A Piece of the Sky Was Blue

My favourite band these days is pretty much The Motifs. Perfect music for early afternoon bike rides. Today more than a piece was blue actually. The first thing I heard from these Australians was their WeePOP! ep from last year, called Matches. And today I listened to Away for the first time. The comparison is unfair I know, but it felt like hearing Pipas for the first time four or five years ago. Alexis has a wonderfully woozy voice and the melodies and lyrics are really up there with the best. I like the descpription of their songs as 'wobbly', which is how I've always experienced Pipas' A Short Film About Sleeping. But if you want a more contemporary reference, I guess Half-Handed Cloud is not far off the mark. One of my favourites is the instrumental "Paper Boat" (which you will find below) that shares the name with an equally beautiful song Stuart David wrote for Belle & Sebastian. If you crave more name-dropping, of course The Motifs follow that very Australian standard of song length once set in stone by The Cat's Miaow.

Now, The Motifs have two new records out. One is an ep on newish 3" label Edition 59, which grew out of the Vollwert mailorder and label in Germany. The other is an lp on Australian label Knock Yr. Socks Off, in the fab hand-painted sleeve you see above. That label have already released a fine split single with Summer Cats and Eux Autres, and are definitely to be reckoned with in the future. So, 59 and 200 copies respectively - get them now (there are only a few left of the ep!). And if you've ever wondered why a piece of the sky was blue when all the rest was grey, well it's just cause you'd never heard The Motifs before.

CLOUD 71 The Motifs - Paper Boat