Mike Noga - The Balladeer Hunter (20/05/2011)
First impressions of listening to this brief nine track album are good. Warm, soulful folk ballads and rollicking rhythms are immediately reminiscent of The Gin Club. As it turns out this is unsurprising – since the group is made up of Mike Noga of The Drones, Bourke of Dallas Crane, and Agars of The Gin Club.
Thankfully, this brilliant indie collaboration is as honest and gritty as music gets. Noga’s warts-and-all poetry harks back to an era where music wasn’t about image but substance, think Dylan and Mitchell.
Jangling guitars and humming harmonicas on Piss on a Butterfly are combined with Nogas gravelly croon '…a lonely man forgets nobodies name,' one of the stand out tracks. You could only hope that each time a line like that is sung a bubble-gum poptart dies.
Quite frankly the only fault I can find in the release is that, at just nine tracks, it’s over all too soon. This only serves for repeated listens. Well done boys!
Kirsty Visman
Thankfully, this brilliant indie collaboration is as honest and gritty as music gets. Noga’s warts-and-all poetry harks back to an era where music wasn’t about image but substance, think Dylan and Mitchell.
Jangling guitars and humming harmonicas on Piss on a Butterfly are combined with Nogas gravelly croon '…a lonely man forgets nobodies name,' one of the stand out tracks. You could only hope that each time a line like that is sung a bubble-gum poptart dies.
Quite frankly the only fault I can find in the release is that, at just nine tracks, it’s over all too soon. This only serves for repeated listens. Well done boys!
Kirsty Visman