(03.09.05) White Rabbits, put simply, focuses on melodic and quaint folk influenced songs that are primarily acoustic based compositions, with smatterings of drum and synth programming. It is a record that uses quite a large ensemble of players, only relying on sequencing and electronic elements in moderation, which makes for a very refreshing and organic listening experience.
“Girls at the Seaside” and “New Cross” tread gently with subtle rhythms and softened and echoed piano and guitar chords, perhaps a little too lush and lazy as an introduction. “Inch Inch” waltzes along into post-rock slumberland, and suffers from some awkward sequenced percussion that is the proverbial sore-thumb of the piece.
“Magpies” announces a darker and denser direction for the album, eerily surging with Eno-like portamento slides, and live and sampled vocals mixed to give a vaguely Eastern and exotic flavour. “Odity(sic)Round-a-Heights” and “Small Moves” are pleasant interludes toying with stark atmosphere and to a degree counter the more developed band-based pieces woven around them.
The last two pieces “Joe Luke,” and “If We Were Trees” conclude in a decidedly more freeform and open ended manner, with Mazlen’s vocal contributions perhaps coming across a little too non-committal. The ‘hidden’ tracks is a straight forward token fuzz-rock jam that serves as a climactic finishing point, but could really have been omitted for the sake of continuity.
An impressive fine-print of personnel has fleshed out the skeletal form of Riz’s compositions, including some well known Australian producers, Ben Frost, Lars Chresta and Alex Crowfoot (better known as Ollo). JG Everest however seems to have been Maslen’s prime collaborator on White Rabbits, and undoubtedly this is the strongest work thus far under the moniker of Neotropic.
White Rabbits is out now on Mush.
