“Why the lower case ‘p’? perth are actually from the Australian city of Perth, several of them are sometime members of Apricot Rail, and their nearest neighbors are Tame Impala, of whom many of you will have heard. But why, as another reviewer has pointed out, are perth so evasive regarding their online presence? Type the word ‘perth’ into your search engine and prepare for a lengthy afternoon’s browsing, unless you already know the album title or that What’s Your Utopia? is released on the Hidden Shoal label, also from Perth, which is perhaps Australia’s most eclectic music label and whose releases are almost always worth a proper listen.
I won’t ask that question again. What’s Your Utopia? is, as Hidden Shoal releases go, a work of some kind of stellar genius (which you may take to mean that it’s really quite good). From the garbled electronic intro of “Collapsible Lung” to the fade-out piano chords of “Wirp”, this is an album of continuing progressions and occasionally spectacular soundscapes. There are obvious influences in parts of perth’s musicianship but just when you think they’re skilfully eulogising one or more 80s/90s Coldwave predecessors, their music takes turns away from more obvious tracks and zones off into somewhere that only very experienced and adept musicians can know about. If What’s Your Utopia? is a summation of the best of the band’s combined album collections, then it is possibly only the first instalment in something significantly larger than a trilogy.
So, as first track “Collapsible Lung” shrugs off its squalling introduction and reveals itself a purposeful electro fuelled mini epic, it’s almost immediately difficult to see exactly where perth can take it from their opening. “Drank and Kites and Tomorrow” answers with a song that while it perhaps nods deliberately towards towards the albums opener is given an added impetus by perth’s use of live percussion, which rattles conspicuously across the synths and sequencing. The pace slows perceptibly with the marimba led sway of “Greasy Moon” and let no one underestimate them, small ‘p’ or not, perth are possessed of some rare abilities and if “Quantum Chronological” reveals part of their more experimental side, it’s also a track which you may wish lasted longer than its four or so minutes. As ‘What’s Your Utopia’ develops, perth bring us a collection of highly polished electronica tunes some of which they could develop into the expansive soundtracking that fires their collective imaginations. And they save us their best for the last track “Viewmaster”, a song that could function just as well as a guitar and vocal piece and that is effortlessly developed into a near bewildering array of sequenced effects almost imperceptibly, leaving the listener wondering exactly how do perth think a guitar should sound. Certainly, their imaginations threaten to outgrow their technology on more than one occasion.
What’s Your Utopia? isn’t really a first album. What it is, is the summation of the work of some of the remarkable talents working in and around the Hidden Shoal label, and as final and unnanounced instrumental piece ‘Wirp’ fades out it’s worth reflecting that these are musicians that, while they work in more than one format, are somewhere at the peak of their abilities and are pushing their instrumentation very nearly to its limits. The result is a consistently listenable album that’s every bit as ingenious as the music of My Majestic Star, City Of Satellites, Gilded and some other of the albums that Hidden Shoal has released in its eight year history. Which is to say it is an accomplished and very near superb 40 or so minutes and you really should hear it.”
– DOA