New Country
Sister Moon
Reviewed by Philippa Stanford
Sister Moon are surely one of the most exciting musical experiences to come out of Brisbane. With a diverse range of talents, Sister Moon bring new meaning to the term a cappella.
The ensemble — Catherine Mundy, Lisa Smith and Julie Robson — originated from the drama department of Queensland University of Technology as a four-member group. When Nicole Sexton left, they had to drastically rearrange their music; the result has been a sophisticated, thoughtful and imaginative use of three voices.
Sister Moon, like Tiddas and Sweet Honey in the Rock, are from revolutionising and modernising school of a cappella.
Since their beginning three years ago, they have performed for a wide range of audiences and have been steady favourites of Brisbane's Green It Up, an alternative poetry performance and music night organised by Resistance to raise money for Green Left Weekly. They have performed at the Maleny Folk Festival and taken their music interstate. Last month they performed at Brisbane's Winter Solstice Festival and Out of the Box Festival for children, where they performed a rap version of "Three Blind Mice".
Their success is probably due to taking their music very seriously but themselves less so. There are many examples in their music of this combination of humour with musical brilliance, including "When the Femmes Go Marchin' In", the highlight of which is the trio launching into vocal versions of the band: Catherine as trumpet, Lisa drums and Julie bass.
Two of the songs on New Country, their debut album, feature this clever style of arrangement. But the horizons of Sister Moon are much broader than this, and their music has a strong feminist content and inspiration. "Mozambique Woman" pays tribute to women, our work and our struggles and "Frontline" (both on the CD) details the many levels and fronts on which women are struggling. The title song of the album is described as a "song about the fear of change and the glory of conquering it".
The launch of the CD at Brisbane's groovy new cafe and music venue, Van Gogh's Earlobe, to a crowd of 300 fans shows that Sister Moon have captivated Brisbane. While nothing compares to seeing Sister Moon perform live, their CD is definitely not to be missed.