The EP ‘Hell On Bent Street’ from Melbourne chanteuse Georgia Knight is a deliciously dark and frosty delight that circles and prowls like a caged tiger filled with restrained anger and a delicate refrain. At every note there hangs a haunting aura, spacious and expressive, gothic and dark. It is a remarkable debut that belies Knight’s youth.
Opening track ‘Visualiser’ has a muscular spine defined by the beating drums and thundering bass that pounds like a pulse while Knight’s voice soars above, reflective and pained, distant and Arctic. It is a haunting track that has a dark and gothic tone.
In contrast, ‘Catching Matches’ is sparse with Knight’s velvet vocals almost a ghostly whisper amongst a gentle dapple of instrumentation. There is almost a jazz cadence to the delivery – wandering freely and floating in the ether. Knight’s vocals almost break with emotion.
‘We Float’ – a cover of P.J. Harvey’s song – has a delicate reverberation with echoes of Mazzy Star – starting off with simple strumming guitars and a high hat patter that underpin her soft expressive vocals, which get lifted by the surging instrumentation as the song reached a crescendo.
The title track is a prowling track that ebbs and flows with a visceral cutting edge, teetering on the brink of a dark chasm. The guitars clatter with an ominous intent over the driving rhythms, and Knight’s vocals are wrought with a resolute despair, from a whisper to a howl and yet velvet soft throughout.
The result is something that draws in the naked vibrancy of Rowland S Howard, the delivery of Nick Cave or P.J. Harvey at their most rampant and feverish, with a frenetic urgent pace. The unpredictable wildness of Dirty Three come to mind. The lyrics reference something disturbing and dark:
I’m gonna let him touch me
Even though he is foul
I feel I am a cannon
Point me out the window now
Now I’m hell bent
I’m hell bent
I’m hell bent
Knight says of the recording of the track:
I was in Tori Amos mania for a few months in lockdown, especially that song ‘Crucify’, which I love the rhythm of. Any music that makes people cringe or feel embarrassed I really like, and that was pretty much the spirit of writing ‘Hell on Bent Street’. I wanted to grab onto the stomach flip excitement of not giving a shit and escaping in this tune, one for people who like to thrash their headphones. There were a few little kooky recording moments on this tune, the drums turned out the way they are because Holly flipped the kit, so she could fit two extra floor toms in, and also I think had a sack of money on her snare to make it jangle.
The accompanying video directed by Tori Styles is a lusciously rich depiction of internal torment. Knight says:
When I wrote ‘Hell On Bent Street’ I had a raga rhythm in my mind, which evolved into a heavier thing once the band got involved. The video was filmed in my apartment one night. Me and Tori from Wild Rose Media were talking about the song as a shot to the heart of inertia and wanting to titillate you a bit as the character tries to get you to climb back through into the house. There’s a few Easter eggs in there too.
It’s an enthralling companion to the sonic power of the song:
‘Hell On Bent Street’ is out today through the inimitable Cheersquad Records and Tapes and available through the link below with a special edition cassette and extra live tracks.
‘Hell On Bent Street’ will be launched tomorrow at Shot Kickers in Melbourne – details and tickets here.
