JOE GILL speaks to the Palestinian students in Gaza whose testimony is collected in a remarkable anthology
Assured and cohesive tunes
IAN SINCLAIR reviews the latest releases from Robert Forster, Gemma Ray, and Jenny Lewis
MARY CONWAY delights in a rarely performed comedy that recalls a Britain we remember in our bones
JEAN ROBERTS appreciates the way traditional panto can be remodelled into critique of the academy schools system
MARY CONWAY is riveted by a superbly crafted glimpse into the soul of a cast-off US star
MARIA DUARTE is swept along by the cocky self-belief of a ping-pong hustler in a surprisingly violent drama
STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away
GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
Inferno
by Robert Forster
(Tapete Records)
★★★★
The elder statesman of Australian indie music is back with his seventh solo record, and at 61 years old Robert Forster is still one of the coolest musicians working today.
As one half of the songwriting duo behind the legendary band The Go-Betweens, he always played the cryptic, hipster foil to Grant McLennan’s more accessible and romantic persona.
Inferno brilliantly showcases Forster’s concise, Dylanesque lyrical abilities, from the suburban boredom of No Fame (“My mother hangs the washing and my father has jobs to ignore/The weekend that has come is the same as the weekend before”) to the poppy stomp of the title track, a tribute to his hometown of Brisbane.
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