Sodastream was — and now is again — a collaboration between Perth-bred musicians Karl Smith and Pete Cohen, who released four albums of gentle, textured music in the early-2000s, which resonated not just in Australia but overseas as well.
After a six-year break they reunited in 2013 and now they're back in the recorded realms with fifth long-player Little By Little, a typically robust affair considering the often-delicate, paper-thin nature of their songs.
On top of the guitar, upright bass and voice template which have long been their stock-in-trade, some quality guests have been recruited to help flesh out the shared vision, including J Walker (Machine Translations), Tom Lyngcoln (The Nation Blue, Harmony) and Kelly Lane (Skipping Girl Vinegar), while Marty Brown from Art Of Fighting once more takes the production credit. Yet it's the brazen chemistry between Smith and Cohen that still burns bright, a subtle simpatico which has seemingly returned unabated.
They conjure disparate moods with apparent ease, showing throughout that quiet music can still be muscular and powerful, Smith's proclamation, "My hands turn to fire every time you leave/Soon I'll burn all these fuckers around me," in captivating single Three Sins particularly jolting. Elsewhere brash bursts of horns punctuate Letting Go, On The Stage shuffles along on beautifully off-kilter rhythms and a haunting instrumental prelude swells into the upbeat Tyre Iron. A welcome and well-crafted return.
