Recorded in a week at Palm Grove Studios on Sydney’s Northern Beaches with the help of recording master Dan Frizza and the trusty Dan Willington, Mamajae are back with a killer EP in Hummingbird.
Consisting of Teaghan Alexander on vocals, Dave Williams on guitar, Josh Wilson on bass, Brad Landy with drums and Alex Psaltis on guitar and synth, Mamajae has come through with a succinct compendium of Australiana psych, the floating and lyrically astounding Hummingbird is an homage to the hot summer ahead.
Soaring as high as a wedge-tailed eagle and biting as hard as a saltwater crocodile, Mamajae’s debut EP is the roaring epitome of Aussie psych.
With the principal songwriting falling to Teaghan, this is as much an EP dedicated to the school of sound as it is to poetic profanity.
The record, made up of four artistically positioned tracks, combines the best of new wave pop with a trippy surf vein. When experienced together it speaks volumes to the Sydney edge that follows this fun loving and engaging collective.
The record has enough pep to get you up of your chair, but with deep lulls so smooth that reclining back with a frosty one and a dart in the summer sun with Mamajae seems like just the ticket.
The seagull-like echoes in title track Hummingbird dart in-between choruses; this song is almost biblical…think if Jeff Buckley was a sinister and vengeful woman, there are so many undertones of Grace to be heard.
In saying this, shadows of reflection are present, Hounds and Whores has a rough, rock husk, which punctuates the record nicely. With twisting reverb and blues mystery, Alexander’s vocals carries a ghostly femininity over the noise; sassy and filled with fervor.
It’s a poetic and feverish EP, daring and raw. Hummingbird is a triumph and one to slip into your summer playlist.