Steve Kilbey & The Winged Heels Release Album ‘The Road To Tibooburra’

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"Steve Kilbey & The Winged Heels Release Album ‘The Road To Tibooburra’"

Steve Kilbey: During the early days of Covid 19, I met a guy called Julian who asked me to be in a short silent film he was making called ‘Space Junk’. ‘Space Junk’ was about a stranger (moi) who comes to a remote-ish Australian town during the pandemic and has a number of adventures including aliens and angry villagers and other various kinds of weirdness.

The film got kinda finished and had a couple of screenings in a room but then seemed to be abandoned and never properly completed. Julian then repurposed it for a musical about a washed-up and ageing rockstar called Lord Jim (moi again) who takes a strange crew off to Tibooburra searching for his comeback.

Julian asked me to write all of the songs for the musical, which I did and enjoyed doing too. I recorded them all with a wonderful band of players who also appear on my albums 11 Women and The Hall of Counterfeits, whom I dubbed the Winged Heels.

Well then after sitting in the can for ages I have decided to release this weird collection of tunes. They are in no particular order so you’ll just have to figure it all out for yourself. Or just make up your own plot and story and sit back and enjoy. I have also thrown into the mix some contemporaneous songs I was working on with the Heels at the time but I now look upon them as perhaps part of the musical and let you try to make some sense of all this.

Steve Kilbey, band singer, songwriter, bassist, painter, writer, poet, actor, sage, dispenser of
arcane wisdom is one of Australia’s most loved artists.

The popular song “Under the Milky Way” won the “Best Single of the Year” award at the
Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) awards event in 1989. For his work with
The Church, Kilbey then accepted, together with his bandmates, an induction into the ARIA
Hall of Fame.

Steve got his first bass guitar at age 16, joined a band at 18 and went on to form a number of different groups before forming The Church in 1980. He has gone on to release many solo albums and collaborations with recording artists from around the globe.

“Kilbey’s solo recordings are challenging and evocative. . . joyous and dreamy to saturnine
and sardonic” – Ian McFarlane.

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Steve Kilbey & Martin Kennedy Release Album ‘Premonition K’

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"Steve Kilbey & Martin Kennedy Release Album ‘Premonition K’"

With the third album in less than 3 years things are gaining momentum with Premonition K Vinyl pre-orders sold out and a repress underway. Plus 5000 spotify followers can’t be wrong. We are delighted to add 4 of the album tracks to our Soundslikecafe Playlist. 

Building on the success of Jupiter 13 (2021) and The Strange Life of Persephone Nimbus (2022), Steve and Martin release their latest epic, ‘Premonition K’. The album unveils sumptuous sonic soundscapes courtesy of Kennedy paired with Kilbey’s lyrics that delve into the dark and enigmatic realms that exist between the boundaries of life and death. They invite you to break out the ouija board, turn off the lights, and immerse yourself in the mysteries of ‘Premonition K’.

Steve Kilbey (The Church), band singer, songwriter, bassist, painter, writer, poet, actor, sage, and dispenser of arcane wisdom, is one of Australia’s most loved artists.
Martin Kennedy (aka All India Radio) is the ARIA nominated composer whose music has featured in CSI: Miami, One Tree Hill, The Lying Game, Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery and Bondi Rescue.

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This album, a testament to their musical synergy, encapsulates a darkly beautiful soundscape, drawing inspiration from diverse sources, ranging from the haunting tones of Roger Waters ‘The Final Cut’ to the shadowy depths explored by early 1970s Pink Floyd or Hawkwind.

Steve Kilbey infuses each track with an emotional resonance and sense of mystery. Martin Kennedy co-pilots this sonic odyssey with Steve Kilbey. Together they weave an intricate musical bed for Kilbey’s lyrical dreamings with layers of sonic complexity, at once warmly familiar and mysteriously strange, creating an immersive experience for the listener.

Song Descriptions 

Breaking The Fourth Wall
The opening track on the new Premonition K album from this prolific pair starts with an almost spoken word delivery from Steve with minimal backing. The track is reminiscent of Pink Floyd around The Wall era. As the song moves the textures build as it heads towards a massive outro.

Nowhere
This tune features ethereal female backing vocals and a full band mix. Kennedy’s lush guitar and keyboard textures flow over the drum and bass rhythm section. Steve Kilbeys highly distinctive voice is in great form and the lyrics as intriguing as ever.

The Song That Wrote Itself
An up-tempo radio track with all the elements that make this record a great piece of work. Steve’s voice and lyrics, lush backing, smooth but strong female backing vocals, especially on the chorus, easy catchy melodies, riffs and vocal lines.

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Kilbey Kennedy Release New Single ‘That’s Gotta Hurt’

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"Kilbey Kennedy Release New Single ‘That’s Gotta Hurt’"

Our latest feature single from the Prolific Church Frontman and Man of many textures and talents from All India Radio

Building on the success of Jupiter 13 (2021) and The Strange Life of Persephone Nimbus (2022), Steve Kilbey and Martin Kennedy are about to releases their latest epic, ‘Premonition K’. The album unveils sumptuous sonic soundscapes courtesy of Kennedy paired with Kilbey’s lyrics that delve into the dark and enigmatic realms that exist between the boundaries of life and death.

Steve Kilbey, best known as frontman of legendary Aussie post-prog rockers The Church, infuses each track with an emotional resonance and sense of mystery. Martin Kennedy co-pilots this sonic odyssey with Steve Kilbey, weaving an intricate musical bed for Kilbey’s lyrical dreamings. Drawing from his twenty years of soundscaping with All India Radio, Kennedy adds layers of sonic complexity, at once warmly familiar and mysteriously strange, creating an immersive experience for the listener.

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The first single from the new album ‘That’s Gotta Hurt’ – upbeat jangle-guitars and Kennedy’s familiar electronic swirls provide the stage for Kilbey’s trademark lyrical magic.

Steve Kilbey says, “That’s Gotta Hurt is about the existential pain of loving and losing and of attachment to the roles we play in this theatre of the absurd.”

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Steve Kilbey & Martin Kennedy Release Album ‘The Strange Life of Persephone Nimbus’

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"Steve Kilbey & Martin Kennedy Release Album ‘The Strange Life of Persephone Nimbus’"

Steve Kilbey & Martin Kennedy follow up their acclaimed album Jupiter 13 with the epic ‘The Strange Life of Persephone Nimbus’, a sprawling Pink Floyd-ish concept album that shimmers with darkly beautiful musical undercurrents, oblique lyrics and spooky spoken word pieces. It is the second chapter of an eventual trilogy.

ALBUM REVIEWS
http://bigtakeover.com/recordings/KilbeyKennedyTheStrangeCaseofPersephoneNimbusFoghorn

https://www.backseatmafia.com/album-review-steve-kilbey-the-church-and-martin-kennedy-all-india-radio-are-kilbey-kennedy-and-they-combine-forces-again-to-weave-their-aesthetically-jaw-dropping-sci-fi-sonic-magic/

The album was recorded in Tasmania overlooking the ocean, peaceful and crystal calm one day, dark and stormy the next, a dynamic that inevitably worked its way into the music and lyrics.

Returning to the mixing desk is Simon Polinski (Paul Kelly, The Church, David Bridie, Stephen Cummings, Underground Lovers) who skilfully brings the story of Persephone Nimbus to life.

Steve Kilbey writes: ‘Persephone Nimbus was just an ordinary woman living an ordinary life, with a promising job at Eternity Incorporated. Until one day she was kidnapped by the Plutocracy.
There she reigned for 6 months of the year, a sad cold queen of the dark webbed world. But for 6 months of the year she was allowed to ascend to the Overworld with its marvellous technological illusions, and it’s towers that pierced the very sky. But on the first day of every autumn she must take the long staircase back down, down into the Plutocracy, with their frozen lakes and above them, a sky of iron.’

In 1981 a teenage Martin Kennedy stumbled upon Steve Kilbey and The Church at Tanelorn, an oddball old world meets new world music festival, and fell in love with their look and sound. He recorded their set on a walkman, and the songs helped spark the beginning of his music career. Just a year before, an equally fresh-faced Steve Kilbey formed The Church in Sydney, the very beginning of their public life as accidental hit makers.

Forty one years later Martin and Steve find themselves working together on their sixth studio album, the epic The Strange Life of Persephone Nimbus. As ever with these two, the deal is simple: Martin writes the music and Steve writes the words. No argument, no egos, just a matter of pressing the record button. The results are an effective balancing of Kennedy’s haunting and melodic tunes with Kilbey’s mysterious, witty and intelligent lyrics, melded together by his heavenly voice. Martin keeps his teenage love of The Church out of the equation in fear of it skewing his songwriting but it’s there if you listen closely.

“Sumptuous meeting of Australian soundscaper and the head Churchman…Apart from having a voice of characterful cool poise and an imaginative lyrical lexicon, Kilbey can make a strong melodic song out of simple elements.” (MOJO)

“Occasionally side projects can be something really spectacular. This isn’t an album where you pick favorite songs – you simply immerse yourself in the whole lush experience. The good news is they’re recording a follow up” (Reverb magazine 4.5/5).

OUT NOW – on Foghorn/MGM CD and Digital

Vinyl LP to come early 2023

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Steve Kilbey & Martin Kennedy Release Single ‘When Time Has Run Out’

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"Steve Kilbey & Martin Kennedy Release Single ‘When Time Has Run Out’"

With echoes of The Wall-era Pink Floyd, ‘When Time Has Run Out’ is the first single from Steve Kilbey & Martin Kennedy’s new album, ‘The Strange Life of Persephone Nimbus’. Steve Kilbey of psych rock legends The Church and writer of magical hit ‘Under The Milky Way’ once again joins forces with Martin Kennedy of atmospheric ambient stalwarts All India Radio for their seventh studio album.

“A sumptuous meeting of Australian soundscaper and the head Churchman… a voice of characterful cool poise and an imaginative lyrical lexicon, Kilbey can make a strong melodic song out of simple elements.” – MOJO

The first single from the new KK album begins with powerful guitars, keys and vocal layers before the drums and bass break in. Soaring electric guitars and strings layers drive this mid-tempo tune along while Kilbey’s iconic and instantly recognizable vocal. A must add to playlists.

In 1981 a teenage Martin Kennedy stumbled upon Steve Kilbey and The Church at Tanelorn, an oddball old world meets new world music festival, and fell in love with their look and sound. He recorded their set on a walkman, and the songs helped spark the beginning of his music career. Just a year before, an equally fresh-faced Steve Kilbey formed The Church in Sydney, the very beginning of their public life as accidental hit makers.

Forty one years later Martin and Steve find themselves working together on their sixth studio album, the epic ‘The Strange Life of Persephone Nimbus.’ As ever with these two, the deal is simple: Martin writes the music and Steve writes the words. No argument, no egos, just a matter of pressing the record button. The results are an effective balancing of Kennedy’s haunting and melodic tunes with Kilbey’s mysterious, witty and intelligent lyrics, melded together by his heavenly voice. Martin keeps his teenage love of The Church out of the equation in fear of it skewing his songwriting but it’s there if you listen closely.

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