| Pivot’s long awaited debut album could have been overcooked. Given the gestation period it was likely to be born with a full chest of hair and a postgraduate degree, the band having played in and around Sydney for more than five years. But somehow it’s emerged as a cute and cuddly set of songs that surprise in their innocent wide-eyed stare as well as challenge with their unsullied-by-experience observations. Comparisons with Tortoise are going to be inevitable – especially with the sixteenth note hi-hats and lush keys of the opener ‘Make Me Love You’, but Make Me Love You has little of the determinedly difficult nature of Tortoise. Instead it progresses with the ease and delight of a conversation amongst close friends – and though are some dark moments, and some moments of extreme seriousness, it never descends into an adversarial mire (or bickering). In fact the album is filled with a sense of joy in its completeness, both as tracks and as an album whole. The pieces themselves are elegantly played out to their conclusions, and manage to be multilayered without being overly complex or fiddly, and even rarer is the wonderfully melodic sensibilities of each of the players and their ability to intertwine like a finely wrought tapestry. ‘Incidental Backcloth’ stands out with its pretty guitar and keyboard interplay intersticed with the decaying frenetics of drummer Laurence Pike; and ‘I May Be Gone For Some Time’s’ dual bass lines, floaty guitar and vibes sum up the album’s gorgeous simplexity. Already one of the standout albums of 2005. DH |
