Review: Paint Your Golden Face - self-titled

"I think this band is the one, I think the front man will shoot himself into his face."
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Paint Your Golden Face - Paint Your Golden Face

In the wake of Viva Computer's demise in 2008, Jordan Marson and Jonathon McCarthy recollected their passion as Paint Your Golden Face and put together "He Was Run Off The Road By His Amazing Face", a three track single propelled by the sublime Torrents Of Water Subsumed Their Village. It cemented a basis for Paint Your Golden Face's ideas - minimalist, percussion-focussed rhythms overlaid with choir voices and any samples that fit into the mould. But at only 7 minutes, it was barely but a tease.

Roughly a year and a half later, their debut self-titled album has been released by Sydney label Tenzenmen, finally appeasing any desire for more PYGF. Television Is About Pictures begins the record, setting up the thematic nature of the band. It features a build-up and layering of contents - from drums, to rhythmic vocals, to choir vocals, to hand claps, to a new drum pattern, and just as it reaches its crowded peak it all starts to peel back, until all we can hear is the choir singing about bath water. Although I personally find it one of the less interesting tracks both musically and lyrically, it is an exemplar of the duo's intentions and experiments. Construct from next-to-nothing, evolve it, then deconstruct it all again.

Pedalling backwards to when only the first single was available, I remained curious how far Marson and McCarthy could stretch their drum/vocal experiments. "Paint Your Golden Face" destroyed any fears of stagnation I previously held, succeeding in both variety and maintaining interest. The album is well paced and sequenced, and the rerecorded songs sit well in their new context. Individually, Torrents Of Water Subsumed Their Villages feels more distilled than the previous incarnation, and is lacking that loveable glockenspiel, but these changes feel more natural inside the album. The guest choir (who could possibly make up half of the album's ownership) is diverse and appropriately used; the dominant female vocal on Poppies is a welcome change to the lighter female vocals used in earlier tracks, for example. Despite this, McCarthy's singing voice is both individual and compelling enough to make songs like Submarine and Sick Kids With Swords work.

Their cover of Submarine, originally from local Native Cat and piano-fiddler Peter Escott's solo album, is like a counter-point to the original, in the best possible way. It is markedly different yet still focuses on Escott's brilliant lyrics, which in my opinion is his greatest skill, and one that makes his own solo and duo recordings so interesting. Here, McCarthy's vocals sit front-and-centre, with the choir pushed to the back, giving Escott's lyrics room for both emotion and consumption. It's a wonderful song in its own right, and this cover only exemplifies that fact.

Lions Love Lions, the centrepiece of the album, can be seen as the culmination of PYGF's current output. It makes the greatest use of their construction/deconstruction methodology, which then slides into a beautiful organ outro. Punctuated vocals turn even the acapella affairs into rhythmic treats, and their brief staying time make these tracks highly listenable.

In the end, "Paint Your Golden Face" appears wholly original. The band has succeeded at creating a varied and cohesive record. Maybe one day it'll get its own 'intelligent reissue with Melbourne appeal'. If so, go forth and investigate, 2030's Victorian music snobs: we have presents from the past.

(Originally written 31st of March 2010 elsewhere.)