Currently travelling around the country to promote his single “Police Car”, Melbourne’s Owen Rabbit is an emerging talent searching for a place amongst the talented engineers of electronic soundscapes across the country. Not in the sense that he’s actively seeking out a position amongst or along side them, through some grand master plan of world (musical) domination; rather this is a young artist who is in that exciting stage of discovery. Discovering what he’s capable of, what works, what doesn’t, what people like, what they don’t.
Bringing his tour to Sydney’s Oxford Art Factory Gallery Bar on Saturday night – while Peking Duk raged next door – gave Rabbit the opportunity to show off where that discovery has led him to now. As you’d expect, some of his results are stronger than others, but before we get to that, let’s paint a bit of a scene. Firstly, this is one busy soundsmith on the stage. Jumping between his guitar, vox, loops, effects, laptop, keys… gadgets for his feet and hands… Rabbit has surrounded himself with an impressive array of equipment that allow him to create his somewhat experimental music on the stage.
Let’s take his opening track, “Homeless Dog Shelter”, which sees our multi-instrumentalist start off by creating a bit of an ambient soundscape by looping guitar with his vocals and hands clapping, before kicking in with heavier bass. Next up, he loops electronic african drums over a shaker, then kicks in some 80s synth keys and finally adds the vocals to create more fascinating soundscapes – unique from one track to the next.
He also changes his vocal approach – in one song you might compare him to Muscles – which isn’t necessarily a compliment, but works all the same – next, like in “Violence and Degradation”, to someone like a Buck 65, finding a strength by bringing in a flavour of hip hop amongst his more melodic vocal moments. For me, this is where he hits he stride and shows off a track and a sound that I would be interested to see him explore further. The single “Police Car” was aurally stunning once again, though heavier on the drums from early on, where ambience and a slow growing approach seemed to dictate his earlier numbers.
The short but sweet set ended with “Pyramid Power”, easily the highlight of the set. Here, we find Rabbit’s vocals at their strongest – projected with great intensity, as the lengthy track moves through several stages. As we build, the song is taken back to slower guitar movement before it explodes and soars to take us home. It’s an epic, cinematic track that shows Owen Rabbit as an artist with real potential.
In speaking with Rabbit the next day, I compared him to M83. He said he gets that a lot and was surprised by it, because hasn’t really listened to the French electronic wiz. Well, hasn’t knowingly listened to his catalogue anyway. But I think it’s an apt comparison, not because they sound the same, but because they seem to approach their music in similar ways. They both explore the electronic sphere with diversity, never trying to achieve a singular sound, rather create a catalogue of fascinating soundscapes that move from quaint and minimal to loud, broad, epic and cinematic.
Given the depth of the music he’s creating on his own, its clear Rabbit has only scratched the surface of what he’s capable of. I would be interested to hear what it would be like for Rabbit to incorporate other vocalists into his music, and add other layers that may not be possible for just one person to perform on stage. I think there is a depth to what he’s doing that hasn’t been fully realised yet and I truly look forward to seeing the direction he goes, and where this period of musical discovery takes him.
Owen Rabbit continues his tour in Byron Bay this Thursday and then through to Brisbane on Friday.
