PREMIERE: Tam Vantage – ‘High Definition’

Tam Vantage opens his debut LP forcefully, with the snarling guitar and dramatic synth riff of ‘High Definition’. Bolstered by a chorus of female backing vocalists, he places a hand on his hip and, in an arch sing-song, spits: ‘You don’t know what it’s like to break / to take and take and take / to take the dive then hesitate / to just break free when it’s too late’.

A Melbourne musician, Tam Vantage (Tam Matlakowski) once did time with inspired eccentrics the Stevens and as lead singer of Pop Singles (now defunct), whose only album sounded something like the Field Mice by way of Flying Nun. His new solo record picks up where the ‘Setting Sun’ EP left off, summoning a gothic jangle reminiscent of the Triffids and the Church, held together by a spiky, post-punk rhythm section. In a local landscape dominated by the jangle obsessed, Tam Vantage has staked his own ground.

Tam’s a talented lyricist, and ‘High Definition’ stylishly evokes the 80’s preoccupation with ‘plastic eyes and magazines’, and the masters of TV. Skew the references a little bit and he could be referring to the fantastical Instagram culture of Gen Y. ‘Well, you’re living in somebody else’s dream,’ he sings, ‘and I know how cold that can be’.

‘High Definition’ is out now through Lost and Lonesome and Beko Disques, with the album Life in High Definition to follow on 16 October.

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