We are ever so honoured to review the new single ‘Overnight Sensation’ from Sydney band Kate Moth, whose inherent worth can be gleaned form the fact that they have signed to the illustrious Scenic Drive Records label run by the legendary Australian music producer, audio engineer and musician, Wayne Connolly. You may have heard of Australian indie giants Josh Pyke, The Vines, Boy & Bear, Paul Dempsey, Youth Group, Underground Lovers, Died Pretty, Hoodoo Gurus and You Am I. They all received Connolly’s magic touch behind the production desk and his label include some Backseat Mafia regulars including The Nagging Doubts, Ellen Soffe, Victoria, Bec Sykes and Grids and Dots.
Listening to Kate Moth, I get a blast of nostalgia for the C86 era and the delicacy of bands like The Smiths, Prefab Sprout, Gene and fellow antipodeans The Go-Betweens and The Apartments. You get the picture (or should that be the sound?). In ‘Overnight Sensations’, Kate Moth have developed what these bands pioneered to some degree: a single that is intelligent multi-layered pop filled with a delicious degree of unpredictability, prone to heading in unexpected directions and yet having a cohesive whole that positively shimmers like sunlight on the waves.
An ambulant powerful bass sets the scene before the gently soft vocals enter with shimmering guitars that splash and dance like rain drops with distant spoken backing vocals. According to the band the track is about finding your name on life’s waitlist instead of the guest list. A sentiment that captures the zeitgeist to some extent – the frustrations of youth in a society where unbreachable gaps continue to widen and generations are left in the wilderness, on the outside looking in. Accordingly, there is sense of urgency and melancholy in the delivery and the track ebbs and flows, finding different directions, shifting like a mirage.
This is really exciting stuff – yes it may have the genetic code of some of the aforementioned eighties indie pop bands but Kate Moth have made something of their own, and in the process released one of the most exciting singles this year.
‘Overnight Sensation’ is out now and you can order it here.
Kate Moth made their festival debut at SXSW Sydney this year, and have opened for such acts as Sonic Reducer, Sex Mask, Maia Toakley, O & the Mo, and international acts Humane the Moon and Owen Kennedy. Based on this single and a reputed thrilling live show, there is a huge future ahead.
