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Joe Matera
Louder Than Words

Album AT 2015 on W.A.R. Productions label
Rock

For Australian rocker Joe Matera, 'Louder Than Words', makes it clear from the outset that he has moved on both musically and lyrically. Words have now gathered and drifted in top position on half of the songs, now carrying darker, headier themes that seem fittingly in sync with the times we find ourselves living through. Take Joe's brief and precocious opener, 'Intro 1V'. Just a morsel, really, but one that offers hints of Nine Inch Nails and elements of Germanic angst. Not a strain that has featured too heavily in Joe's previous outings. The darkness floods through the preceding single and title song. Thumping slowly through a rhythmic, a song of self-analysis, ironically suggesting that images, symbols and, I guess, sounds can speak louder to the soul that words. Within the context of this album, with its array of lyrical themes, a lovely juxtaposition. Throughout the nine tracks, there remains one constant. I refer to my opening statement. Today's Joe Matera sound is a gargantuan, grey, rolling tank, softened beautifully by the cushion of production. On top of this gentle darkness sit both lyrics and melodies that, in place, evoke the most unlikely genres. Take 'Movin’ On', slotting neatly in place here is a most unexpected hint of ‘80s pop...that bright, brash, courageously unpretentious glare that gave us such glorious lightness. A song that, indeed, flits between the black and the white. And that is the key to the entire album, really. A truly unexpected place where eclecticism marries traditional tendencies. In an age when simplistic genre template artists remain depressingly in place, here is an album of the guitar, the voice and other machines. - Mick Middles

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Joe Matera g, *1965 AU album by

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