Yearning for the fire and wind

Images and illusions
By Kev Carmody
Festival Records
Reviewed by Jenny Long Initially, this new album from Kev Carmody seems light years away from those early, radical folk-narratives Pillars of society and Eulogy (for a black person). But that's not quite the case. The music has evolved further from traditional folk to encompass a range of innovative sound, but the message has only expanded. The first single from the album "The young dancer is dead" is about the 1992 death in police custody of an Aboriginal dancer in Brisbane. It relates beyond the particular incident, painting the sadness and loss — and the unending resistance to injustice. "The song is dedicated to all families who have suffered a loss through a death in custody", says Carmody,"both black and white". In Images and illusions Carmody has expanded his musical styles to express anger at society's rottenness and hypocrisy, and the tragic results. He points to the divide between rich and poor to show that our priorities are being set by a powerful, self-interested elite. In "Needles in the Nursery" Carmody sings: "Needles in the nursery, faeces in the streets/Rancid milk from the nipples of want, dead maggots in the meat/Syringes of cola-coca sound, infected, injected into your brain/Turnin' your critical consciousness into clone, make a healthy mind 'in'... sane? ... All the seers now have blinded eyes, and the healers can no longer heal". Carmody expresses the need for big change, with allusions to false idols and scorned prophets. In "The Anti-Christ" he says, "Money rule your life you're bought and sold/Feed a rich man's mouth but devour his soul/We poor on the floor here fightin' for the crumb/Anti-christ speakin' through a stock-exchange tongue". Carmody also talks about the intrusion of corruption into relations between people with a couple of love songs that are a mix of regret and longing. The harmonies of the Tiddas and the violin of Linda Neil enrich the music. Steve Kilbey from the Church, who jointly produced the album with Carmody, appears on many of the tracks playing bass, guitar or keyboards. Also appearing are Tim Finn, Liam O'Maonlai from Hothouse Flowers playing didge and Irish instruments, Arrameida, Utungan Percussion and many others. To the "Images and Illusions" might be added another name, "Inspiration". Worth every cent.