While it's not my practice to review things nearly impossible to get, this CD deserves a mention. My first exposure to this Australian quintet was through their song on Fat-Cat's "No Watches.No Maps" collection of demo songs from bands they weren't going to pursue anything with at the time. What I heard can be described as somewhat derivative from an Aerial M/Tortoise/Fridge sound but their mastery of musicianship, songwriting and production skills are quite appealing. Inside the disc there was contact information listed, so I wrote to them and said I wanted to hear their album, with possible interest to send it to some friends at labels/distributors but I had no intention of writing about it.

After hearing their 37-minute six-song LP I can safely say I'm not surprised at the sound but pleasantly impressed with their abilities. It might still have that derivative quality which will most likely keep them from being picked up by any label outside Australia for a while, but there's something hard to put your finger on that you can just sense. It's the sense that these people are actually going somewhere and are off to a great start, and I'm interested in what's to become of next, even interested enough to possibly try and release this here myself if I wasn't so damned busy with everything else in my life. If you couldn't guess from the comparisons already, the music itself is instrumental, composed of conventional rock instruments with the occasional vibrophone. It's rock-based with an occasional nod to jazz, but never to the point of wankiness nor with over-the-top production. I don't know how you can obtain it, but there is a website listed at www.trifekta.com.au, or you can try to bug your record stores to carry it and perhaps their distributors will become interested. In my experience however, the web site doesn't work and record stores and distributors are pigs. Stay tuned however, as more developments on this band will be noted here as they're made.

 

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