Alternative, intriguing, and owning a piercing voice to boot, Sydney born artist Maples (also sometimes known by her actual name Gabby Huber) is forging some serious ground swell for herself. Although only having released a few songs yet Gabby Huber’s talents are preceding her, with soulful tunes she has supported for fellow alternative artist Frente across Australia, as well as played multiple gigs and shows across Sydney (we totally missed a free gig at the Opera bar a few months ago, dammit guys).
The delicate vocals and intricate playing of Sydney’s Maples is full of heart and willingness to explore her own sound.
With Stars released on iTunes on the 25th of November, the song is her first single released. With Maples’ clear, pure voice overriding a heavy bass and powerful build, it’s definitely a work to be proud of. However this song ended up being a bit too repetitive for my taste, and the synthetics in the chorus had a definite 80’s vibe that seemed a bit out of place when viewed in relation to the song as a whole. It wasn’t my favourite. But that’s just me. She’s received nothing but positive feedback for it and even I can appreciate it’s well earnt.
Maples also has a few unofficial songs floating around on the interwebs as well, so try Spotify if you really want a taste of what she’s about. Street Spirit for example, is a lovely composition. With tentative, high keyboard notes following her drawn out vocals, Maples wrenches our hearts ways wide open.
I Have Heart is another song that starts off delicately, but soon establishes her alternative genre through an unexpected drop of echoing, ghastly coos and warped voices. Eventually though this gets channeled back into the song in an uplifting way with only traces of the phantom explosion witnessed before, bouncing occasionally off of her vocals. This creates an airy and atmospheric song that still maintains a strong and positive direction at its core. Not to mention a hella’ catchy as tune at it’s heart too. I enjoyed this one so much, which is promising as I Have Heart is rumoured to be the first release from Maples’ upcoming debut album.
And here the good feelings just keep coming. Maples’ upcoming album is said to feature collaborations from The Presets Julian Hamilton and Papa vs Pretty’s Tom Rawle. Indeed, holy crap. I know it’s just one song but if it’s anything to go by consider me hyped. The production, right down to the actual sound itself is absolutely poignant with promise. Even Stars exhibits this superlative level of control and awareness of space and timing in her music. The album is also officially mastered by Broken Social Scene‘s Ron Sexsmith as well as fellow producers of Death Cab For Cutie’s Narrow Stairs album. All I can say is, what a time to be alive. The album will be released later this year, with such an incredible team behind it’s production and Maples’ own unique vision and sound, my hopes are officially up.
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