Melbourne, Australia?s Kes lives his everyday life as Karl Scullin. He pays his bills, introduces himself in social situations and generally, functions in the world as Karl Scullin. Outside this everyday persona, Kes makes songs that live in a world of the surreal and the playful. ?The Grey Goose Wing? is Kes? follow up effort to ?the jellys in the pot? and sees Kes pushing into new territories in a band format as opposed to the rather more modest, stripped back sound of his first effort.

Songs take the form of rollicking folk-rock romps that evoke Television as much as Dylan, moments of down-tempo, simple beauty and backward piano and recorder drone. What makes all this so unique is its nod to the playful. The instrumentation (recorders are usually associated with Year 4 music class, in my mind), vocal dynamics and its interaction with the quite warped timing of the band gives the impression of a bunch of musicians playing with unusual freedom and joy. In that sense one can compare it with Maher Shalal Hash Baz but without the deliberate measures against precision.

Kes own vocals are something you can?t tear your ears from. An almost pre-pubescent brogue telling tales of the fantastic and the romantic would normally overpower everything else on offer here but it all sits together nicely. This is an album of a rare natural beauty and harmony, like Hansel and Gretel and the Witch sitting together over a cup of tea and discussing their day rather than all that killing and eating each other. 9/10 -- Alex Kakafikas (20 February, 2007)