NEWS
Seperatista! only a month or so out from release has been picking up some great reviews:
This one from 3D in Sydney:
Author: Natalie Salvo The Beautiful Girls’ founder/singer/songwriter, Mat McHugh’s first foray into solo work, Seperatista!, boasts ten tracks containing many different motifs. While Bob Dylan and Neil Young are acknowledged as influences, Bob Marley also deserves credit as McHugh also toys with genres like reggae, ska and dub. The album was written at the River Ganges in India and recorded with musicians borrowed from the Sydney jazz scene. The result is that these folk songs have a greater freedom to use different layers, meaning that Loneliness is like The Happy Mondays performing a ballad, while Bad Blood could be easily performed by Nirvana or The Cat Empire. Truly. Many songs include the sweet acoustic style of José González juxtaposed with a delivery similar to Ben Harper’s. The layers become more apparent with each listen and the list of inspirations could go on forever, but understand that Seperatista! is one of the most unique and honest records of 2008.
Rip It Up
Issue 1013
Seperatista (Die!Boredom)
The latest Australian frontman to veer down the ever-alluring road of a solo success is The Beautiful Girls’ Mat McHugh. With The Beautiful Girls already established as one of the country’s best roots and blues acts, it is a bold man who takes a chance on releasing a collection of songs as honest as reading someone’s diary.
While ostensibly a solo album, McHugh hasn’t done it alone; calling on a talented bunch of jazz musicians from the local Sydney scene, McHugh has allowed for a diverse range of musical sounds to be encapsulated upon his first solo effort. From the heartfelt acoustic ballad of It Isn’t Me (which is provocatively expressed through his unique, raw tones) to the increased tempo, piano and percussion-infused sound of The Bottle, there are plenty of variations on Seperatista. While Over And Over is very reflective of the current Beautiful Girls sound, with its upbeat reggae tones and down to earth vibe, Seperatista has created an avenue for McHugh to release a more honest, stripped-back sound and has definitely helped to expose him as one of Australia’s most talented songwriters.
McHugh’s lyrics are an often-metaphorical collection of beautifully written prose. They are almost poetic at times yet are riddled with the constant yin and yang of love and loss. Seperatista will take you on an acoustically rich, melodically drenched ride you will not want to miss.
Mat McHugh plays The Spiegeltent in the Fringe Festival’s Garden Of Unearthly Delights on Sun Feb 22.
Nabula El Mourid
SEPERATISTA! Reviewed in January's Rolling Stone!"Beautiful Girls frontman ditches the reggae in optimistic solo effort"**** "In his role as frontman for the Beautiful Girls, Mat McHugh is prone to reggae cliches, so it's a pleasant surprise to see that when left to his own devices he sounds refreshingly original.Free of the BG's, McHugh mines some darker territory, as well as keeping things sparse and simple. At times he brings to mind an upbeat Elliott Smith, at others, he sounds like an acoustic Frank Black. Thankfully, he's not another Jack Johnson clone - which to be brutally honest, I was expecting. That's not to say that McHugh's music is devoid of any roots influence; there is the odd upstroke on the guitar or horn flourish, but they're used only when they bring something to the song (with the exception of "Over and Over - Ring the Alarm", which is pure reggae). Mat McHugh will appeal to fans of Rudd, Grunwald and company, but as a solo artist, he's set to blow those guys out of the water."
SEPERATISTA!
The first solo album from The Beautiful Girls' frontman
MAT McHUGH
& THE BLACK BIRD
Viva the wilful left turn! The element of surprise has been a cornerstone of great music forever: think Bob Dylan's electric revolution, or every second album by Neil Young, or the Clash's outrageous triple-disc sprawl, Sandinista!
All and none of them were on Mat McHugh's mind when he took time out from his day job as founder-singer-songwriter of the Beautiful Girls to record this playful, profound and provocative solo debut, SEPERATISTA!
"A huge part of this is stepping away from expectation," he says. "There's nods to ska and dub and reggae, with kind of a hip-hop aesthetic, just picking up things I love and putting them together. I wanted to have fun with it, to make a record for music's sake.
"What I've always done with the Beautiful Girls is to run as far as possible from what anyone thought we were. Trying my best to keep challenging myself and other people is incredibly important to me."
Hence the surprising electricity of last year's ZIGGURATS album, a disc that challenged old TBG fans while captivating a whole bunch of new ones.
The beautiful irony is that those old fans are likely to do backflips over the melodious syncopated acoustic grooves of SEPERATISTA!
"I thought it would be good to strip it all back and start again without the bells and whistles," says Mat. "I also wanted to allow myself some musical freedom and collaborate with other musicians. It allows me to voice the singer-songwriter side of me that's slowly being erased from the Beautiful Girls."
Which brings us to the Black Bird, a free-floating animal of rare sensitivity and grace, largely seconded from the Sydney jazz scene. Off-kilter drums, deep bass, horns, piano, organ, melodica and cello flesh out Mat's voice, acoustic guitar and occasional ukulele on an album rich in precious sonic details.
"The horn players Matt Keegan and Simon Ferenci have played on the last couple of TBG records and the others I know from around the way," he says. "They're all phenomenal players and it's an amazing feeling hearing them interpret the songs that I've written."
They're songs that reward interpretation on many levels. The melancholy guitar figure of "Numb" and the cheerfully ambling reggae gait of "Over and Over/ Ring The Alarm" are worlds apart, but each questions the same fundamentals of human experience. Or, to put it another way, "the songs are populated with people wondering what the f--- it's all about," laughs Mat.
"I hope they’re pretty inclusive. That's always my aim. We're all in this together and the further I go in this world, trying to keep my eyes and ears and heart open, the more I realise no one really knows anything. But it's OK, cause we’re all in the same boat."
A line from "Bad Blood" expresses the shared dislocation that gives SEPERATISTA! its thematic spark: "It just gets lonely spinning around the sun." It's the same drama for the character sinking in alcohol in "The Bottle", the ones seeking release or escape in "Fall To Pieces" and "Loneliness", and the one pledging love and loyalty in the uplifting ska tune, "I'll Be For You".
Each story traces its way back to the Black Bird's winged namesake, as Mat explains: "When I lived in India I stayed in an Ashram on the Ganges River where every morning before dawn a big black crow would land on my window sill and wake me. I was kind of spaced out at the time because of all the Malaria medication and I kept having these dreams that the bird was trying to tell me something.
"It would say that everyone's stories would make their way into the river from which it drank and haunt its heart and soul. It couldn't escape its sadness and wanted to offload some of its burden onto anyone that would listen. I guess, in that respect, the black bird gave wings to a timeless story."
SEPERATISTA! was recorded at Noisegate Studios in Sydney by Mat's long-term studio collaborator, Ian Pritchett, who is also down to play bass when the Black Bird makes its maiden flight in October.
"It will be a six piece, including keyboards and a horn section," says Mat. "I'll probably throw a few old school TBG songs into the set too. I basically want it to be the best show anybody has ever seen. Plus (old TBG compadres) Matty Woo and Afro Dave will be there too…"
But what about The Beautiful Girls!? Relax, they’ll be back. Part of the Black Bird's raison d'etre is to allow Mat's other band the freedom to be what it is.
"This album was really easy and fun and I think I was in the best place emotionally I've ever been in making an album." Mat says. "I'd cleared a lot of stuff out of my head and was just enjoying myself.
"I try to write songs from my heart and if people like it, that's very cool. If not that's OK too. There'll be another record. And another. And another…"
SEPERATISTA! is out now
THROUGH die!boredom/MGM in Australia and will be out early next year through Controlled Substance in the USA
Darling This Scene Must End, is out now and available thru itunes:: SEPERATISTA! is available now and you can order a copy and have it shipped anywhere in the world thru www.waterfrontrecords.com
REQUEST 'Darling, this Scene Must End’ on TRIPLE J.get in touch with Rosie on Triple J and let her know about Mat’s material - between 6-9pm weekdays - and to do it all you need to do is go to the link below.we appreciate your support
contact:: management@thebeautifulgirls.com
