The Nature Strip channel bright, acoustic vibes and The Models on their new EP, Past Pacific, apparently the “last Nature Strip record for the time being”.
The Sydney four-piece started its life as a songwriting collaboration between musical friends John Encarnacao and Pete Marley, who knew each other from way back when they both played in a band called The Flies (check out their 1985 hit, Turtle Monster).
Past Pacific proves The Nature Strip are still going strong as they deliver wonderful, mid-tempo sonic delights with unusual chord sequences and slick production.
The band has steadily released music for almost ten years now, but with the release of their last album, 2017’s Beetle Bones, “the cupboard was pretty bare,” says Encarnacao.
“But then I came up with Push The Past Away and we started doing The Models cover and it seemed like an EP might be a good idea. So Pete wrote Dirty Looks pretty quick and we were away.”
Album opener, Push The Past Away, starts with an electronic beat and an unusual vocal melody, before the whole band kicks in and blasts the song off the ground. It’s a fun, Beatles-meets-the-’80s track that gets your feet tapping and hips swinging.
Just Like You Do opens with tastefully discordant and bright guitar chords before the band joins in, sweeping you up in a full, rich sound and lyrics inspired by a bizarre news article that Pete read.
Store of Tomorrows is slightly more melancholic and features a guttural guitar that weaves in and out of the string section, which later underpins a wonderful cello solo that Pete believes creates “a strange, beautiful magic…”
Atlantic Romantic is a Models cover that features a prog-sounding keyboard and beefy, grungy guitar chords that you can sink your teeth into. The track clearly shows Pete and John’s love of the iconic Aussie band, which harks back to when they were still part of The Flies with Michael de la Motte, listening to early Models albums.
The album’s final track, Georgia’s In Town, is an acoustic, sweetly endearing number about love. “Hey Georgia, all of those bad poems I wrote for ya, did you throw them out or keep them in a box?” – doesn’t that line just melt your heart a little?
The Nature Strip are playing in Sydney’s Django Bar at the Camelot on the 5th of October. Buy tickets here.
Past Pacific EP is out now.
