"This is one of the things I've always loved
about the Church," says Marty Willson-Piper.
"We're very able to adapt, to change mood
from one extreme to another. We can be one
of the noisiest rackets in the world, and we
can be one of the most beautiful bands you
ever heard."
It's to the latter, dreamlike and
mellifluous state that El Momento Siguiente
leans. Like its predecessor, El Momento
Descuidado, it's an acoustically textured
album that re-imagines some of the Church's
best-known songs in an altered state – and
naturally dreams some new ones before it
wakes.
The surprise sequel is testament to the
wealth of brilliance in the 27-year-old
band's past: Reptile, It's No Reason,
Electric Lash, Tantalized and Two Places At
Once are among the great, lost singles
unearthed from a half-forgotten history.
The album is also an inevitable consequence
of being an active, creative band that has
embraced maturity and blossomed. "Because
we're a real band," says Marty, "one that's
constantly playing, that tours the world
regularly, we've found this other version of
the band, with Peter (Koppes) playing more
piano, all of us swapping instruments in an
acoustic-organic style. We've got pretty
good at it."
This is hence a more considered, detailed
album than the spontaneous eruption of
Descuidado. Reptile was reborn in a dusky
lounge suit when Marty took ill one night in
the US. Tim Powles suggested the Indian
drone that transforms Tantalized. The
country feel of Electric Lash was down to
Marty playing drums, Peter adding dobro, and
Steve Kilbey's standard insistence that "If
we’re gonna do this, let’s do it
differently."
Perhaps the most stunning example is Pure
Chance (from 06's Uninvited, Like the
Clouds), in which Kilbey shares vocals with
chanteuse extraordinaire Inga Liljeström –
"Australia's best-kept secret," Marty says.
Other highs are It's No Reason, cut from its
overwrought '80s production to become the
acoustic gem it always wanted to be, and
Wide Open Road: a poetic memento of the
Triffids.
Meanwhile, in the future, there's the filmic
finale of Comeuppance, the strange, surreal
fragmentation of Bordello and the sunbathed
Song in the Afternoon. Of the latter two,
Marty says": One is Berlin in 1927, on a
rainy November 3rd with fog
coming down as we roll out of another
absinthe bar, the other is adjusting your
G-string in the Copa Cobana!
"This album was an opportunity to put that
diversity to the fore. Going on stage with
electric guitars, banging on drums is great,
but that soft, delicate, gossamer beauty of
After Everything and Pure Chance – that's
the Church as well."
The Church
