Matthew Sigley is constant star in the antipodean indie musical firmament, providing a range of musical talents from bass to keyboards to a number of iconic bands ranging from The Lovetones, Drop City and Belles Will Ring to the Underground Lovers’ electronic off-shoot Moda Discoteca.
The Daytime Frequency is his solo project and evidence that he is not just a respected musician. Sigley describes the genesis of this project:
20 years ago today I released my one and only solo album under the name The Daytime Frequency.
I started writing some of the songs on the album when I moved to London in 1999. I relocated to Brighton in 2000 and that was where I found a name for the project – written on a bus timetable I used to look at everyday on my way to work – Daytime Frequency. I added The to the start of it to make it sound more sixties and psychedelic. Hey, that’s just how it was back then.
Moving back to Melbourne in 2002, I started writing new songs and working towards making an album. By this time there were scores of songs I’d written and recorded since moving to London ( all released in 2020 as Vol 1-5 Four Track Songs on The Daytime Frequency Bandcamp page).
By 2005 my old friend @derekjy from Underground Lovers had joined me on drums to make the album and @lukehowardmusic joined on keys and wrote Let The Snow Fall with me – one of the highlights of the album. The three of us performed live as a 3 piece for several years after the albums release.
After twenty years’ silence, he has released ‘Cologravure’, a shimmering, sparkling sets of gentle psychedelic-tinged folk/pop songs that draw in the best of the past decades. He says:
It’s an album I’m immensely proud of and can’t wait to finally release it on the world.
There is an intoxicating mix of influences – you can hear genetic threads of The Beatles, Sufjan Stevens, Simon and Garfunkel, elements of shoegaze, dream pop and folk. And even a little jazz thrown in for good measure (see ‘Situations’). Sigley has an easy voice – smooth and melodic, soothing and tinged with an element of melancholy. The songs are gentle musings, wry and touched with humour and heartfelt observations over delicate instrumentation that is layered and innovative.
Opening track, appropriately named ‘In a Fugue State’, has a dreamy delivery with an indelible melody and fairground whirl like a nursery rhyme, brilliant and sparkling like stars in the firmament. ‘For The Benefit of the Tape’ has a more muscular spine coasting on a gentle bed of strings and a piano riff that sticks like glue with a sixties timbre: yearning and melancholic. There is a slight psychedelic element as a middle eight break takes you away into the ether.
‘Lilly’ – written about Sigley’s cat who sadly died during recording – sparkles on a roll of acoustic guitars and a gentle roaming delivery augmented by a pattering percussion. It is an etherial and joyous track: pure pop that evokes elements of The Lightning Seeds with its romantic naivety.
A sequenced synth aquatic bubble carries ‘Beneath Haunted Eyes’ over a jangling guitars and delicious dreamy vocals, with strings seeping through the misty sounds. It’s yet another example of Sigley’s undeniable songwriting skills: gentle and buoyant sounds that waft in the air like contrails in the sky. This another incredibly crafted pop song that for me recalls elements of The Beloved.
‘Golden’ steps lightly on the brakes – a jaunty ditty with folksy elements that twirls with its indelible melodies and swirling sounds. Sigley says of the track:
I dreamt this song and woke up at 4am and rushed to write it down. Had a dream I’d given up music and became a stand up comedian. Watched someone on stage in my dream playing this song and thought what the hell am I doing?! I need to write songs like this! Only song I’ve dreamed.
Both ‘Airwaves’ and ‘Between the 40th and 50th Parallels’ have a psychedelic air with a sixties blush and reflective lyrics and horns, the latter with a fairground lilt. Sigley’s acute observations reveal the personal – ‘Splendid Ace’ is:
a love song for a cargo ship. Saw a two tone ship called Splendid Ace in the dock in Melbourne that I became obsessed with. I’ve since seen the same ship or one of it’s sister Ace ships in several different ports around the world).
Final track ‘The Reservoir and I’ thunders along on a driving repetitive hypnotic beat, elements of Sébastian Tellier in the delivery. It’s a brilliant anthemic track, euphoric and shimmering filled with pop cadences and indelible riffs: a triumphant end to a fantastic album.
It’s stunning that such a complete and satisfying album can be released without much publicity or fanfare, but Colorgravure is a triumph: pure pop brilliance that is nuanced, intelligent and anthemic. Sigley, well respected for his musicianship, has proven that he can write a damned good tune as well. And release a comprehensively brilliant album of them as well.
‘Colorgravure’ is out now and available to download ans stream via all the usal sites and through the link above.
