From Trouser Press Record Guide (fourth edition, 1991)

THE CHURCH
Of Skin and Heart (Aus. Parlophone) 1981 (Arista)1988
The Church (Capitol) 1982 (nr/Carrere) 1985
Temperature Drop in Downtown Winterland EP (nr/Carrere) 1982
The Blurred Crusade (nr/Carrere) 1982 (Arista) 1988
Sing-Songs EP (Aus. Parlophone) 1982
The Unguarded Moment EP (nr/Carrere) 1982
Seance (nr/Carrere) 1983 (Arista) 1988
Persia EP (Aus. Parlophone) 1983
Remote Luxury EP (Aus. Parlophone) 1984
Remote Luxury (Warner Bros.) 1984 (Arista) 1988
Heyday (Warner Bros.) 1986 (Arista) 1988
Starfish (Arista) 1988
Conception (nr/Carrere) 1988
Hindsight (Aus. EMI) 1988
Gold Afternoon Fix (Arista) 1990

STEVE KILBEY
Unearthed (Enigma) 1987
Earthed (Rykodisc) 1988
The Slow Crack (Aus. Red Eye) 1988 (Rough Trade) 1989
Transaction EP (Aus. Red Eye-Polydor) 1989
Remindlessness (Aus. Red Eye-Polydor) 1990

PETER KOPPES
Manchild & Myth (Rykodisc) 1988
From the Well (TVT) 1989

MARTY WILLSON-PIPER
In Reflection (Aus. Chase) 1987
Art Attack (Rykodisc) 1988
Rhyme (Rykodisc) 1989

At first, the Church seemed like a promising blend of the Beatles (musically) and early Bowie (vocally and lyrically). Peter Koppes and Marty Willson-Piper explored the guitar territory first mapped out by Harrison and Lennon, but in greater detail and with perhaps a more practiced -- if less inspired -- hand. Bassist Steve Kilbey chanted/sang articulate lyrics with a world-weary melancholy similar to early Bowie, but colder and less melodramatic.

The band's American debut, The Church, consists of most of Of Skin and Heart plus the best three songs from a subsequent double-45 release. (Arista's belated CD of Of Skin and Heart includes those three tracks as well.) The gorgeous guitar soundscapes and occasionally evocative verbal imagery seemed to promise bright things to come. The blatant Beatleness of "The Unguarded Moment" is so offset by its other virtues that it's easily the album's high point. Still, Kilbey's worst lyrical instincts flowered on The Blurred Crusade. You can add some Byrds and perhaps a touch of post Floyd-Barrett into the mix, but you can also toss in some pointless obscurity, non sequiturs and confessional windiness.

Lyrically, Seance is both more superficial and more straightforward, which is partly why it succeeds. At its best, the band achieves something akin to mid- '60s British pop psychedelia: nothing timeless, but a neat trip. The Church isn't as poppy here, and Seance's most obviously retroid psychedelic number ("Travel by Thought") is more atmosphere than song, but stuff like "Fly" and "Dropping Names" is still a groove (man). (But the pistol-shot snare-drum sound on much of the LP is a real bummer.)

Remote Luxury, which combines the two preceding Australian EPs, has less range than Seance; its shimmering folk-rock textures are hampered once again by Kilbey's overly oblique lyrics. A step sideways at best.

Well-produced by Peter Walsh, Heyday (which was actually recorded as an album) is another step forward: straight-ahead guitar pop housed in an ironically paisleyfied cover. Although titles like "Tristesse" and "Myrrh" suggest otherwise, Kilbey's lyrics are engagingly vague and easier to comprehend. Likewise, the melodies are stronger and catchier than any since the first album.

The production of Starfish, by LA session guitarists Waddy Wachtel and Danny Kortchmar, may have some thing to do with its shortcomings. Superficially, the LP seems pleasant but thin; look past the ziplessness, however, and you'll discover the band's most consistently engrossing and memorable tunes yet. Even Kilbey's off-the-wall lyrics seem to be better integrated and more to the point (or some point, anyway). Willson-Piper's unexpected but delightful '60s Anglo-pop-rock concoction, "Spark," is a bonus.

The double best-of Hindsight offers a fairly balanced selection from the various albums, but more than half of the album consists of non-LP tracks. Many of those are pretty good, though, although some lyrics still arouse the usual reservations ("ornamental or warm and gentle/on the way to paradise," indeed). Following Starfish's enormous Stateside success, Arista issued the group's Australian albums and made them available on CD. (Conception is a ten- song compilation.)

Co-produced by the group and Wachtel, Gold Afternoon Fix is the most sonically pleasing Church album yet, varied but cohesive. For once, melodrama is effective, as on the opening "Pharaoh." Also, Kilbey's lyrics are coherent and focused for almost the entire album, notably on the back-to-back "You're Still Beautiful" (a "walking picture of Dorian Gray" set to strident beat) and "Disappointment" (a dreamy evocation of feeling out of phase with the rest of the world). The CD and cassette add two bonus tracks.

The Church's outside projects, at least the earlier ones, are more genuinely solo than most, with only small contributions from wives, girlfriends, brothers, etc.

Kilbey's Unearthed (originally an '86 Australian issue) is a mixed bag of songs (some solid, if short on polish) interlarded with brief, generally forgettable instrumentals. Earthed goes one better than all the other Churchmen's solo LPs: the band's prime lyricist concentrates on purely instrumental ideas, many of which would fall beyond the Church's purview, even with lyrics. While the worst of it sounds like intros in search of actual songs, the good stuff ranges from a sonic montage to a queer but fetching little waltz. (A 76-page booklet of poetry meant to complement the music accompanies some copies.)

The US version of The Slow Crack includes three tracks not included on the original Australian release and it's a good thing too: "Transaction," the lead cut, is one of the most tightly focused rockers that Kilbey had done in or out of the band prior to Gold Afternoon Fix. "Fireman" is enjoyable folk- rock-cum-wall-of-sound (guitars, synth, strings, sax). The rest of Side One is at least pleasant, but Side Two ranges from dull to dreary, even when he turns to Shakespeare for inspiration ("Ariel Sings") or the Bible for lyrics ("Song of Solomon").

The double-album Remindlessness (the single CD deducts two cuts) is Kilbey's best solo work to date. There's too much of it, and some tracks go on too long, but even his relative failures are more interesting than before. Lyrically, his "stories" are more to the point, but even better are his portrayals of people and situations, often enlivened by incisive lists of items ("Life's Little Luxuries," "The Amphibian"). What also makes it work are widely varied instrumental textures, which efficiently create atmospheres and moods (echoing the advances made by the group). In fact, sometimes the sound is so seductive that it doesn't matter what he's saying! And sometimes he doesn't say anything at all: several tracks are instrumentals, like the title track (a wordless progression on the big sound of "Fireman"). Well done. The Transaction EP contains the US Slow Crack's "Transaction," a track from Remindlessness and two unexceptional but otherwise unreleased items.

The songs on all three Willson-Piper albums are mostly softish folk-pop -- virtually no real rock -- with sparse instrumentation, sometimes (on the first two) without bass or drums. In Reflection seems like (justifiably) unused demos, while the other two are more clearly finished. Despite a cottony airheadedness that runs through all of his albums, Art Attack, which is extremely self-indulgent but frequently intriguing, is easily the most varied and stimulating of the three. "You Whisper" is like Peter Frampton imitating Elvis Costello gone psychedelic ("Your marzipan skin in a crystal stare/Your chocolate box of fears"); "Word" is eight-and-a-half minutes of one-syllable words spoken over a melody vaguely reminiscent of Pachelbel's "Canon." Cleverly created mood, willful obscurity or just plain twaddle? "Evil Queen of England" offers nifty lyrical bile accompanied only by an acoustic bass. (The US cassette and CD include six tracks from In Reflection.)

Rhyme dispenses with experimentation to return to folk-pop as a steady ration. It's much more polished than In Reflection and, after a while, a bit tedious, especially since Willson-Piper's lyrics are sometimes as obscure as Kilbey's, and sometimes just inane. But four tracks do mix it up a bit musically, including bouncy, exceptionally infectious pop-rockers for fans of Starfish's "Spark." Ignore the verses of "Melancholy Girl" and "Cascade," just revel in the sound.

Guitarist Peter Koppes' solo work has a strike against it straight-away: he can barely carry a tune (although he's trying). On Manchild & Myth, he's surrounded by other voices and buried in the mix (his monotone mumble can't cut through anyway), but that does nothing for the vocal melodies and lyrics. Worse, the LP's arrangements and production lack dynamism. The only good tracks on the album are two stylistically routine ones that are simply a cut above the rest and one atypically moody Eurosynth instrumental. (The US CD and cassette include his so-so 1987 three-track When Reason Forbids EP. )

From the Well, Koppes' next album, actually follows that Eurosynth direction more thoroughly, and profitably so. In fact, the whole LP is a step forward. No more burying his voice -- although he's not averse to singing duets with his sweeter-voiced lady, Melodie (!) -- and he no longer makes Leonard Cohen sound like Pavarotti (only just). The synth (drums and keyboard textures) plus bass and guitars often assume a dark tone but the tunes aren't bad, and overall it's quite listenable, if a bit on the dark, moody side.
(Reviewer: Jim Green)

HEX
Hex (First Warning) 1989 (First Warning-Rykodisc) 1990
Vast Halos (First Warning-Rykodisc) 1990

JACK FROST
Jack Frost (Arista) 1991

Evidently unable to sate his creative impulses with the Church and his solo career, the multi-talented Steve Kilbey formed a side group with Donnette Thayer, late of Game Theory. On Hex, he uses modest portions of guitar, keyboards and percussion to sketch out light, ambient backing for her airy vocal excursions. Poised dangerously close to the brink of arty/poetic vagueness, the duo manages to stay on terra firma for most of the record, holding track lengths to sustainable limits and structuring material so that it flows rather than drifts.

Recorded with a drummer, Vast Halos takes an entirely different approach: full-bodied arrangements of clear-cut songs with layers of Thayer's multi- tracked harmonies. More accessible but less distinctive than the first album, Vast Halos resembles a toned-down Church record with a different singer as well as a suave (post-paisley?) successor to California flower-pop.

With one side group underway, Kilbey launched another, with Grant McLennan, late of the Go-Betweens. Joined by a drummer and string and horn players, the two share vocals, guitar and bass (overachiever Kilbey also plays keyboards and drums) on Jack Frost, a fine collection of collaborative originals that don't so much add their individual styles as cross them in various ways, from acoustic duo folk ("Civil War Lament," "Thought That I Was Over You" ) to suave and moody electro-pop ("Threshold") to noise-flecked rock ("Every Hour God Sends") to eerie atmospherics ("Number Eleven"). The CD adds a song.

(Reviewer: Ira Robbins [who also is the editor of the record guide, which is a very handy reference, btw])

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