Published on Jul 13, 1999
Have you ever heard of a didgeridoo? Chances are, unless you’re
reading this in Australia or you know something about the land
“down under,” you haven’t. According to my trusty copy of Microsoft
Encarta, the best way to describe this instrument is as an
Aborigine trumpet made out of a hollowed-out eucalyptus branch.
When played, it produces a drone-like sound that can be shaped by
the player with their mouth. It’s an intriguing sound, though I
know some people that would probably put this up on the same shelf
with Tuvan throat singing.
If you have ever heard the didgeridoo, would you have ever
expected it to be used in popular music? I never would have thought
about this instrument being used in such a manner, until I heard
the Australian band Brother’s latest disc
Your Backyard. A group who is just beginning to get serious
notice in the States, they are a pleasant pop group who utilize
instruments like didgeridoo and bagpipes into more traditional
guitar-driven melodies, with surprisingly pleasant results.
The brothers – Angus and Hamish – lead this group, which
utilizes a mixture of live drums and samples on record. The
brothers handle a lot of the instruments themselves, and though one
might expect a little bit of performance degradation due to
handling multiple instruments, these two prove themselves capable
of the task.
The opening track “Stand Beside Me” will give most listeners
their first taste of the didgeridoo. On this track, its use is
intriguing, acting almost as a guide track for the rest of the
song, which quickly falls into a pleasant little pop number that
all should find enjoyable. After hearing this track just once, I
found myself wondering why this band has not had a serious shot at
U.S. fame until now.
Your Backyard continues in a poppy, harmonious vein with
radio-friendly tracks like “2 Chairs & One Tree,” “Mean To Me”
and “In The Water,” all songs which stood out as being exceptional.
After a while, you might not even notice the way that bagpipes or
penny whistles are worked into the arrangement; they all flow
together so naturally.
The only problem with
Your Backyard is that the formula starts to lose its magic
about three-fourths of the way through the album. It’s not that
songs like “Midnight Sun” and “Purple Haze” (the latter is not a
cover of the Jimi Hendrix tune) are bad, it’s just that they don’t
stand out like some of the earlier songs did. The closing number,
“thetimeisnow,” has more of an outback sound to it, and is a nice
enough way to close this album – if you don’t count the faint,
bonus track tacked on to the end of it.
Maybe some people would be scared away from Brother by reading
that they’re using instruments like bagpipes and didgeridoo, and
that’s too bad. Instead, it would be nice to have this song played
to someone without them knowing what they were about to listen to,
and let them become enchanted with the pop music that eeks out of
the speakers. For in the end, it really doesn’t matter that Brother
is using different instruments to create
Your Backyard; instead, it matters that they’re good at what
they do.