Album Review: Stolen Violin - Temperate Touch, Tropical Tears

When you first play Temperate Touch, Tropical Tears, you might hear little beyond the befogged vocals and heavily distorted guitars. In his debut solo LP, Jordan Ireland, former frontman of The Middle East, makes no attempt to appeal to fans of his former band's toe-tapping melodies and memorable hooks. Rather, the album he's delivered under the stage name Stolen Violin, is so deliberately anti-pop that you can't help but feel that he's limiting his audience to students of music theory and the more experimentally inclined.

Recorded largely on 8-track cassette in a suburban Melbourne shed, if you detect a home-made feel to the album it's because it's exactly that. But put on some good headphones, close your eyes, and concentrate on the slackened vocals and the intricate soundscape. Listen to the album from start to finish and immerse yourself in the grizzly looped feedback. There's sadness there, and a dash of fleeting romanticism reminiscent of Elliott Smith. Romance At The Petrol Station and When They Put It All On Red are the standouts – but perhaps that's because they are also the most accessible. The grungy 38 Degree Blues gives you something to nod your head to, the two carefully-placed title track instrumentals something to think about, while Floorboards provides echoes of The Panics' early years.

Temperate Touch, Tropical Tears is not an easy album to listen to; you won't be singing along to many of these songs. But give it some time, let it sink in nice and slow, and you might just find yourself moved by something just a bit different, and a bit beautiful.