Geisha 'Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" review by Mick Middles UK

Geisha

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

 

 

Australian music in resurgence?  Apparently so, according to Joe

Matera, music writer and the full-blooded rock guitarist who has put a

new sting in Chris Doheny’s vehicle, Geisha.

Even amid a variety of disparate Oz bands, old and new, Geisha are a

lovely and ill fitting off-shoot.

Back in the eighties, after emerging from an intriguing if somewhat

fractured glam rock scene, they scored eight Australian top ten hits.

Even while enjoying the brilliant glare of this success, they seemed

curiously aloof. At first listen one would have been forgiven for a

flash-free melodic rock outfit, with obvious roots stretching through

Foreigner and Journey  back to The Beatles and Kinks. These

observations are lazy, for Chris Doheny’s song writing remains both

literate and intensely personal, leaning more towards mid Seventies

New York, than California. The intelligence within – and this

connected with Australian rock fans in an almost unique manner –

remaining quite the antithesis of the effective simplicity of a

Journey or Foreigner.

The erudite sleeve notes, penned by Christie Eliezer of the American

magazine, Pollstar, illuminated further, citing Doheny’s “…love of

story-telling, film-making, Bauhaus style architecture and an interest

in Aleister Crowley”. To find such references within a collection of

unnervingly catchy rock songs – yes, the hooks simply flood every

corner of this 15 song collection, to dizzying effect in places –

seems positively unique. It certainly collides with the general

interpretation of ‘Oz Rock’, as defined by AC/DC.

As stated, ‘today’s, version of Geisha has been hugely bolstered by

the galvanising inclusion of guitarist (and rock journalist, Joe

Matera) . It’s a partnership that might seem unlikely at first glance.

However, the songs now carry a thrilling urgency, a powerful edge that

now seems to effectively lift Doheny’s emotional depth. Built into

these songs is Doheny’s flirtation with suicide following the collapse

of a relationship, (Fools Way) and a variety of relationships, secret

and otherwise. The simplicity of these lyrics adding a genuine sense

of intimacy.

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow sees songs old and new. Not a

compilation as such, for the album features the contemporary line –

up. These nugget songs are bolstered further by Geisha’s off-kilter

takes on the overtly familiar. Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (

a traditionally awkward song to cover, to say the least) is

machine-gunned by Matera to a new level that mercifully owes nothing

to the vaudevillian meddlings of the original. Like wise Come Together

features the new shadows of a sinister overtone.

Despite the band’s legacy, however, the two most effective outings

here are the recent singles, Birthday and Mystery Writer. That, alone,

suggests a bright future for a band steeped in history….more depth

than you might reasonably expect. Musically they already transcend and

lame notions of Oz Rock’. Whether this can transcend into a global

commercial success, I don’t know. For the twisted nuances of such a

journey are difficult to negotiate if you don’t submit to obvious

genre. Nevertheless, the true greats will always find a way.

 

Mick Middles