Karoshi means “death from overwork’ in Japanese. It’s a fate that seems unlikely to take the life of Beres Jackson, the producer of these slow, melodious tracks. His debut begins with “Slowdown’, polyrhythmic elements of piano, quavering mandolin and skittering field recorded sounds conspiring to chill you out (without the blandness you might associate with that catch-all). The Sydney music-maker is very active in the Uniting Church – so along with playing Telafonica’ Just Like Now nights in Parramatta, he’ also played the huge Black Stump Christian Rock festival and Glebe’ Café Church. The music doesn’ give any of that away. Mastered by Ben Feggans, each of the five songs is polished, pretty and although melancholy, the pretty sampling games played on “Dünkler Schatten’ give it life.
Karoshi tends to the instrumental, but where voices appear, they tend to be of the obscure and floaty variety. An exception is “Fall Away Moonshine’, featuring Xavier Rudd fan Mark Corkery. His mournful, earnest vocals work well against the granular roll of Jackson’ track (along the lines of Hood side-project, the Remote Viewer). Sounding a little empty is always a risk for predominantly instrumental music, and while this EP occasionally fails to meet that challenge, its sophisticated production and aesthetically mature sound mark a promising debut.
Matthew Levinson
