The Blech
Wosto Ajustements

Thirteen perfectly balanced, keyboard saturated songs flutter like flags threaded on a string: a collection of fleeting thoughts stirred by the winds of Eighties pop. Riffs soar, the drum machine gallops and vocals are as carefully blended as a mango smoothie on a white-sky day.Modal Melodies is the duo made up of Violetta Del Conte-Race (Primo! / The Glass Picture) & Jake Robertson (Alien Nosejob, etc.) The group stemmed from a loose chat at Geelong’s Jerkfest in early 2021, where they made plans to help each other complete some unfinished demos. After emailing ideas back and forth through lockdown, they were soon able to be in the same room together to structure their quickly blossoming songs. Vio added vocals from home and Jake mixed them into their sessions. Six to eight months after making their first arrangements, Modal Melodies had matured into this debut record.There’s something about a duo - something intimate and serious: it requires full trust and an act of balance. These are people who have listened to so much music they know how to make tunes in a way that seems intuitive. Karen Marks, Saada Bonaire and Lena Platonos have been mentioned as influences, but it seems like the biggest inspiration to cite came from each other. There’s an untamed instinct for melody, and layers like clouds, slowly rolling in. Drenched with colours and understated tension in parts, coupled with reckless joy, this album speaks to this moment.

Composer and electronics mastermind Lauren Bousfield has always displayed a virtuouso flare while ecstatically flying by our ears at lightning speed, seemingly from 10 directions at once. On her latest album, she brings a new found expertise in orchestral arranging from her other work as a cinema composer, and puts vocals to the front. Much like her finger blurring piano playing, these vocals seem to be passing us by at the speed of light. We know they're there, but they dance around us rather than beat straight into our bodies. Our souls feel these songs, not just our hips.