Reviews

Love’s Shadow is a proudly Australian album, void of nationalistic pride but reveling in the landscape and its people. It’s also a very strong introduction to Toby Martin as a solo artist.

His first two albums were very good indeed; but who needs Who Needs Action When You’ve Got Words when you’ve got this?

Definitely some of the most powerful extreme music you’ll hear this year.

Overall it’s a refined outing but what’s lacking most is that raw, dangerous, dirty soul at the heart of previous Dyson fare, and in turn the sauntering troubadour sound of old is sadly affected.

While clearly the band has been heavily influenced by post-punk and no wave, there’s a million other influences that have been distilled into the very dense mix.

Broken Brights is not just Angus and Julia in solo form with mandolins, harmonicas, piano, dobro thrown in; there’s real sentiment and storytelling breaking through.

Every track on The Moment demands attention, be it Dyson on wailing slide guitar or simply strumming away.

The eleven-track album is unapologetically positive, but at the same time quite superficial.