- I don’t think there is any mistaking by now how Tasmania’s isolation has produced a natural beauty and heavy history, attractive to those simultaneously capable of stoicism and active expression. Bianca Blackhall’s debut EP is an exceptional entry into Tasmania’s cultural development and Australia’s sense of country.
It’s a cold and crystalline opening to the six track EP. Poppy Head with its declaratively simple and poignant piano provides a bedding of three chords for Bianca’s vivid lyricism and intimate delivery, inviting you into a warm atmosphere with a solemn nod. Inside you find an approach to country music that stands on a ground of cathartic melancholy and stark acknowledgement of harsh environments. Similar to how The Drones’ I See Seaweed drew out a warped and rustic way of song, Blackhall and her band present stories that see Australia clearly. Her alt-country stylings are wide-ranging, wind-swept, sensitive to space and melody.
The EP breathes deeply in its arrangements and at a pace that is just slower than usual, drawing you in as Bianca becomes voluminous and captivating, holding a powerful presence that is suggestive of prominent female figures like Grace Slick and Patty Smith. Bianca’s vocal prowess and poetic sensibilities stand out on Iron Ore, a damning anti-mine song revealing blood on the hands of Gina and Palmer. Through haunting squalls the song seethes until it explodes, exemplary of Tasmania, physically and politically.
Unafraid, Bianca’s vulnerability in expressing herself is resonant of Sarah Mary Chadwick, songs act like therapy, her range of defeat, anger, compassion and acceptance are unloaded with a developing elegance, the straight rockin’ Horse Birth will have you believing her physical threats as will the organ-based Joaniehave you empathising in full, a body of grief and trauma to expunge.
Calling forth punk and rock energies into the six songs on Blackhall’s EP imparts a sense of agency to the grief and anger expressed; the touchpoints of country do not wallow but rather bide their sensitivities as further action seems inevitable. With a maturing sound of intrigue and deliverance, Bianca Blackhall’s impressive debut will hopefully lead to a bigger, bolder body
of work.
- Nicholas J Rodwell.