Melbourne Singer/Songwriter Penelope Swales touring “Monkey Comfort.” Best described as a musical journalist, she combines wry and often outrageous humour with her deep passion for people and issues. The fruit of 5 years of writing, traveling and informal study, “Monkey Comfort” is a playful combination of anthropology and anthropomorphism that draws on the lush imagery of the natural world to describe the human condition.
Penelope Swales plays 1in12Club 16th July
1in12 Club, 21 Albion St, Bradford; Tel 01274 734160; email
info@1in12.com.
Melbourne Singer/Songwriter Penelope Swales will tour internationally in 2004 to promote her new Double CD “Monkey Comfort.” Best described as a musical journalist, she constantly travels Australia and the world. She combines wry and often outrageous humour with her deep passion for people and issues. Amazingly prolific, this is her 7th solo CD.
The fruit of 5 years of writing, traveling and informal study, “Monkey Comfort” is a playful combination of anthropology and anthropomorphism that draws on the lush imagery of the natural world to describe the human condition.
Swales draws parallels between modern human society and naturally occurring ecosystems, pointing out the predators, scavengers, parasites, grazing herds in our midst even large companies are described as Leviathan creatures: “You and I are the plankton that the multinationals graze upon. You and I at the bottom, Bill Gates at the top.”
Friends and lovers emerge as their animal alter egos, or perhaps as strange plants. The personal journey is expressed as traveling through - or even being - a landscape. Woven through the songs is the idea that we are animals, warm, intelligent, boisterous, sophisticated animals, and that we will never understand ourselves or change the things we need to change about ourselves until we come to realise this.
In concert and in the studio, Swales has re-invented the time-honoured singer-guitarist format. Not only does she sing acapella and with guitar, but by applying a footswitched on-the-spot sampler to both vocals and guitar she builds live, hypnotic soundscapes over which she delivers a shatteringly incisive commentary. Acoustic Trance might best describe this. She recorded “Monkey Comfort” as close to live as the studio could take her, even taking a PA in and miking it for added warmth. The album features some very cool Beatbox/mouth percussion by Mal Webb and irresistible double-bass grooves by Amphibian's Barry Hill.
Swales is also known for her role as instrument maker, guitarist and vocalist with Cabaret-style folk band Totally Gourdgeous.
1in12 Club, 21 Albion St, Bradford; Tel 01274 734160; email
info@1in12.com. Melbourne Singer/Songwriter Penelope Swales will tour internationally in 2004 to promote her new Double CD “Monkey Comfort.” Best described as a musical journalist, she constantly travels Australia and the world. She combines wry and often outrageous humour with her deep passion for people and issues. Amazingly prolific, this is her 7th solo CD.
The fruit of 5 years of writing, traveling and informal study, “Monkey Comfort” is a playful combination of anthropology and anthropomorphism that draws on the lush imagery of the natural world to describe the human condition.
Swales draws parallels between modern human society and naturally occurring ecosystems, pointing out the predators, scavengers, parasites, grazing herds in our midst even large companies are described as Leviathan creatures: “You and I are the plankton that the multinationals graze upon. You and I at the bottom, Bill Gates at the top.”
Friends and lovers emerge as their animal alter egos, or perhaps as strange plants. The personal journey is expressed as traveling through - or even being - a landscape. Woven through the songs is the idea that we are animals, warm, intelligent, boisterous, sophisticated animals, and that we will never understand ourselves or change the things we need to change about ourselves until we come to realise this.
In concert and in the studio, Swales has re-invented the time-honoured singer-guitarist format. Not only does she sing acapella and with guitar, but by applying a footswitched on-the-spot sampler to both vocals and guitar she builds live, hypnotic soundscapes over which she delivers a shatteringly incisive commentary. Acoustic Trance might best describe this. She recorded “Monkey Comfort” as close to live as the studio could take her, even taking a PA in and miking it for added warmth. The album features some very cool Beatbox/mouth percussion by Mal Webb and irresistible double-bass grooves by Amphibian's Barry Hill.
Swales is also known for her role as instrument maker, guitarist and vocalist with Cabaret-style folk band Totally Gourdgeous.
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