http://www.ravemagazine.com.au/content/view/24150/30/

“MARTY WILLSON-PIPER chats with DERMOT CLARKE about keeping things vital after thirty years of writing and performing with the church.

the church have never easily fit into any of the established canons of Australian popular music. Their history is one of stand-alone independence, where their existence over the past three decades has stood apart from contemporary Australian independent rock outfits.

“the church were a band who were outside of everybody,” Marty states, “because we were never in the indie set and we were never in the corporate commercial set.”

The band recent decision to commemorate their thirty years of music industry survival with a retrospective acoustic tour was capped off nicely by an induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame. This award was received in a tongue-in-cheek manner by Steve Kilbey, whose ten-minute acceptance speech had a Ricky Gervais feel about it, peppered with subtle barbs.

“Steve does that, sometimes. It’s hard to get meaning out of an award. You know what the ARIAs is like? It’s like a massive exaggerated version of somebody coming backstage and saying ‘hey guys I really like your band’, but without the drugs,” Marty says.

This unaffected attitude reflects the ephemeral nature of their creative output, as well. With Steve and Marty’s kind of Hawkwind-inspired method of jamming things out until songs take some form that they’re happy with, being able to define what they’ve come up with has proved evasive.

“We fall through the cracks of it all,” states Marty. “It means something that’s got some kind of lyrical intrigue, some kind of unfathomable mood, something that will take a left-turn without you expecting it, and fits into mainstream very rarely and sorta stands outside conventional genres.”

Such a sliver of insight hasn’t come cheaply. While smarting from the outside pressure that came from the high sales of 1988’s Starfish, they adopted an attitude while recording Priest = Aura in 1990 that they’ve stuck to ever since.

“If you’re on your way down, whatever you do, do not try to float yourself back to the top by doing something accessible. That record, instead of it backfiring on us it actually made us survive, because it showed that in times of adversity what we were actually interested in was the art and music. We’re lucky, because although we’re not flush, we have the legacy and we’re still creative now. We’ve managed to maintain a discerning audience and keep them interested.”

Such an audience will have a chance see the church perform a very specific set-list with an acoustic set-up, which Marty is adamant will be a once-only tour.

“We had the idea that to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary we might not want to go for all the bombast of a big electric tour around the world,” Marty explains.

“We decided to do it low-key, but what’s actually happening is that the shows are all selling out. I had this idea that we should play a song from each album in reverse chronological order, so you get an overview of the whole thirty years. Because what happens with us is when we play a set we end up playing two songs from one album, three from another… sometimes we’ll miss out on ten albums. This was a way of playing something from each album.”

http://anotherlostshark.com/2010/11/28/electricity-atmosphere-an-evening-with-the-church/

Electricity & Atmosphere: an evening with The Church

“Last night at The Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts, a packed house walked out into the still-warm night, with their synapses well and truly lit. In the 2 and a half hours that had passed, The Church had hand picked the soundtrack to the last 30 years of our lives.

For me, the long-term memory was in overdrive… I have not missed the band in QLD (and have traveled many times interstate) since 1990, when I donned my green, pink and black paisley shirt (that one still hangs in the cupboard), black stovepipe Lee’s and Ripple-sole shoes and stepped excitedly into Transformers (on Elizabeth St., now some British Pub I think…) to see The Church supported by another local hero of mine, Grant McLennan. Memories like this were constantly flashing through my head last night as the band played a song from each album in their heady career, starting with Pangaea from last year’s Untitled #23, which recalled a hellishly steamy November night at The Zoo, when the band tore through an epic set to launch the album.

Then it is the fluid groove of Space Needle from Uninvited Like the Clouds (2006), that fires up memories of a night at The Troubadour, where we all walked out smiling with a copy of the limited edition album Tin Mine in our hands, followed by Ionian Blues from the seriously underrated Back With Two Beasts album, which never really got an official release.

We then get a language lesson from the ever dapper Marty Willson-Piper as the band dips into El Momento Siguiente and pulls out the gem that is Reptile. Even in stripped back, acoustic mode, Kilbey’s bass line snakes its way into your chest to delivers its venom.

Peter Koppes then takes the mic for Appalatia from Forget Yourself followed by the timeless opening riff of Unguarded Moment from the first of their acoustic albums, El Momento Descuidado. The band are well into their stride and Kilbey is in raconteur mode, regaling the crowd with stories of playing Warnambool and the manager racing upstairs after a gig to tell them to get back on stage as the crowd were rioting as they had not played said song.

We are then treated to the epic Invisible from After Everything Now This, with the band rising to a glorious crescendo and Kilbey riffing on Kevin Ayers’ Decadence, which the band covered on A Box of Birds, followed by the lush guitar sounds of Louisiana from 1998’s, Hologram of Baal. An album that has a very special place in my heart… the first time I heard this album I was to say the very least, ‘relaxed’, and it has forever worked its way into my fabric.

The mid-to-late 90?s was undoubtedly a difficult period in the band’s history and Kilbey is not backward in introducing Magician Among The Spirits as a miserable album, but tonight’s version of Comedown is absolutely joyous. The first half of the set is then rounded out by My Little Problem from Sometime Anywhere… and I am back in 1994 at Grand Orbit (what a shortlived venue that was), excitedly watching Steve & Marty in acoustic mode, thankful that they were still making music after threatening to split a couple of years earlier.

The second half of the show opens with the gorgeous Mistress from my all time favourite Church album, Priest = Aura. After seeing the band tour on this album at the now sadly defunct Metropolis (I think the last time I saw Kilbey play his famed milk-white electric bass), I wondered whether I would ever see them again, which makes tonight even more special. And speaking of Metropolis, this song followed, with Marty giving it some Spanish flair.

It was at this time (with tongue firmly in cheek) that Kilbey started to discuss the success graph of the band and the next album, 1988?s Starfish, definitely saw the graph skyrocket. And tonight they give us a classic version of the anthemic, Under the Milky Way. To put it simply… Starfish got me through Year 12. In the head of a 17 year old at odds with the societal pressures of school and becoming a man, Starfish provided much needed solace. Can’t ever thank them enough for what it did for me.

Then it’s headlong into the paisley era of Heyday. The set list has had its surprises, but none bigger than Already Yesterday, which after some on stage chatter, they agree, they may never have played before this tour. It sparkles, still possessing a youthful shimmer.

The Remote Luxury LP is next and this time it’s Marty’s turn to take the lead vocal, on 10 000 Miles Away. The 3 strong guitar/mandolin sound is sublime, stirring the crowd for the final numbers of the night.

From Seance its the sublimely gothic Fly and then its straight into another Church classic, Almost With You from their second album, The Blurred Crusade. Peter’s guitar solo is as sharp as ever. Anyone that hasn’t played air guitar along to this just hasn’t lived!

And finally, we are back in 1980, delving into Of Skins and Hearts. We know it’s not going to be Unguarded Moment, so it is a real thrill when the band lock into the slick bass groove and jangly guitar of Tear It All Away. It’s a classic way to finish off 30 years of time travel…

But the band are incredibly generous, coming back to treat us to a cover of The Smashing Pumpkins song, Disarm, a rocking version of Space Saviour and finally a full-tilt jam of their 1990 classic, Grind. This has always been a live favourite and tonight they don’t disappoint. Steve and Tim, providing the rhythmic engine, for Peter to lay down a luxurious bed of keys and for Marty to cut loose (I am sure he was finding new notes on the fretboard), before tonight’s journey reaches its conclusion.

Great art is an amazing thing… it changes you, becomes part of you, so while tonight’s show is over, the life of each of these songs (and the countless others that weren’t played) have taken on a new meaning. I know my stereo at home  (and in the car) is about to become very familiar (again) with the atmosphere and electricity of The Church… ah yes, there are many new memories to be created.” – G. Nunn

knight template

second sold out show at judith wright centre

finds the church relaxed and bopping on

things even out a little more

the gears start to lock into place

people remember bits and pieces that

are the icing on the songs cake

a flourish here

a tap there

a harmony a note a cymbal splash

i start to get into my songs characters

i try to imagine whos singing this song n why

i try to imagine whos listening

the bass becomes easier to play

my voice seems to linger in the air with less effort

oh how lovely to jam with jordens fantastic mixing

i hear my voice drift round the room in reverb

hanging there

and i can play around with it from the stage

just by giving more breath or more throat

the bass sounds big soft n warm

the way i like my bass to sound

my bass is a cushion for the song to sit in

the guitars and piano  are like the scenery and props

the drums are the songs engine

the words describe nebulous events

ideas

feelings

they are colours they are clues

clues to what oh i dunno

the song has no purpose except to make you feel good

how it does that even an old hand like me doesnt know

some voice told me to write songs

some voice i cant explain

my dad played the piano

my mum liked words

somehow that got mixed up in me

i saw the beatles i said fuck

i saw bobby dylan i said fuck

i saw rolling stones ditto

bolan n bowie ditto ditto

i go away for a while

when i come back i turned into myself

a voice says now

with all those aforementioned geezas in mind

go write some decent fucking songs

and at 16 i started

eventually i wrote something halfway decent

and bang thirty years flashes past

and we could do 20 nights at judy wrights

n never repeat one bloody song

and

whats more

theyd all be fairly topnotch songs

and the band ‘d do em proud

the guys are playing well you gonna enjoy this

all but 2 gigs now sold out on this tour

thanks that makes me feel good actually

we go up n down in popularity

but ok as long as its still possible to go up

yeah we played a pretty good show

i get on a roll with my jokes

at other times the spirit of comedy deserts me entirely

i definitely need to keep persevering

i could be a bit of a comic with a little more work

god suddenly i feel like i want to be good at everything

i want to serve my fellow human beings

by giving em a damn good show

wanna make em smile n cry too

and everything in between

yeah its gonna be a good tour

yesterday i went to eumundi market opposite joes w hole

i  got a foot reflexology from wendy sugars : highly recommended

boy i felt fucking stoned after that like i’d had a bag of real good drugs

i bought a wonderful painting of a caravan that was too cheap

125 bucks for an incredible original  piece of work

i bumped into my brother russell n amy  his missus n marlon my nephew

that wazza surprise

i bought 2 new hats

and i bought a cigar box guitar for 450 but the guy gave me a 600 one

a guitar with 3 strings made outta a cigar box well whattya know

played with a bottleneck and things on yer fingers (i havent got them yet)

some voice said buy this thing

i havent bought a guitar for years n years

so now im trying to learn to play it

its a lotta fun too

i’m gonna bring it out on stage as soon as i can play something good

meanwhile its a warm rainy night

skyped kids in sweden theyre good

ok

thats it

canberra n sydney next

much love

sk

http://www.bigtakeover.com/recordings/the-church-heyday-second-motion

After putting out a pair of EPs in 1984 that would be combined into the LP Remote Luxuryin the States, the Church released its fourth full-length album, which would be its last for its then-patron EMI. Produced by Englishman Peter Walsh, chosen by the band for his recent work with Simple Minds and Scott Walker, Heyday gives the quartet a brighter, more lush sound than ever before, with strings and horns enhancing a few tracks. The band responds to the shiny presentation with a strong set of tunes that show a tight creative unity, as this is the first LP on which the songs were composed as a band.

Heyday is more dominated by up-tempo pop tunes than anything the Church has done outside of its first album. “Night of Light” and the glorious single “Tantalized” make excellent use of horn bursts and string arrangements, two things one would think the Church would never need. “Myrrh” and “Columbus” keep the caffeinated jangle pop vibe going, both tunes a swirl of ringing 6- and 12-string guitars and Steve Kilbey‘s laconic mystery. “Disenchanted” and “Tristesse” bring the energy level down for a more midtempo introspection, without stinting on hooks or drive. The single “Already Yesterday” puts strong hooks into a moody arrangement that likely killed its chances on the charts. “Youth Worshipper” rides a descending melody armed with keyboards, strings, saxophone and a lyric decrying plastic surgery, while “Roman” burns down its arrangement in an album-ending flurry of interlocking six-strings. In the midst of all the crash and clang of guitar rock, “Happy Hunting Ground” stands out, a gentle, misty instrumental that’s like a pause for breath.

This reissue is particularly generous with its B-sides, all of which are worthy additions to the catalog. “As You Will” and “The View,” written and sung by guitarists Peter Koppes andMarty Willson-Piper respectively, are both guitar pop gems, tight and tuneful. “Trance Ending” lives up to its name, a drifting wash of psychedelic mystery that’s a better ending to the record than “Roman,” its original stopping point. Practically overflowing with memorable hooks and ear-caressing textures, Heyday is one of the Church’s most well-crafted and accessible albums.

b and b

i would like to thank the people who’ve written on here

their lovely words of encouragement i thank you

i thank you all

last night was a heartwarming gig up here on qlds sunshine coast

a very nice sold out crowd

a few singalongs

the band played much better than the night before

tim n i got some good rhythm section things happening

peter k is amazing on piano harmonica mandolin n guitar

marty is marty is marty

now slimline and kicking bottom on his 12 string guitar n ricky bass

me ?

i sang n ponced around

a few minor mistakes perhaps

a memorable night

we stay in a b n b place which is superb

in the morning as i eat my breaky

(muesli fruit n soy milk)

a few shy couples also staying here thank me for last night

one guy has been following us since he was 12

almost with you was a song he heard at school n it did the trick

he bought the b. crusade it was his first record ever

i got all kinda misty hearing that…what an honour to be part of peoples lives

yes a real honour

i have been making music to selfishly satisfy myself

and then this wonderful unseen side effect

that people out there are digging this whole mess

people listening to us for over 30 years now

a real soundtrack of their lives

oh my friends you make my stupid old heart swell with pride/humility

yes you are all so important to me

we are really all in this together

if my music can be there for you

punctuating yer lives , in yer memories

in yer good n bad times

its so much much more than i ever expected

(n maybe deserved)

so ok

tonite the judy wright centre again

(judy judy judy)

it will be good i know it will

everyone in our crew is the nicest person

sweet tiare never losing her patience

jorden brebach our most learned sound guy n 5th member

wesley our stage manager who never puts a foot wrong

my 3 co-horts who are diamondish geezas

ok let the good times roll

ps all my strength n prayers to a dear friend of mine

sam

who is undergoing some nasty treatment for a nasty thing

i believe in you , ok?

xxx

sk

http://www.last.fm/user/MaxFactor81/journal/2010/11/26/42g8t4_the_church_@_judith_wright_centre

Tonight’s sold out show sees Australian legends the church take us into An Intimate Space, playing one song from each album in reverse chronological order as befits the opening of their 30th anniversary acoustic tour. The band – currently riding a new wave of recognition following Steve Kilbey’s notorious ARIA Hall Of Fame acceptance speech – are having a ball, engaging with the audience in a warmer-than usual manner and playing their hearts out (later, we even get a non-rehearsed Girl From Ipanema).

Starting with Untitled #23’s Pangaea, the song selection is near-impeccable, spanning acoustically re-envisioned fan favourites and certified classics including the jazzy Reptile, The Unguarded Moment, Under The Milky Way, Metropolis, Fly, Almost With You and the church‘s first EP highlight Tear It All Away. In great spirits tonight, Steve’s banter brims with trademark comedy gold (“That T-shirt design and the church condom were a mistake”, he quips before launching into Hologram Of Baal’s Louisiana), with Marty Willson-Piper and the normally-reserved Peter Koppes not far behind.

Yet it’s the four-piece’s stellar music that ultimately steals the night. A stone-cold cult gem, Ionian Blues is given a stripped-down piano treatment; Peter sings the mantra-like Appalatia and Steve takes After Everything Now This’ Invisible to the moon and back. From 1992’s “magnum hopeless” Priest=Aura, Mistress tugs on the heart strings while an upbeat Comedown and the gorgeous My Little Problem get respectively plucked from the mid-’90s “wilderness” albums Magician Among The Spirits and Sometime Anywhere.

As we enter the pre-Starfish domain during the second half, a magisterial Already Yesterday takes hold of one and all. With drummer Tim Powles unleashing some levitating percussion work, Marty and Steve create a dense 12-string storm on the former’s 10,000 Miles. Because we don’t want the the church to leave just yet, we get a killer cover of The Smashing Pumpkins’ Disarm, a rocky Space Saviour and the cathartic, “Elizabethan” Grind for the encore. A truly magical evening at the Judy.

Rave magazine

yeah we were kinda good

yeah we played kinda well

sold out great audience n all that

but my head n guts are churning with a million other things

stupid things ive done n said

all my private life drama baby (leave me out!)

i stand on stage yeah i do my thing

but all my turmoil replaying in my head

look i dont know what i’m doing or where i’m going

i’m 56 but i got the brain of a 5 or 6 year old

none of you know the bullshit ive been thru for the last 6 months

yeah some of it was my own doing

a lot of it wasnt

is it your business?

i dunno i lost track of whats public n private

i got people writing to me here about nk this n nk that

but none of ya know really whats going on

you interpret my nebulous stuff i write here

nk n i hurt each other n we hurt each other bad

i did my thing she did her thing

now shes there where she wanted to be

she can cool her heels wherever the hell it is

i know i dont wanna fucking be there

my kids are in sweden jetlagged still n with the fucking flu

they are in the bosom of a lovely fambley there

and they deserve a bloody break

i love them more than everything else

and they will/ should be my main concern

when they come back in 2 months i will hopefully be rested

then we can start all over again

in the meantime i’m upsetting a load of other people too

all my relationships are fraught with argy bargy n malarkey

just so ya know im a judgemental hypocritical old bastard

n i fight n struggle with everything

i keep eavesdropping n then i dont like what i hear

i keep it all going n it then always turns around it bites my ass

as nk n many others tell me

i can write a song but in most other ways i fall short of the mark

i’m a one trick pony

ask me to be useful or patient or compassionate

n i cant seem to manage it

i am selfish n narcissistic i am cruel

and i embrace every double standard known to man

i demand everything

i give very little back

i hurt you but i dont like to be hurt myself

so great

the people on here who love me love my music

n i’m very appreciative of that

yeah i am australias best songwriter of my type

fuck i’m a second tier rock genius yet my lyrics are second to none

but can i be nice

can i be kind

can i even be reasonable for one minute

can i shut the fuck up n live n let live

no folks

your humble hero is a fucking ninny

and today i am in more useless states of regret n trying to dodge my bad karma

i stand outside myself n i am amused bemused confused

my deck chair  on the titanic has been changed

but i still the ships going down

why should you care?

i dunno

ok

its 8 30 in the morning here in brissy

gonna get up do my yoga

n drive to the next place on the map

keep my head down if i can

but i dont like myself very much

and thats a sad way to be

maybe next time round i wont have to be such a nong

but i doubt it

losing streak

http://timeoff.com.au/html/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7548:-the-church&catid=11:features&Itemid=29

“CHURCH WITH NO MAGIC

THE CHURCH have just been inducted into the ARIA Hall Of Fame and are about to spend a month revisiting their entire catalogue in concert. MATT O’NEILL catches up with vocalist STEVE KILBEY to discuss the band’s considerable legacy.

If history is kind, The Church will go down as one of the most gracious and idiosyncratic acts to have ever been inducted into the ARIA Hall Of Fame. In a year where the awards ceremony proper was largely ridiculed by the public, frontman Steve Kilbey’s monumental 15-minute acceptance speech – a torrent of wit, gratitude, words and memories the likes of which podiums were practically built for – should stand as a reminder of why musicians deserve recognition in the first place.

“I got lucky. The band had told me we didn’t need a speech and I’d naively believed that because I didn’t know what to say but, as the night wore on, everyone else who was accepting an award had a speech,” the vocalist reflects. “I realised I was going to appear completely churlish if I didn’t have a speech. Why did we even fucking bother to turn up if we were just going to stand there and go, ‘Thanks’ and walk off?
“I realised I had to say something so I was sitting there working it out, [former Go-Betweens drummer] Lindy Morrison comes over and tells me to relax but, each time she says relax, I freak out more. I ended up just standing there and getting lucky. A few vague ideas came to me on the way up but I was mainly just lucky. I could have just as easily gone, ‘Okay…’ and just choked – but I seem to have gotten more attention for that speech than ten years of making music.”

Strangely, though, the moment of truth in the band’s collective acceptance emerged not from Kilbey’s marathon efforts but rather guitarist Marty Willson-Piper’s reaction to them: “I wonder if anybody thinks if Steve has managed to demystify us,” the guitarist quipped with bemusement. “We’ve worked so hard to be aloof and enigmatic – aloof no more. All ruined in 15 minutes….After 30 years.”

The guitarist was, of course, incorrect in claiming Kilbey had ruined the band’s image as mysterious craftsmen but there can be no denying that the band’s vocalist altered the public perception of his band. For the better part of 30 years, The Church have been forced to contend with numerous misapprehensions about their work and philosophies. Depending on whom you ask, the band could be described as one-hit-wonders, art-rock experimentalists or Australian pop legends.

“I would like it if The Church had more attention but, in regards to deserving it, I think we’re a little bit too subtle and left-of-field for most people,” Kilbey reflects of the band’s ambiguous status as under-appreciated luminaries. “I always think it’s a shame, though, because I think there are a lot more people out there who would really like us – people who think there isn’t a band out there doing what we do.

“If they could discover us, they would be a lot happier and we would be a lot happier,” the vocalist laughs. “It’s a shame that it can’t happen. Over the past 30 years, it’s occasionally looked like it’s going to happen and occasionally started to happen but we’ve never managed to sustain it. I always feel there’s got to be more people out there, though. I’ve just run into too many people over the years who have said things like, ‘I wish I’d known about you guys all along’.”

While lamentable, the ambiguity of the band’s public profile is nevertheless not in the least bit surprising. Glancing over their career, one would be hard-pressed to find a unifying theme to the band’s work. There have been pop crossover tunes (1981’s The Unguarded Moment), prog-rock explorations (1994’s Sometime Anywhere album), electronic albums (1996’s Magician Among The Spirits) and, over the past decade, a series of improv-heavy Internet-only releases.

“We have always tried to be more than just a rock band – that’s the way I’m trying to push the band all the time,” Kilbey explains. “But, the forces out there that want The Church to be a rock band and do the things rock bands do, they’re hard to argue with. It isn’t as easy as just being more than a rock band all the time. Sometimes you have to do these other things as well. It simply isn’t always possible for us. I know other bands have pulled it off but we haven’t as yet.

“I wish I was out there in some weird place doing some experimental show every night – never doing any old songs or anything. I wish that was what the demand was for me to do but it isn’t. People appreciate the innovation of The Church but they also appreciate some of our traditional values and they kind of want that as well. You know, a legacy is a good thing and a bad thing for a band to have – it restricts you but it also enables you.”

The perception that Kilbey’s speech altered was that the band’s ambiguity and mystique was in any way deliberate. It’s been easy to believe, over the past 30 years, that The Church’s development has been the product of craftsmanship and forethought – if nothing else, Kilbey is an naturally precise songwriter – but the vocalist’s wild explosion of sentiment and recollection revealed the band’s key inspiration has never been considered refinement so much as chaotic vitality.

“I don’t like to look back on what we do. If I had my way, there would never be any retrospective stuff ever,” Kilbey announces. “It’s not really me. As an artist, I abhor it and I want to keep moving forward all the time. It’s our thirtieth anniversary but, really, I’m not the kind of guy who likes anniversaries either. I don’t like any of that stuff. I’d rather be out there chipping away at the coalface of new ideas rather than looking back at what we did 30 years ago.”

In a way, the group’s forthcoming set of shows is the ultimate demonstration of their restless approach to creativity. While retrospective, the band’s shows will celebrate their thirtieth anniversary not with greatest hits sets but with a set of acoustic renditions of songs drawn from each of their 23 full-length albums – beginning with 2009’s Untitled #23 and working backwards toward 1981’s Of Skins And Heart – performed in venues more associated with classical music than rock performances.

“It’s a wonderful showbiz package. It’s got an intermission and everything. We’re actually importing this intermission from overseas. It’s been designed by Swedish designers and it’s covered in stamps from customs,” Kilbey says with a laugh. “We’re basically taking a song from each album and working backwards – except acoustically. You get a program and a free CD as well, which basically means anyone who doesn’t come to this show should be dragged from their home and executed.

“You know, I don’t like anniversaries, but I feel there’s a pressure for us to do it and I think we’ve done it pretty tastefully,” the vocalist reflects. “It’s weird to think about it. As an institution, The Church has weathered 30 years and the nature of the universe is usually bound up with things closing down or falling apart, so to keep a band of largely the same guys for 30 years is quite a feat.”  – Matt O’Neill

http://www.bigtakeover.com/recordings/the-church-seance-second-motion

“the church‘s third album, 1983’s Seance continued the band’s rapid evolution into the psychedelic powerhouse it would become. But an odd mix also makes it a sonic anomaly in the band’s catalog. While the band self-produced the recordings, then-engineer Nick Launay was brought in to mix, which he did without any input from the group. Launay would go on to produce several landmark recordings by the likes of Midnight Oil and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, but in 1983 he was as enamored with high-tech mixing and production techniques as everyone else. The result was twofold: a smoky, almost Gothic atmosphere that ends up serving the band’s increasingly abstract vision quite well and a horribly dated, gated reverb/triggered drum sound that sticks out like a preacher at a porn convention. Love it or hate it, the sonics of Seance make it an album that’s one of the band’s most distinctive.

Fortunately, the songs themselves are strong enough hold up under an outsider’s treatment. “It’s No Reason,” “Now I Wonder Why” and the lyrically eccentric “Electric Lash” solidify the Church’s penchant for jangling folk rock. “Dropping Names” and “Disappear?” fulfill the group’s quota of psychedelic anthems, while “It Doesn’t Change” is another of its building epics. The acoustic guitar-driven “Fly” opens the album with a breath of fresh air before the smoke sets in, while “One Day” makes brilliant repetitive use of a ringing 12-string riff even as it fights a bizarre, box-walloping drum track. The LP’s only group composition (the usual touring/recording grind forced the band to rely on Steve Kilbey‘s overachieving songsmithery), “Travel By Thought” attempts to be a space rock epic, but the uneasy marriage of Kilbey’s spoken word rambling with the band’s majestic psychedelia prevents it from truly taking off.

Two more B-sides appear as bonus cuts here: the pleasant but fairly non-descript folk rocker “Someone Special” and the gorgeous, chiming pop tune “Autumn Soon.” Due to a mix obscured by clouds and the band’s continued drive towards mood over meaning,Seance is a polarizing album in the church’s lineage. But the band’s evolution as writers and musicians gives the record enough artistic weight to give it quality even for those who think the production is a disaster.” – by Michael Toland