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Evoletah
Sleepwalker
dB Magazine October 2012
By Steve Jones
Evolving from members of several Adelaide bands from over the past two
decades it, because of such combined experience and maturity, comes of no
surprise that Evoletah’s debut full length album is a stunning achievement.
Constantly treading that fine line between allowing his life to become his
art and overstepping such a role by proffering any answers or other such
unrealistic expectations, vocalist Matt Cahill takes us into the heart of each
of his stories, often leaving us to waver and wallow alongside the very
emotions that drove him to translate them into words in the first place.
Paraphrasing, lyrically and performance-wise,
perhaps the more miserable side of Thom Yorke’s way of being with his own account
of what it’s like to plummet into the depths of self despair, right from track one there’s
an immediate feeling that this entire recording is somehow picking up from where it left off from
somewhere, someplace even, before.
Much of this album dwells in the past,
and delves into truths that need to be heard. Even if its teller inadvertently,
by way of his own up front honesty, makes it all the more difficult to allow us
to know the entire facts behind each piece. Opening with Four Walls,
“cold, grey ones,” if you may, Cahill laments on how life and many of its
promises have passed him by only to follow those thoughts up with Amnesia
and the virtue of white washing much of that pain away by forgetting. It’s
by creating this air tight seal that helps to both contain and maintain interest
right to the very end. And just as with the first song, we find ourselves
sharing Cahill’s view out from a single window as he grapples with terms that
he needs to intimately address, with or without judgment from others. Evoking
an array of dark angled images that combine both powerful musical soundscapes
with highly emotive words, ‘Sleepwalker’ may not offer the assurance of a happy
awakening at the end, but it will take you on an eye opening journey.
Step by step.
decades it, because of such combined experience and maturity, comes of no
surprise that Evoletah’s debut full length album is a stunning achievement.
Constantly treading that fine line between allowing his life to become his
art and overstepping such a role by proffering any answers or other such
unrealistic expectations, vocalist Matt Cahill takes us into the heart of each
of his stories, often leaving us to waver and wallow alongside the very
emotions that drove him to translate them into words in the first place.
Paraphrasing, lyrically and performance-wise,
perhaps the more miserable side of Thom Yorke’s way of being with his own account
of what it’s like to plummet into the depths of self despair, right from track one there’s
an immediate feeling that this entire recording is somehow picking up from where it left off from
somewhere, someplace even, before.
Much of this album dwells in the past,
and delves into truths that need to be heard. Even if its teller inadvertently,
by way of his own up front honesty, makes it all the more difficult to allow us
to know the entire facts behind each piece. Opening with Four Walls,
“cold, grey ones,” if you may, Cahill laments on how life and many of its
promises have passed him by only to follow those thoughts up with Amnesia
and the virtue of white washing much of that pain away by forgetting. It’s
by creating this air tight seal that helps to both contain and maintain interest
right to the very end. And just as with the first song, we find ourselves
sharing Cahill’s view out from a single window as he grapples with terms that
he needs to intimately address, with or without judgment from others. Evoking
an array of dark angled images that combine both powerful musical soundscapes
with highly emotive words, ‘Sleepwalker’ may not offer the assurance of a happy
awakening at the end, but it will take you on an eye opening journey.
Step by step.
Sleepwalker Review
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Sleepwalker Review
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Evaporating
Review THE INDEPENDENT WEEKLY Sept 2009 By Stephen Davenport Radiating equivocal unrest as a substitute for overt angst, Evoletah’s sophomore album, Evaporating, is an imperfect album that intrigues as it approaches being somewhat exceptional. This isn’t a raucous rock album. Instead, it’s a blasé, pleasant time that’s a tad wistful, and the result is rather enchanting. Vocalist Matt Cahill offers a lightly produced set of pensive songs that he sings with astute minimalism. On these gentle, folk-inspired rock tunes, he seems to be something like a cross between Al Stewart and Chris Isaak – which sounds frightful, but it’s not. The outcome is a proficient and agreeable suite that comes across like soft, intimate incantations rather than hook-filled rock music. As the album title suggest, the music fades in on itself without disappearing, which leaves room for Jason Eyers-White on drums and Andrew Boyce on guitars to punctuate with sounds and an almost constantly dispersing shimmer. There aren’t any misfires on this recording. But maybe Evoletah should have had more ambition. At only seven songs, Evaporating is a slight album and it dissolves and vanishes all too soon. Yet that shouldn’t detract. There’s prodigious flair and clearly a lot of arduous effort that has gone into producing an acceptable album which, although not great, is fascinating. STEPHEN DAVENPORT THE INDEPENDENT WEEKLY September 2009 |
FOOL'S ERRAND
REVIEW dB Magazine October 2008 by Steve Jones Those in the know would remember Matt Cahill from The Violets, the very first band to plug in at Adelaide's inaugural Big Day Out way back in 1993, and one that also had a couple of likable Triple J cuts with Somewhere and Mary Who? Bigger things were promised, but alas, never came & Cahill quietly disappeared from the local music scene. Fast forward to 2008, and this six track release is indeed a welcome surprise, and showcases Cahill's return as he heralds a new band but maybe not an entirely new direction. Evoletah, like The Violets, use broad, lush strokes of swirling sound as a backing canvass, and that's not a bad thing because if there's one thing Cahill has, it's a genuinely felt penchant for outpouring his emotions as he cathartically conveys his lyrics as he lives them. The Door beautifully portrays a forlorn relationship where reason remains unheard, while Lucky Star wistfully reflects on love newly lost, as does Smiles & Lies, only on the latter all wishful thoughts are countered by the bittersweet realisation of the truth. Brother's Shoulders is an acoustic-based rock number where familial despair is literally viewed as a half empty glass and a feeling that runs deeper through his veins. Drawing upon an old adage to measure an emotional drought, Month Of Sundays reveals some hint of a silver lining to what otherwise is a one way melancholic telling of a loveless relationship and the brooding A Bloody Circus breaks away from affairs of the heart and focusses on the haunting collateral damage caused by war in the Middle East. 'Fool's Errand' is a good and solid introduction to Evoletah, and features an experienced recruitment of Adelaide musicians that know their place both in song and studio to create an oft-spacious, alluring and highly relatable debut. Steve Jones DBMagazine October 2008 |