lost inside the world
that Transmissionary Six have created. It's the happier country
cousin to Richmond Fontaine's The Fitzgerald. There is hope amongst the
heartbreak and petty criminality. The bad have allowed the songs to
draw breath and then release a sudden sigh. The instrumental coda,
twanging guitars and weeping pedal stee, that closes the final track
Bye Bye Blackbird curl like smoke rings around a fireplace on a winter
evening.
Although they are masters of the form, the band are not afraid to
experiment with it limits. That Wednesday brakes the alt.country
musical mould. An ambient/country hybrid, all shimmering floating
electronics and Bye shining acoustic guitars. The electronic noise and
Austin's vocal nestle perfectly in the mix.
To weave such dazzling magic as the band do here from a standard
musical palette is testament to their skill as songwriters and
arrangers. The bright piano and distorted guitar of When Rowan and
Martin Saved The Day or the transparent organ chords and dry acoustics
of Broker both lodge themselves into my memory on a single listen. Let
Transmissionary Six add some dark drama to your day.
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