After winning Wollongong’s UniBar Competition last year (past winners include Eskimo Joe, The Vines, and Jebediah), eight-piece-band Beaten Bodies have released their debut EP.
Their sound drifts between blues, R ‘n’B, and ska while staying firmly rooted in soul through singer Marli Wilde’s sultry vocals.
Behind Wilde are some incredible musicians including a raucous horn section including Matt Tarrant on trumpet, Nick Chater on trombone, David Reglar on tenor sax and, Geordie Crawford on alto sax.
Each musician gives excellent solo performances throughout the album but Tarrant gets top marks for his trumpet solo on ‘Fifty Ways’.
There are a few moments where the organ is laid a bit too thick and the rest of the band comes close to being drowned out.
Not to say that keyboardist Novak Manjlovic gives at all a bad performance with standout track ‘Bold Request’ consisting of little more than Wilde’s voice and Manjlovic’s electric piano.
The song haunts you like a bad dream drifting into the daylight hours with the impact of Wilde’s lyrics softened by the blunted sound of the electric piano.
Single ‘My Mantra’ made it to number 21 on the Triple J Unearthed charts in its first week and it certainly stands out as the most produced track on the EP.
Here you can see why Wilde is being compared to Amy Winehouse with that very distinct vocal cord strain that lends itself so well to soul music.
