Spoonbill - Nestegg (Album)
I must admit, it did take me numerous listens of Spoonbill’s Nestegg to grasp exactly what he is trying to say in his kooky tunes. Actually, I am still not sure, but now I listen with inquisitive and enlightened ears – trying to hear all the different noises, instruments and quirks on this colourful album. When I first played it in my car, I just thought it was weird. And I guess that it is. But there is also much more to Spoonbill’s second full-length release than that.
Spoonbill is a producer and sound-installation artist who hails from Melbourne and is on the Omelette label, quite suitable for the name of the album I guess. The cover of Nestegg portrays a shiny egg with a speaker in the front of it, sitting in a tangle of electrical wires, photos, feathers, badges and other wild pieces of paraphernalia. This is a perfect anecdote for his music, a web of unrelated sounds and instruments strung together to make a series of songs.
The Nestegg album opens with my least favourite track, titled “Low and Easy”. The voice samples reflect the title exactly, a sleazy male quoting random words, over the top of some seriously strange sounds – water flowing, coffee being poured and guitar bouncing along to various seedy samples.
Unfortunately, I do think the layout of the songs is a detriment to this album. It starts with all the wacky and hard to access tunes, like “Rubber Squeegy” and “Half A Lamington”, which in my opinion would have people turning off their stereo’s mid-way through. The back end of the album contains some really smooth and easier listening tracks, such as “EMR Exposure” and “Collective Mass”. When these songs start becoming more cohesive, with less of the vocal samples, they blend into some sort of a soundscape and are quite enjoyable.
My favourite track would have to be the closing track “Gingerbread Man”. It has such a warm ambience to the sounds, yet it seems spooky at the same time. “Gingerbread Man” features a tasty mixture of samples and like all other tracks on the album, was cleverly written and produced by Jim Moynihan. It flows much better than anything else on Nestegg, even with the whistling in the background, and one of the only tracks I am happy to sit down and properly listen to.
The only artists I could think of ever likening Spoonbill to is The Avalanches. With their crazy mesh of samples and concepts for songs, they emulate what I suppose Spoonbill is trying to portray in his music.
I would say Nestegg is some sort of concept-type affair, with songs illustrating different aspects of Australian life, “Cocoon Part 3” (And 4), “Half A Lamington”, which features a line from Mem Fox’s famous book Possum Magic and The Regal Red Carpet, which depicts a cosy couple’s exchanges, amongst a mass of other random voices and quotes.
Overall, while I think that Spoonbill is extremely talented in what he does, I don’t particularly like his music. I find it hard to comprehend and couldn’t handle listening to his Nestegg album constantly. But, if you do like this form of electronic beats and samples, then give Spoonbill’s Nestegg the benefit of the doubt!
