Issue #006 (December 2003) Via Tania - Under a Different Sky (Trifekta/Festival) Email this article to a friend Tania Bowers used to play bass and sing for Sydney indie rock quartet SPDFGH. After relocating to Chicago in 1999, she has been busy with a string of singles and E.P.s working up to this release. While Via Tania is primarily a solo project in partnership with engineer Casey Rice, Under a Different Sky collects collaborations from artists such as Doug McCombs and John Herndon from Chicago post-rockers Tortoise, Wayne Montana (Trenchmouth), Howe Gelb (Giant Sand), and Prefuse 73's Scott Herren. With parents like that, this album comes with firm Chicagoan experimentalist credentials and tracks like Moonlight & Chaos and In the Distance are held down by fussy glitch rhythms. Altogether, however, Under a Different Sky is not specifically 'electronic'; it's a careful balance between the spaces opened up by electronic experimentalism and Blues painted minimal alt-rock. None of the forms offered overpower each other: the first single, Lightening & Thunder, is a lovely sculptured song with a colonialist twist in the reserved harmonium lurking behind the chorus, even reminding me of the Bad Seeds (or maybe Blackeyed Susans) in part. The Rising sounds like SPDFGH revisited, with rockout guitars lifted straight from the golden era of Sydney indie-rock (1992 - 1996). Tania Bowers provides a autobiographical focus absent from other obvious comparisons (eg Tortoise), and of course, all the tracks revolve around her idiosyncratic vocals and lyrics. A subtle and distinctive addition to an increasingly impressive catalog, wisely licensed from Chocolate Industries for local release on Trifekta. Vaughan Healey