6s & 7s - Choose the Sentinel Blooze

Hailing from Perth and led by local song-writing protege, Josh Fontaine, 6s & 7s have debuted with the ethereal 'Choose the Sentinel Blooze.' With comparisons to My Morning Jacket and Xiu Xiu following the band around, the record firms up as one that's dragging along a healthy amount of interest.

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The Perth music scene is one that has been churning out a fair amount of interest of late. With the Basement Birds 'supergroup' drawing focus to the fact that three of the country's biggest folk acts are from said city, there seems to be a bit of peering over one's shoulder from the East Coast to see what exactly we've been missing from the West. So the timing seems pretty ripe when it comes to releasing a debut album from Perth; something that indie outfit 6s & 7s have luckily stumbled upon to the consequence of some impressed reviews. In the case of this review though, it's been a particularly long time coming. I tried listening to it from tinny lap top speakers, and surprise surprise, it sounded kinda tinny. My crap headphones that are holding the fort until the new ones come in the mail did it no favours either...so with the courier at the door this morning, it was time to finally give this a decent review. Except that said headphones must be faulty, because it's still sounding pretty....oh...it's one of those lo-fi things the kids are into these days.

In recent times, an attempt to recreate budget recording seems to be so fashionable that people are surpassing cheap, modern technology in order to plug a microphone into a vintage 1950's tape recorder and release an album with the interesting sound of limited frequency recording. In recent times, this has also led to some really interesting new acts, with artists like Kid Sam gaining significant indie credibility in Melbourne and Sydney, but as with any trend, it starts to get a little overused, a little abused and eventually becomes dated. So how do 6s & 7s aim up with their debut record Choose the Sentinel Blooze?

Early on in the album with opener Drunk Liberties, it's a sort of quiz to the senses, with the sounds of crickets bleeding into echoed, Grizzy Bear-esque humming alongside reverberated bird calls and finger-picked guitar before a mid-track refrain and lift for a string and drum extended crescendo. It's hardly a snappy beginning, but it's different, acting to either pique your interest, or flatten it. A similar effect carries in the follow-up His Eyes, with more echoed choral moans and meandering instrumentation creating a dark atmosphere of endless depth. This mood continues up to the single Smilin', a punchier effort with undeniable commercial appeal, marking a mid-album rise. The WAMI award winning track Holidayz is potentially the highlight of the album, with a solid melody that, strangely, almost evokes the Carpenters, possessing a more traditional approach to songwriting featuring Fontaine at his vocal best. Empty Cities is also a great track with a curious guitar arrangement introducing the track before the addition of handclaps, bass and eventual horns that leave you with a couple of impressed eyebrows raised. The closing trio of (Yr) Fucking Nights, You Will Think of Me and Drunker Liberties - a part two of sorts to the opening Drunk Liberties - tend to dissipate into a relaxed finish supplanting the catchier sensibilities of mid-album tracks with extended solos and stretched vocals. It's a low tempo finish to a mostly low tempo album and does a tidy job of tying it all together into a whole. With moments of swooning beauty crossing aspects of psychedelia, indie and orchestral moments, 6s & 7s have crafted an album that takes ideas from across the musical spectrum and creates something that is distinctly their own.

Choose the Sentinel Blooze is a unique beast despite its place in the new trend of lo-fi recording and places itself as an album that will most definitely split people's opinions, mostly as a result of this technque. For me, it comes across as frustrating, casting an air of pretension over some otherwise quite good tracks. The sound quality is genuinely poor in parts and it has had me aurally squinting in a struggle to figure out what's  going on. It confuses and irritates me, and is half the reason that I've been having so much trouble writing about it. However, it does succeed in delivering a warm and deep atmosphere that would most likely be missing with standard recording techniques. I really think that there is significant appeal in an album like this...but I just find it disappearing at times when some otherwise very good tracks are let down by a recording process that kills off some of the great sounds contained within. It's an album that's impossible to review fairly and could just as easily be raved as it is slammed, both viewpoints of which would be entirely valid. Regardless, it's an impressive debut from the Perth act, showcasing a fantastic mind for arrangements and song. It may divide opinion, but at least it's holding enough interest to be discussed. With dozens of solid albums falling on deaf ears due to their traditional and lucklustre form, it's acts like this that try to achieve something differently and fuck around with the idea of the song that are going to peek through the cracks and get themselves heard. 

Choose the Sentinel Blooze is out now.