Having already caught our attention recently with their single ‘Surprises’, Melbourne duo Rachel By The Stream have just dropped their debut album Situation Positive.
Built over the course of three years by bandmembers Rachel Razelle and Mattriks in their Brunswick studio and produced by Matt Coldrick (Green Nuns of the Revolution, Pan Electric), it’s an eclectic blend of reggae, dance and pop a long time in the making.
“We’ve been working on some of these tunes for a long time,” Mattriks tells us. “A few of the tracks have undergone major changes in arrangement, BPM, or instrumentation. It’s been great to take the time and let them evolve through the live set as well as in the studio with Matt. The three of us just gel. Rachel and Matt are from the same area in the UK and there are lots of synchronicities in our stories.”
The varied sound stems from the record’s origins as two separate EPs – one pop, and one reggae, as Rachel explains.
“We realised we didn’t want to release genre-distinctive EPs – depicting us as either a reggae or pop act – because we also have material that leans towards techno, house, RnB and soul.
“We play all these songs live in the same set and somehow it works, so we wanted the album to reflect that diversity. Our sound is very eclectic and although we were concerned about how that might be received, we made the call to honour our style and just go for it.”
“Matt had the idea to create some segues to help connect some of the tracks on the album and we had fun finding ways to make all these different moods sit together,” adds Mattricks.
After years in preparation, the band are no doubt eager to get this one out there, and will be launching it tonight at The Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy, with tickets $10 on the door. You can give the album a spin below, and it’s available now on iTunes and Spotify through Bitnormal/Kinship Records.
