This One Time, On Bandcamp: Biscotti

There are few primal joys in this life quite like finding a new artist whose music instantly strikes a personal chord for reasons just beyond the grasp of linguistic ability. Managing not to cry when teenagers are mean to me comes pretty close, but that'd be about it.

Not being able to pinpoint the precise reasons that an act is so alluring can be as frustrating as it is enjoyable, though; the pangs of the unfulfilled desire to more capably convey an act's obvious excellence often equal to the sheer fun of trying to find the words to do them justice with language.

I guess what I'm trying to say is: I really, really like Biscotti, but I'll be damned if I could tell you why in anything approaching a succinct manner. Oh, well. Better give it a try anyway; we've got a deadline to meet.

Biscotti — Melbourne, Victoria

Look, I don't want to tell you to skip ahead and just listen to the music below, but that may actually be the most practical way to wrap your head around the many faces of this Melbourne-based trip-hop-pop-electro-funk purveyor, the alter-ego of multi-talented musician Carla Ori.

Part of the reason it's so difficult to ably encapsulate Biscotti in a succinct manner is that Ori has undergone a considerable sonic evolution under this moniker over the past several years, growing ever outwards from the more straightforward electro-pop of her debut EP Biscotti (2011) through to her more-fully fleshed-out, beautifully wonky, genre-hopping experimenting on latest release (and first full-length) Like Heaven In The Movies.

Although still Ori's brainchild at its core — she handles basically everything you hear on the album, having recorded it between "various bedrooms and RMIT studios" — Biscotti has grown not just in musical scope but membership in recent times, with several collaborators contributing on the album including vocalist David Bramble and guitarist Constantine Stefano (Fantastico), accordionist and nose-flutist Carlos Parraga (Soda Pop) and vocalist/sampler Adam Gauci (Luciano's Jalopy).

Touching cornerstones of hip-hop, trip-hop, funk, electronica, synth-pop, disco and a bunch of other labels that fail to properly describe the deeply addictive aural diversity on offer, Biscotti's Like Heaven In The Movies is the sum of several years' growth and experience, and is a hugely endearing work that feels like the fulfillment of copious potential at which she had only ever hinted previously.

That's not to discount Biscotti's earlier works, of course — without the organic growth seen through releases such as the Biscotti EP and Make Me Feel Good single (2013), she likely could never have obtained the breadth of vision and imagination to have attained her ultimate form. Then again, even that sense of absolutism is not a given; Like Heaven In The Movies is a matured and magnificent piece of work, yes — but I suspect her best is yet to come.

And maybe that's why I like Biscotti so much: at the end of the day, she's clearly making the music she wants to make — which is noble — but she's also bloody good at it, which kicks things up to downright delightful.

Look, it could also be because the final track on Like Heaven In The Movies is called Leave The Gun, Take The Cannoli, but I'd like to think I'm not so easily swayed.

It's probably a bit of both, though. But, look, does it even matter? The point is: Biscotti is great, and you should get acquainted post-haste.

If you dig it and you're local, head along to the album launch at Gasometer on Thursday 23 March, with additional performances from Pikelet, Gregor and Pastiche. The Facebook event page has all the details.