Members
guitar (Dan Luscombe)
bass (Bill McDonald)
drums (Pete Luscombe) Search newherenowlive.com for Four Hours Sleep Biography
Where there is music, there is magic.
For those with a musical ear, magic appears everywhere: everyday becomes extraordinary. The singing of a swinging gate, the rhythmic thunder of an express train hurtling past a station, sheets of rain like brushes on a snare.
Welcome to the world of FOUR HOURS SLEEP.
Bill McDonald’s long and unusual career as band member (Rebecca’s Empire, Frente, Ultrasound), sideman extraordinaire (Paul Kelly, Neneh Cherry, Michelle Shocked, Lisa Miller) and avant-garde experimentalist (David Chesworth, Ollie Olsen and Philip Brophy) is skillfully woven into his Four Hours Sleep project.
Built around the theme of love in all its vagaries – excitement, fleetingness, bursting intensity, lullaby content – ‘Love Specifics’ reconnects a cast of some of Australia’s most well regarded musicians, ten years on from the debut long-player ‘More of Her’.
Based around the holy rock trinity of guitar (Dan Luscombe), bass (Bill McDonald) and drums (Pete Luscombe), the tracks combine freely with a dazzling array of instruments (accordion, harmonica, harp, violin, castanets), mutated field recordings and stellar vocal contributions (from the likes of Paul Kelly, Angie Hart, Stephen Cummings, Charles Jenkins and Ollie Olsen) to create an album that is lush and surprising in turns.
Given the schedules and demands of the ensemble the sessions took place whenever and wherever possible, from a series of studios dotted all around the country to a minidisc recorder at a train station.
From the “Wall of Sound” opening track ‘I Know I Shouldn’t (But I Can’t Help Myself)’, the country tinged simplicity of ‘Original Lover’, to the slightly ironic accoustic/synth/rock of ‘I Love That Woman’, each song lives in its own individual sonic world, realized by both the unique vocal styling of each of the singers, and delicate production touches in the overall sound
“Each singer gave a truly one off performance,” says Bill, “especially Ollie Olsen, who ventured so far outside his regular field (from behind the mixing desk to a rich, velvet vocal take) to make his song unique”.
Bill likens his approach to the album as to “like writing the soundtrack of non-existent film”. With its emotional depth, deceptive simplicity and sonic sophistication it seems a more than apt description.
While a decade may be a long time between drinks, ‘Love Specifics’ is a sound worth waiting for.
Get acquainted. Four Hours Sleep Website:
http://www.myspace.com/fourhourssleepau |
