Oztix | News | This One Time, On Bandcamp: Lonelyspeck

I promised that I'd take us somewhere that wasn't Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne in this week's column, and I'm really glad I made that call, because today's act, hailing from the sleepy town* of Adelaide, is honestly well overdue for a mention in these weekly paragraphs.

So, let's not keep them waiting any longer.

*Adelaide is actually a city of more than 1.2 million people and seriously questionably sleepy. I have actually never been, but I hear it is really nice**.

**Actually, nobody has said directly that to my face but as an ex-north Queenslander I know the sting of being unfairly maligned by big-city wankers who have never set foot in your town*** but act like experts on the place anyway, so I am going to give Adelaide the benefit of the doubt.

***Again, more than 1.2 million people. It is literally the fifth-most populous city in Australia.

Lonelyspeck — Adelaide, South Australia

South Australian producer Sione Teumohenga — aka Lonelyspeck — has been steadily building renown outside their home city for the past couple of years, leveraging their talents for creating smooth, sultry, super-lush alternative electro-pop to have garnered an ever-growing fan base on the back of super-solid singles such as All My Skin On the Air and Happy New Year, and even took out the coveted triple j Unearthed stage spot at Adelaide's leg of the Laneway festival back in January. They now stand on the cusp of breaking through on a whole new level on the back of their newest piece of superlative work.

Said excellence comes in the form of Lonelyspeck's second EP Lave, which made a piping-hot landing through Sydney indie label TEEF Records this Friday past (3 March). With that release still super-fresh, now is seriously the perfect opportunity to start acquainting yourself with the multi-talented musician (if you haven't already), who not only handled all the instrumentation on the release but recorded, mixed and mastered it, as well as creating its beautiful, understated cover art.

Lave follows on from debut effort Presence — released back in 2014 through London-based label PLZ Make It Ruins — with five new considered, complex compositions that are seemingly effortlessly filled with a raft of aural goodies to unpack, from Teumohenga's gorgeous vocals to their clever use of sonic space and innate understanding of the power of what isn't expressed as much as what is. It's moody, it's melodious, it's musically imaginative and it's one of the most finely crafted little releases I've had the pleasure of putting in my ears so far this year.

That's not to under-serve its predecessor, of course: Presence is certainly a less polished, somewhat less focused release than Lave — ambience plays a bigger role on the first EP than on the follow-up, Teumohenga's vocals generally a little more sparse and a little more obscured in the mix by reverb and other padding than we see on EP #2 — but, as with the evolution of all musicians, Lonelyspeck's debut effort remains a vital stepping stone on the path to having been able to reach the heights they have with their new release.

These tunes are lush. They're luminous. They're Lonelyspeck.

Please enjoy. It's almost impossible not to.

If you're into it, Lonelyspeck will be launching Lave in Sydney next Saturday, 11 March, at The Gaelic Club, with support from Jaysways, Lupa J and Gussy. See their Facebook page for more information.