When The Middle East announced on-stage at their 2011 Splendour In The Grass performance that they’d be splitting up, the imminent news broke the hearts of music fans who lamented the premature demise of the band after just a single EP and not long after the release of their gorgeous debut album, I Want That You Are Always Happy.
The promising indie folk collective from Townsville commented on their break-up by stating “we don’t feel like playing anymore for a whole lot of reasons,” and quoting T.S. Eliot, “you are the music while the music lasts.”
While the Middle East’s music no longer lasts, Jordan Ireland – one of the former band’s two co-frontmen (along with Rohin Jones) – has quietly been working away on a new solo project and now is ready to release his debut under his new musical moniker, Stolen Violin.
Released with little fanfare at the close of last week, Temperate Touch, Tropical Tears is the debut album from Stolen Violin, available now through Spunk Records, and was written and recorded by Ireland, mostly on 8-track casette, alongside musical cohort Jake Core.
Stolen Violin’s official website offers little information or background on Ireland’s new musical project, but the album “came together inside a suburban Melbourne shed and was completed with the assistance of Machine Translations’ Greg Walker,” according to a press release. The music features much of the stark beauty and melodicism that made his former band so appealing, but infused with a rawer, direct aesthetic due to its home recording nature, as a free four track sampler on Soundcloud demonstrates.
‘New Amnesia Skies’ deft, moody plucking recalls the early work of Mark Kozelek (of Red House Painters/Sun Kil Moon fame), while ‘Romance At The Petrol Station’ is sparse but earnestly chugging, recalling a murky mix of Augie March at their most restrained and Oregon experimental songwriter, Grouper.
No word yet if Stolen Violin is purely a studio concern or if Jordan Ireland has his own plans to take his new solo material to the stage in some capacity, but Temperate Touch, Tropical Tears demonstrates all the qualities of a bona fide sleeper hit.
Listen to the Soundcloud sampler below. Temperate Touch, Tropical Tears is available on vinyl from Spunk Records and digitally through iTunes
