SOUTHERN EMPIRE

The trouble with a lot of bands from Australia, in common with some from the USA, is that they are unable ever to acknowledge that enough can be as good as a feast. Even when they have developed some beautiful and catchy melodies which are just crying out to be cushioned to a perfect resting place, they cannot resist the urge to insert (at some stage) some dazzling technical pyrotechnics which serve to highlight their individual and collective virtuosity, but are simply out-of-place in the context of all that has gone before, and ruin the whole effect. Think Glass Hammer, Spock's Beard, Unitopia....and there are plenty more examples.

Regrettably, Southern Empire don't buck this sorry trend. They create some magnificent puddings, but then proceed to over-egg them mercilessly, "Forest Fire" and "Hold" being prime culprits. "How long" and "Dreams and Machines", in contrast, are more understated and consistent throughout (the former actually being an elongated version of "Intersection" by United Progressive Fraternity).

The magnum opus, "The Bridge that Binds", duly determines whether the whole offering should attract two stars or three. All starts well, but you know, you just know, that, at some stage, your ears are going to be afflicted by some element of bombastic silliness or ugliness...and, hey ho!, after some sixteen and a half minutes, all that has gone before degenerates into a mass of barbaric incongruity. Raucous guitars and, yes, kitchen sink thrown in for good measure. And this unadulterated tripe lasts for nearly seven minutes - that's a quarter of the length of the track. At this stage, any casual listener would simply walk away and seek solace elsewhere. This said, the track recovers nicely before the end, and closes elegantly. So, overall, on a count-back, I might perhaps award three stars. However, by way of punishing the band for archetypal offending, I feel obliged to deduct a full star. So I do. Against which there is no right of appeal: my sense impressions are inviolable, and my powers of discretion absolute.

Sometimes, in music (as elsewhere), less is more: a valuable lesson.