Not all good Australian music reaches other continents that easily. Case in point - Melbourne’s Saskwatch. Here come’s their fourth album Manual Override, and elsewhere, they’re not such a widely known quantity. I knew almost nothing of them until now. It seems that some heavy, funky R&B was their thing up until now, and it seems they were actually quite good at it.
Now, it would be unfair to say that Manual Override has not much to do with either soul, R&B, and funk. You can feel the traces of what they seem to have been doing before, particularly if you’re talking soul.
But the soul here has much more to do with the soul music as seen through the eyes of St. Etienne, with one distinctive difference - while Sarah Cracknell’s voice has that European cool veneer, Nkechi Anele’s voice has that extra soul touch (try “Gemini” for size). I’m giving no preference to either, they are both great in their own way.
The thing is that Saskwatch’s Manual Override album does sound like St. Etienne style pop played by a more soul oriented band with fewer electronics, and it sounds great.
It doesn’t matter where you want to immerse yourself into this album. At the beginning and the opening “December Night”s (that’s summer over there, for us on the other side of the globe), somewhere in the middle with tracks like “Renoir” with its subdued harpsichord sounds or the ballad “North Terrace Explicit”, or completely in reverse with the closer “Renaissance Man”.
What you will get is a band completely assured at what they’re playing and singing, a strong sense of melody and brilliant execution. In the end, you realize that what Saskwatch do share with St. Etienne is a great sense what a great pop should sound like, whatever elements you include or exclude.
Maybe, Saskwatch played some great R&B in their previous musical life. Fine, I’m curious to take a listen, but it doesn’t really matter. In Manual Override, they have come up with a great pop record that should be heard elsewhere besides Australia.
