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KELLY MALONE – Earth & Stars
TUESDAY, 08 SEPTEMBER 2009
Globetrotting Aussie releases debut album Kelly Malone is an example of a singer/songwriter who truly lives by the "have guitar, will travel" rule. Since moving to Melbourne from Cairns at the age of 19, Malone has gone on to call the likes of Canada and the UK home. After collaborating with Orbital’s Phil Hartnoll, Malone found her creative soul mates in production duo Mood Bungalow, comprising Matt Robertson (producer / arranger for Björk, Prodigy and David Arnold) and Mike Reed. With this team, Malone has come up with a highly accomplished debut album Earth & Stars. It’s a record of atmospheric indie folk, based around Malone’s melodious voice and acoustic guitar, but the experience is enhanced by superb, often haunting, arrangements. The excellent Perfect Thing is a great example, Malone cooing and strumming, while Sigur Rós-styled atmospherics hum and wail in the background. She can also pen a good catchy pop song, as the Feist-flavoured up-tempo number Do My Head In proves. Other tunes such as Slowly and the title track showcase how Malone skilfully creates her own musical persona while simultaneously working superbly as part of a band, the two songs sounding intimate, live and immediate. A more poised, moody sound is showcased in No Lonely Here, while adventurous instrumentation (cello, clarinet, harpsichord, celeste) enhance the record as a whole.
***½
MATT THROWER - Rave Magazine
Discography
Earth & Stars - LP 2009
Photos
Bio
If youre a fan of Laura Marling, Feist and Sarah Blasko; and a collision of musical stylings between Joni Mitchell and Sigur Ros sounds interesting, then you may want to hear about Kelly Malone.
Australian artist Kelly Malone has lived abroad (Canada, UK, and Europe) for the past 5 years, writing, recording, and performing with a wide variety of different artists on a variety of different musical styles.
In September 2009 shes coming home with her stellar debut album to show for it.
With no formal musical instruction or training at age 19 Kelly moved to Melbourne from Cairns to pursue a musical yearning and journey. On arrival in Melbourne Kelly set up the hugely popular Vineyard original music night in St Kilda which was a hub for so many great folk and acoustic acts in Melbourne from 2001 2005.
In 2005 Kelly relocated to Europe and after many shows throughout the continent and UK she based herself in Brighton southern England where she began collaborating with Phil Hartnoll (Orbital) and Nick Smith performing as Long Range.
With the desire to make her own record Kelly hooked up with Matt Robertson (producer and arranger for Björk, Prodigy, David Arnold) and Matts production partner Mike Reed - who together perform as Mood Bungalow
We demoed at Matt's Studio in Park Royal in London and at my home in Harlesden in the evenings. Then we booked a residential studio in Oxfordshire. Recorded the album in two weeks. The whole record is put together with organic and analogue sounds, no digitalized sounds or tomfoolery. We had some fun with the Space Echo and Analogue synths and percussion tracks put together on almost anything but a drum kit.
The final recorded works comprise Kellys debut album Earth & Stars.
Earth & Stars is an uplifting and engaging document of one of Australias most talented new artists. Its an album full raw, organic songs of stories of love and loss which are framed with ethereal layers of music and showcase her distinctive vocal and guitar technique.
Earth & Stars was released September 5 2009 through Silent Partner Recordings.
Kelly has played shows across Australia including Wave Rock Weekender and supporting GOMEZ and is spending the Summer in Australia touring and performing works off the album.
Its time to welcome her back home.
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