The Hipstones

THE DRUM MEDIA – 30TH MARCH 2010

DREAMERS, ALBUM REVIEW BY MICHAEL SMITH

THE HIPSTONES
DREAMERS
Vitamin

Silky smooth grooves match the silky smooth voice of Anthea White as she gently glides through 11 tracks she cowrote with musical and life partner, multi-instrumentalist Mark Palmer. They’re essentially the heartfelt core of The Hipstones ably assisted and abetted on this, their second album, by some of Australia’s finest jazz and funk musicians. The result is a world class album with as much subtlety and cool funk as anything by the likes of Sade with a twist of Stevie Wonder, that last influence never more evident than on Spread It All Around, the mood enhanced punchy Stax/Motown soul brass stabs and the slinky bass of Victor Rounds. The pop element is best represented in the sonorous It’s My Soleil, complete with skipping flute and sundrenched rounding harmonies.

You can also hear the spirit of Marvin Gaye and the Vandellas in Let’s Take A Holiday, while the strings, close harmonies and shifting jazz intervals of Min’s Song adds an altogether different texture. Palmer proves himself no slouch in the vocal department either on Lost Again, the track they recorded in New York. Then he delivers some funky ragtime piano on the sassy duet Can’t Get Started.

The Hipstones certainly lift the sophistication of their sound a few notched on this second outing, a remarkable work considering it essentially comes from a town, Sydney, which has never really been renowned for nurturing this kind of cool old school soul/funk/R&B kind of combo. It’s no wonder they’ve been embraced so easily by New York City, where they’d sit quite comfortably if a little more subdued alongside the Dap Kings and their ilk. A classy release from a class act.

Michael Smith - Drum Media

The Hipstones: Dreamers
by George Graham
(independent release As broadcast on WVIA-FM 3/10/2010)

With music being the proverbial universal language, along with the global nature of the media, and the Internet erasing boundaries, one would think that regional styles would be less of a factor. And indeed one gets respectable versions of regionally distinctive styles performed by artists from unlikely places, such as reggae from New Zealand (Katchafire), a chanteuse singer-songwriter from Malaysia (Zee Avi), a Salsa band from Scotland (Salsa Celtica), and an authentic Afro-beat band from Chicago (Chicago Afrobeat Project). Sometimes that geographic displacement is musically seamless, with the group from "here" faithfully doing the music from "there." But sometimes, there is enough of the cultural collision either to make it a little bit off, or more fortuitously, providing an interesting reinvention on the style.
This week, we have a good example. It's a CD named Dreamers from a group called The Hipstones. The Hipstones' style is basically a kind of laid-back variety of soul and funk, and they have an intriguing geographic provenance. The Hipstones are basically two people who surround themselves with additional players. Mark Palmer and Anthea White are Australians who, according to their band biography, formed their group in a "high-rise" in Tokyo. They recently moved to New York, where they figured they would find a compatible environment for their very American-influenced music. But their CD was largely recorded in Sydney with one track from New York.
What makes the Hipstones' CD intriguing is the way their soul pastiche is given a number of twists. There's a fair amount of jazz influence, and the horn arrangements can resemble Steely Dan. Ms. White is hardly a traditional-style soul singer. Instead, she has an easy-going airy approach, while she often harmonizes with Palmer, who has a similarly breezy sound. Palmer's instrument is the piano, rather than the guitar. They create compositions that are generally quite interesting, especially musically, with what the musicians call the "changes" -- the harmonic structure of the compositions -- being a lot more sophisticated than is typical for 60s soul. That's another area where a parallel can be drawn to Steely Dan. But they also do a couple of laid-back ballads, perform a some pieces with a string quartet and do one doo-wop-style a cappella track. The result is an intriguing but thoroughly appealing amalgam notable for the group's great writing and Ms. White's notably relaxed vocal approach. Apparently, other members of the group also made the pilgrimage from Australia to New York, with several of the players from the Australian sessions also appearing on the New-York recorded track. To add further geographical diversity, the Hipstones' CD was mixed in Los Angeles.
The album opens with its title track Dreamers which sums up the Hipstones' sonic pastiche. The soul influence is clearly there, but the laid-back sound, the pair's distinctive two-part harmonies, and the Steely-Dan influenced horn arrangements combine to make a sound that is both familiar and unexpected. >
A bit more toward the conventional soul sound is Spread It All Around, though the track has a jazzier texture. >
The Hipstones bring a laid-back, almost atmospheric quality to several tracks. A piece called Min's Song evokes that dreaminess, with the aid of the string quartet. >
Mark Palmer does lead vocals on a few tracks. Lost Again is one of them that also features a kind of Sixties soul approach to the singing combined with a slow, contemplative musical setting that even lacks drums. >
On the other hand, the most danceable track on the CD is It's My Soleil, which has a kind of African-influenced rhythm, while the musical texture still has a vaguely laid-back quality. >
To show their jazz credentials, The Hipstones do a bluesy original song called Can't Get Started, not be confused with the Vernon Duke-Ira Gershwin classic of the same name. The Hipstones' song has a sound that also evokes an earlier era. >
The band includes one instrumental piece, called Esperanza, and compared to the rest of the CD, it's not nearly as strong. >
And as a contrast to that, the Hipstones do an a cappella song, called Passing Through. It's another interesting departure, with the additional vocals from singers brought in for the occasion. But the results are not quite at the level of the best of the a cappella groups on the scene. >
The CD ends with a pleasing piano ballad called Any Day, also showing the duo's jazz tendencies. >
The Hipstones' new album Dreamers is their second CD, but apparently the first to be released in the US, now that these Australians have settled in New York. It's a very appealing and distinctive recording that combines a kind of thread of 1960s-style soul with an intriguing mix of other ingredients, such as jazz harmonic complexity, and sometimes a kind of dreamy atmospheric texture. Though the vocals are often patterned after 1960s soul, Anthea White's airy quality could hardly be described as that of a classic powerful soul-singer. Mark Palmer can sometimes evoke Stevie Wonder, but he also can slide into jazz ballads. The musically rich arrangements with the added horns and strings can take the sound in other directions as well. The result is music that hints at familiar and classic styles, and at the same time establishes a very distinctive personal sound for the group.
Our audio quality grade is about a A-minus. The mix is quite good, the vocal sound is pleasing, there are no unnecessary studio effects, and the recording generally has good clarity and warmth. But we'll deduct points, as usual, for the compression used to jack up the volume of the recording, spoiling some of the dynamics of the music.
With a pair of Australians forming a group in Tokyo and playing soul-influenced music, then moving to New York, the result is bound to be interesting. The Hipstones do not disappoint, and their CD is one you'll probably want to go back to many times. - George Graham WVIA-FM

THE HIPSTONES
Something’s Gonna Start
Independent

They might have forgotten it back in the USA but right here in Olde Sydney Town, the sweet soul sound that oozed out of artists as diverse as Smokey Robinson, Bill Withers, Stevie Wonder and The Commodores is alive and well and positively dripping out of the grooves of this collective.

Based around songwriters keyboards player Mark Palmer and singer Anthea White, The Hipstones bring together some of this city’s finest soul/funk players, adding their particular magic to the chilled out/sizzling punch of rhythm section bass player Victor Rounds and drummer Tim Firth, sugar-coated by the supple string and horn arrangements of jazz maestro Matt Ottignon and funkmeister himself, Jackie Orszaczky. They even manage to include the exotic sounds of the Middle Eastern lute or oud on It’s Gonna Be Good For You, courtesy of Joseph Tawadros, without it sounding too discordant.

Tonally White is closer to the glistening dulcet tones of local pop diva Abby Dobson than the edgy growl of the classic soul queens, but that merely adds an evocative ache to songs like Revolution, where Palmer also shows himself no slouch as a singer. Together, their harmonies are quite sumptuous and again, the pair draw on some of Sydney’s finest voices, among them Joy Yates and Virna Sanzone, to create as soulful a funkified (if perhaps a little more “polite”) vocal choir you’ll find anywhere this side of a Southern Baptist congregation. And then, just for fun, they throw in a cut each from Louis Prima, Elton John and the Gershwins.

MICHAEL SMITH
THE DRUM MEDIA 18 SEPTEMBER 2007
- Drum Media

THE HIPSTONES
‘Something’s Gonna Start’
Album review


Tackling soul, funk, and a little bit of rock, this Sydney, Australia nine piece has a real knack for writing modern songs with a vintage feel. Headed up by the core duo of Anthea White and Mark Palmer, this is a band that is flush with method and feeling, slinking and jamming through an hour of upbeat party songs, slower ballads, and smoother numbers that have a definite pop appeal to them. It's a wise diversity in sound that offers a bit of something for everyone, and really allows the band to open up and show their prowess as players. While some songs feature guitar heavily, others rely on string arrangements or tastefully devised horn parts that do a fantastic job of building off the initial structure of the song. This is all held together by Palmer and White, whose harmonies and melodies seem to really lead the way and push these songs along. Their voices meld well together, with each working off the other and neither overstepping their bounds. Like any good modern soul album, this one has a timeless feel to it, but it steps away from being a simple homage and instead treads a new path that makes it memorable in its own right.

Brad Bush
Music Editor CD Baby
5 Star album review
- Brad Bush

The Dictionary Of Soul & Funk is very much a work in progress and the latest entry is Sydney based nine piece, The Hipstones. Fronted by Mark Palmer (organ/wurly/vocals) and Anthea White (lead vocals), the duo formed their unique partnership in a high rise in the centre of Tokyo, Japan.

Their debut album, Something’s Gonna Start is an eclectic and instantly engaging mix of new school funk, soul and jazz, with some Donny Hathaway influenced blues and the occasional rock-out moment. It features an almost entirely original set of songs and some outstanding string and horn arrangements from Australia’s funk’n’ soul guru, Jackie Orszaczky as well as horn arrangements from kiwi sax player Mathew Ottignon. There’s also a guest appearance from Australia’s internationally renowned oud player, Joseph Tawadros.

Both on stage and on disc the band delivers a big, warm sound that only comes through an exceptional nine piece lineup of lead vocals, keys, drums, bass, guitar, horn section and backing vocals. Rather than rely on recycling well worn standards they have developed a complete songbook of orginal songs, ranging from soulful moody ballads to fiery dancefloor shakers.

In just a short space of time The Hipstones have made a big impression on the local scene, performing at the 3rd Annual Sydney Funk & Soul Festival and sharing the stage with Renee Geyer and Jackie Orszaczky’s Budget Orchestra at a sensational show in The Studio at The Sydney Opera House. They have also appeared twice on Channel Nine’s Morning Show and been in constant demand for club gigs around town.

Lost in Translation! – Anthea Recalls
“We began writing whilst living and working in Tokyo on a six month contract at the Tokyo Hilton – very reminiscent of "Lost in Translation" as Mark and I got together there as well. Before we recorded the album we surrounded ourselves in old school soul and funk. It was that warm and rich sound quality that really impressed us, so we decided to record, mix and master from tape. We chose Big Jesus Burger because they have all the old school mics and that great vintage vibe. The band was all recorded live and the vocals done separately. At one stage we had about ten vocalists in the room all at once, singing the choir like backing vocals.”

bookings - Anthea White and Mark Palmer - 0422 970 083
- bluetripmusic@hotmail.com
publicity – chris ruhle (02) 9251 6940 0405 726 753
robot100@bigpond.com
- press release

THE HIPSTONES
‘Something’s Gonna Start’
Album review


“Tackling soul, funk, and a little bit of rock, this Sydney, Australia nine piece has a real knack for writing modern songs with a vintage feel. Headed up by the core duo of Anthea White and Mark Palmer, this is a band that is flush with method and feeling, slinking and jamming through an hour of upbeat party songs, slower ballads, and smoother numbers that have a definite pop appeal to them. It's a wise diversity in sound that offers a bit of something for everyone, and really allows the band to open up and show their prowess as players. While some songs feature guitar heavily, others rely on string arrangements or tastefully devised horn parts that do a fantastic job of building off the initial structure of the song. This is all held together by Palmer and White, whose harmonies and melodies seem to really lead the way and push these songs along. Their voices meld well together, with each working off the other and neither overstepping their bounds. Like any good modern soul album, this one has a timeless feel to it, but it steps away from being a simple homage and instead treads a new path that makes it memorable in its own right.”

Brad Bush
Music Editor CD Baby
5 Star album review

- Music Editor - Brad Bush