:: Catnip - Falling

Catnip

Melbourne trio Catnip seem to be aiming for the same territory inhabited by the likes of Mazzy Star and Portishead, creating vaguely bluesy washes of noir-ish sound augmented by old-school analogue synth squelching. Surfing this chilled out wave are the hushed breathy vocals of Nerida Trask, a singer whose style can be quite beguiling. There are pretty enough tunes here, with the swooning melancholy of Here We Go Again and a tender reading of Dylan’s heartbroken Tomorrow Is A Long Time making the perfect soundtrack to a wintry night spent brooding over a glass of red. The only letdown is a lack of anything exceptional here, and at times the material can be a bit on the soporific side, so that glass of red could end up all over the carpet. Good, but on the strength of this, perhaps not quite good enough to raise themselves above the local scene.