Gala Mill
| Gala Mill | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by The Drones | ||||
| Released |
2 September 2006 (AUS) | |||
| Recorded | March 13–19, 2005 | |||
| Genre | Garage rock, folk rock[1], punk blues, post punk[2] | |||
| Length | 54:51 | |||
| Label |
ATP Recordings Shock Records | |||
| Producer |
Aaron Cupples Gareth Liddiard | |||
| The Drones chronology | ||||
| ||||
Gala Mill is the fourth album by Australian band the Drones, which was released in September 2006. The album peaked at No. 66 in the ARIA Albums Chart.[3] It was issued in the United Kingdom on 8 October 2006.
Background
The album was recorded in a mill on an isolated 10,000-acre (40 km2) farm on Tasmania’s east coast. Barking dogs and birdsong are heard between tracks, and the island’s history is heavily referenced throughout the songs.[4]
Vocalist Gareth Liddiard described their choice,
"We just wanted to go somewhere interesting, to steer clear of the boring old studio. Studios can feel like hospitals for sick bands. And acoustically, recording the album where we did played a huge part in how it ended up sounding."[5]
Bassist Fiona Kitschin expanded,
"The family who owns the farm and the mill have been there since the 1840s. It's beautiful. There are all these orchards around it, a creek near there you can swim in... and it's meant to be haunted. A woman apparently comes upstairs into the bedroom and cries. Although, we never saw anything. It'd probably be a better story if we had."[6]
Content
Liddiard declared,
"That was a conscious thing. To make an Australian sounding record is something that's been frowned upon over the years – it's not cool. But cool is not cool, you know? You should just be what you are, it's sad watching Australians trying to be Americans and Americans trying to be English and the English trying to be Americans."
The opening track "Jezebel", "the slow, roiling eight-minute opener [...] coiled to bust loose at any moment", deals with topics such as "the death of journalist Daniel Pearl in the Middle East, nuclear testing in the Australian homeland, and a school massacre that is infamous in Aussie history".[7] The track has been described as a "nearly eight-minute roller coaster"[8] and as "one part love song to nine parts apocalyptic nightmare" featuring allegorical lyrics.[9] The track "Dog-Eared", featuring slide guitar[10] has been described as "Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer" crossed with Nick Cave's Boatman's Call album" in which "the kind of love revealed [...] is so vulnerable that it becomes abusive".[11] The "even slower" following track, "I'm Here Now" deals with "drug addiction -- observing it, not participating in it."[12] The song "Words from the Executioner to Alexander Pearce", "the first of two epics that delve into the slaughterhouse that was Australia's early history"[13] references Alexander Pearce – a convict-bushranger who escaped Sarah Island's penal settlement on Tasmania's west coast with seven fellow convicts in 1822.[14] He was executed in July 1824 after a conviction of cannibalism during his escape attempts.[14] In the song, "Liddiard inhabits the executioner's mind for a discussion of guilt, empathy, experience, forgiveness, and jealousy."[15] "I Don't Ever Want To Change", the "fastest and jauntiest number" on the album featuring "mutant Chuck Berry leads and open-chorded riffs", features lyrics that "tells [the story] of a depressed shopkeeper who burns his business down for the insurance money"[16] in "trying to commune with nature."[17] "Work For Me" is the first ever Drones track to feature Fiona Kitschin on lead vocals.[18] "I Looked Down the Line and I Wondered" takes its title from a song by Sister Rosetta Tharpe.[19] "Are You Leaving For The Country" is a cover of a traditional song made popular by Karen Dalton.[20] The album closes with "Sixteen Straws". The first verse is lifted from the traditional song, "Moreton Bay"[21]. According to the liner notes: "To avoid damnation by suicide, groups of catholic convicts would draw straws, the long and the short decided the deceased and his killer." The song "carefully paints a scene in colonial Australia, backed by just the faint sound of guitars, a harmonica, and [Gareth's] own spittle"[22]. It has been called "The Drones’ masterstroke [...] the standout track of Gala Mill [...] the story of men forced to kill each other to save themselves" with its story being compared to The Proposition.[23]
Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| Pitchfork Media | (8.4/10)[25] |
| Sydney Morning Herald | (very positive)[26] |
| Tiny Mix Tapes | |
| Drowned in Sound | (8/10)[28] |
| Gigwise | |
| Spin | |
| Stylus | B+[31] |
National
Gala Mill received positive reviews from the Australian press. Jeff Glorfeld of The Age wrote that "[The band] made another [album], even better, dense, tense [...] and yet - frenzied?" and praised Liddiard's lyrics.[32]. Bernard Zuel of Sydney Morning Herald wrote that Liddiard's "grasp of a dark vision is utterly compelling, fierce and poetic, unseen in these parts since the days when Nick Cave merged Flannery O'Connor and the Old Testament while the early Bad Seeds let loose the hounds of hell", though the "understated grandeur" of their music set them apart from other similarly influenced bands.[33]
International
The album received a Metacritic score of 87, indicating "universal acclaim".[34] Seth K of Tiny Mix Tapes wrote that "humility rules [on this album], and what makes Gala Mill so impressive is how The Drones wear their emotions on their sleeves and how naturally everything spills out", calling Liddiard "passionately belligerent" and comparing him to "storyteller(s)" of the likes of Nick Cave and Bob Dylan. He described the band as "radicals, patriots, and lovers, all rolled into one."[35] Brandon Stosuy of Pitchfork Media wrote that Gala Mill finds the "band mak(ing) an epic leap beyond garage rock, giving Gareth Liddiard space to spin his dark, literate, history-rich yarns." He ended his review by writing: "New Jersey has Springsteen, Minneapolis, Craig Finn, and Liddiard's painterly sense of place and nation is equally stirring. You get the sense he could kick both the Boss and Finn's asses, actually."[36] Tom Gilhespy of Gigwise called it "a murderous wonder" and "the most self-consciously Australian album in years [...] also one of the most important".[37]
Legacy
In October 2010 Gala Mill was listed at #21 in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums.[38]
Awards & Nominations
The album was nominated for the 2006 Australian Music Prize, the second year in a row that the band had been nominated, with Wait Long By The River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By winning the previous year. The 2006 prize was won by Augie March for their album, Moo, You Bloody Choir.
Track listing
- "Jezebel" – 7:51
- "Dog Eared" – 4:53
- "I'm Here Now" – 7:45
- "Words From The Executioner To Alexander Pearce" – 5:15
- "I Don't Ever Want To Change" – 3:59
- "Work For Me" – 5:38
- "I Looked Down The Line And I Wondered" – 5:29
- "Are You Leaving For The Country" (traditional) – 4:26
- "Sixteen Straws" – 9:35
Credits
- Fiona Kitschin – bass, xylophone, vocals, percussion
- Michael Noga – drums, harmonica, vocals
- Rui Pereira – guitar, vocals
- Gareth Liddiard – lead vocals, guitar, melodeon
- Dan Luscombe – slide guitar
- Michelle Lewit – violin
References
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- ↑ "Chartifacts - Week Commencing: 29 September 2008". ARIA. Archived from the original on 2010-11-16. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
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- 1 2 Sprod, Dan (1977), Alexander Pearce of Macquarie Harbour: Convict – Bushranger – Cannibal, Cat & Fiddle Press, ISBN 978-0-85853-031-7
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- ↑ O'Donnell, John; Creswell, Toby; Mathieson, Craig (October 2010). 100 Best Australian Albums. Prahran, Vic: Hardie Grant Books. ISBN 978-1-74066-955-9.
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