outshine family

Galeria De La Luz

I’m sure some of you remember Aussie producer Matthew Nicholson’s work under the Function moniker (if not, go searching), and thankfully after a short hiatus he’s back with a brand new project. Adding the talents of Room40 alumnus John Chantler (on percussion and electronics), Carina Thoren (vocals and flute) and Dom Garwood (keyboards and clarinet) Nicholson has created the Outshine Family, a sunbleached blend of folk loveliness and cracked electronics. Maybe the best comparison would be recent Sufjan Stevens (when he lets his imagination wander a little), but I can hear fragments of Stereolab, Animal Collective and much more buried in these sprawling pop symphonies. Nicholson clearly has a desire to take his songwriting into deep, cosmic places but also knows how to anchor these songs in the kind of ironclad pop it’s hard to forget. The songs of ‘Galeria De La Luz’ are not malformed, weighty and pointlessly progressive – rather when strings, flutes and all manner of modular noises erupt there seems a pointed relevance and context that brings everything together. I’m often suspicious of albums that throw together simply so many different styles into one chattering cloud of sound, but Nicholson reigns things in with a surprising ease. Maybe it’s his very careful choice of co-conspirators that helped though; the husband-and-wife team of John and Carina help add their dense, lilting swirl we first heard on the really rather good (and greatly underappreciated) ‘New Days’ LP and this works as a smart creative foil for Nicholson’s much more traditional skills. Outshine Family is a true success, and ‘Galeria De La Luz’ is far greater than the sum of its parts – now if only the weather outside would just lighten up a little, I’d say grab a margarita, stick this on and bask in the sun. As it stands though, one of those weird daylight bulbs will have to do… a huge recommendation!