Album Review: Jonny Telafone - Jonny Telafone

Melbourne artistic bowerbird Jonny Telafone is relatively unknown outside of his hometown, yet his mischievous adventures in wonky electronic pop and all its tangents should hopefully reach a much wider audience in the not-too-distant future. His material is scattered far and wide on both cassette and digital formats, so it's a godsend to see Chapter Music take the irascible artist under their wing if only to rope some of these songs onto one tangible release. This 20-track 'best-of' comes alongside a four-track vinyl EP, and is a great encapsulation of the warped world that Telafone inhabits.

Telafone has more in relation to John Maus in his propensity for lo-fi warbling (Broken Hearts Are Hard To Fix), drifting on occasion into Prince-levels of pop albeit with ample doses of irreverence (Make Your Pussy Cum, with its orgasmic samples, speaks for itself), and his prolific output. There are more accessible tracks like Pitter Patter, Until My Lungs Explode and Drowning In The Lake, stripped back into a 'traditional' guitar-and-drums template, that are often the most endearing of Telafone's incarnations. Yet it's the weirdness that generally takes centre stage – Dead In The Sega is playfully dreadful (if that can be a thing), while Spirit Man, Doomed In Love, Only Temporary Things and The End all soar to great heights.

It's hard to accurately describe the many variations of Jonny Telafone, and it would be nice to have some time with just one. Nevertheless, Jonny Telafone highlights what a burgeoning talent he really is.