Broadcast 2025-09-15

This track is wonderfully produced, self-producing is high risk, but this shows clear expertise.

The balance between the instrumental backing, the lead vocal, and the ghostly harmonies and counterpoints is perfect.

All this has created a track which is tuneful, and where the vocal is clear, as it must be in a song whose role is to deliver a message.

The message is quite a contradiction to the light sound of the song.

It’s a post-breakup song, a reflection on how things will linger, even after the breakup.

This is the “poison and wine.”

I wish you have a life I never hear about.
I wish people ask you how I am.
My room’s empty, and I hope yours is haunted.

It’s clear that this is not said so much in anger, but in pain.

“Poison and wine” is great as a metaphor, but not as a lifestyle.


Seetali - Poison and Wine - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-09-15

This has that 1960s insistent sound, jangling guitars, out front drumbeats and heavy cymbals.

This is not plain strumming behind a vocal though, this has a melodic instrumental, a good guitar lead and virtuoso drumming.

There’s a very clever use of rhythmic breaks and disruptions to the central pattern of the tune.

It’s great having a drum break as well as a guitar break. That’s clever.

The production is also clever. The general feel is of a wall of sound, but the vocal is nicely above that and can be heard, but has multiple overlays, which preserves that solid sound, rather than contrasting.

The song itself is a tale of an unexpected breakup.

What you’re trying to say is that I’m not the one.
So what you’re trying to say is that we’re done.

This meets all of its targets. The sound has that 1960s feel, the melody, instrumentation and lyrics come together extremely well.

It’s not hard to see why fans are wanting a live experience.


The Gnomes - I'm Not The One - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-09-15

Before anything else in this song, I noticed the rhythm – it bounces, it’s jogging, just the thing for a pleasant ride.

The vocal is everything we expect from Tiff, strong over her range, but with a trademark lightness of spirit. It’s clear and unambiguous.

Her detailed observation and storytelling, its subject is something that generates an inner peace and complete relaxation.

Something that we all need and seek. For me, a book with music in the background. I hope you have found what works for you.

The instrumental is light and supportive, providing a harmony, not a competing melody. It’s simple, guitar and mandolin, but with a light break for the mandolin.

The production clearly emphasises Tiff’s vocal, as it should.

It’s a wonderful, evocative piece. Not a saga, but capturing an important place in her life.


Tiffany Eckhardt - Horse - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-09-15

The eternal conundrum of listening to identical twins … is only one taking the lead vocal, or are they swapping? How would I know? Does it matter?

Of course it doesn’t matter, but then I’m always curious.

Anyhow, back to the topic of Alanna and Alicia.

In a lot of ways this is very different to the previous track of theirs that we heard – Teetotal Lover. There is, however, a similarity in production, a full featured background instrumental, but one which is very much a background, and never intruding or competing for dominance over the vocals.

The vocals in this piece are light, moderately paced, and clear as a bell.

Here we have a relationship starting.

The first time we talked well past closing and got kicked out by the staff.

So many firsts in this song, there’s confidence, but they ask, “how do you make a first last.”

Regardless, this is an optimistic piece, with a chorus line I love.

If you press your ear on my chest to the left
You will surely hear the orchestra playing forte on my heartstrings
Life is a song, heart song listen

Truly beautiful.


Alanna & Alicia - Heart Song Listen - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-09-22

There’s definitely a honey-soaked baritone to Roger Knox’s voice, but there’s also a majesty in his lyrics and their delivery.

The instrumentation and harmony vocals in this track are precise and excellently played, but the heart of the song is in Knox’s lyrics, in his ownership and delivery of them.

There’s something in the story and the way it is told that has me thinking of Henry Lawson, and his stories and they way he framed them.

It’s matter of fact, it’s not embellished, and it’s all the more powerful for that.

It is easy to hear his close ties to country in this song, his understanding of it and his use of it to place himself, to move within it using 'Buluunarbi and the old North Star.'

Being born on the banks of the Mehi River is another aspect of belong.

Valuable storytelling in this beautiful, biographical song.


Roger Knox - McMaster's Ward - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-09-22

The first line of this song had me! And the following lines kept me listening.

The instrumental in this song is sensational.

It moves with Tracey’s vocals, but it’s moving on its own terms, or I should say, directions.

I’m sure I can hear at least three entwining themes working around the vocal melody.

Then, taking you by surprise is the total rhythmic shift just past 2 minutes into the track.

And what a vocal.

Tracey has a wonderful voice, she is strong over her range, and delivers her part effortlessly and perfectly.

The lyrics are glorious.

“She has seven curlers in her hair, her skin’s a crust” cleverly conjures such a detailed image.

She is everything I could need tonight.
Another broken Juliet, bringing out the Romeo in me.

“In that mansion over there lives a girl with perfect skin and golden hair, but I don’t care.”

I have to listen to the rest of this album.


Tracey Bunn - Another Broken Juliet - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-09-22

War songs tend to fall into two categories – anthems about heroic valour, or gut-wrenching odes tearing down jingoist attitudes to expose the emptiness of war.

“The firing line” originally meant the line of positions from which gunfire is directed at a target and is still in use in a military context.

Les has put together a dramatic piece, delivered at a stately tempo, lyrics without embellishment.

He asks, “Who wages wars?” 

We know who ends up on the firing line, it’s always the war to end wars, the great war, the great patriotic war, the great waste of people and resources, more like.

This is a worthy addition to the genre.

Wars never decide who is right, just who is left.


Les Thomas - The Firing Line - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-09-25

I’m appalled to say that while I am a fan of RONE’s work and have visited all the installations mentioned in the introduction, I had no idea that the music had been specifically composed for them. 

It seems obvious in retrospect.

I like the idea of the first snow for a theme.

I’m based in Geelong now, but spent most of my life in Tasmania, and snow falls regularly on the peaks, and sometimes further down.

Snow on a still day affects sound in a unique way, almost deadening extremes, and emphasising a profound quietude, a feeling of tranquillity.

I can feel that in this piece, the pace and the interplay of themes between the instruments contribute their unique character to it.

Listening to the rest of the album should be a pleasure.

The album will be released October 17 and works from it will be premiered alongside much-loved pieces from Batterham’s soundtracks for Rone installations at Tempo Rubato in Brunswick, Monday 10th November, 2025.

The concert at Tempo Rubato will feature a quartet comprising Christopher Moore, Zoë Black as well as Josephine Vains and Georgina Lewis performing Batterham's compositions.

Tickets are available through the Tempo Rubato website. 


Nick Batterham - First Snow - Tempo Review

Broadcast 20250929

The first thing that strikes me about this song, is the way it is paced.

There is something almost stately in this.

The instrumental relies on his piano lead, with others behind providing a support.

There’s an instrumental break featuring guitar, and the guitar remains for the rest of the song.

In front is Manduway’s voice.

His voice is clear and strong, it works across his full range, and has been mixed so that it is at the forefront and the lyrics are immediately accessible.

I love the musical accents he uses, taking the higher registers occasionally away from the note, for emphasis.

Manduway’s lyrics might be musically accessible, but for me, my ignorance of First Nations language means that they are not accessible linguistically. 

The limitations of our education system have much to answer for.


Manduway - Jalay - Tempo

Broadcast 20250929

The notice of this single survived several email forwardings before it got to me, which is probably why it is addressed to “Dear Programming!”

Still, I can’t claim close friendships with every musician who sends in material, and I’m glad this made its way through the labyrinth to get to me, it is fantastic.

It’s an instrumental, and that’s no surprise, and it’s a slick as I’ve heard in quite a while.

Warren Keller plays lead, and is well known for his sax skills.

It opens with a great crescendo, before dropping straight into Warren’s melody.

It’s a deceptively simple phrase, which gets taken in many directions, including by the band, which allows Warren to take a few excursions away from it.

The exquisite tightness of the ensemble as a whole is awe inspiring.

There’s only one way to do funk, and that’s a 100% tight sound, just as we have here.

It’s not often that a track from the Big Apple makes its way to Wadawurrung country, and I’m really glad it did, even if it is unlikely we’ll ever hear them live.


Spontaneous Groovin' Combustion (SGC) - Funk In The Trunk - Tempo Review

Broadcast 20250929

This instantly hypnotic number starts with a light melody then blows apart, capturing the sometimes abrasive ﬁght between form and learning and something much larger again.

I like the use of the hummingbird metaphor. 

Hummingbirds run their wings at a franticly high speed, but their body’s movements within that are precise, sometimes static almost regardless of the contrast with the movement of their wings.

Halfway through there’s drop into a brash, almost dissonant instrumental reworking of the hummingbird theme, before returning to the original feel of the song.

I think Rich has succeeded with his aim of balancing those two things, the charged bottle definitely exploded.

It’s a very clever track, synergistically presented, you have to experience it and feel it as a whole.


Rich Webb and the Liars - Hummingbird - Tempo Review

Broadcast 20250929

I’m going to make this short and, well, probably not so sweet.

The music in this piece hits the nail on the head. 

It has growling, it has beating, it has rhythm.

All of this comes together with a repeated musical phrase which ties it all together. Excellent.

Unfortunately, I’m not so keen on the lyrics. 

They seem to come from the school of “be reasonable – do what I say.”

Sadly, this does reflect the way more than a few well known blues songs pose relationships as oppositional.

I don’t find this “upbeat” at all.


Tom Harrison - Peace With Me - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-10-06

This is a light ballad about a heavy subject.

Musically, it’s very simple, an acoustic guitar, with a solo vocal.

The instrumental provided by the guitar was simple and could almost be called neutral in this context.

But that’s not the case when you listen to the vocal, and I mean listen.

The vocal tone and stress is again neutral, but the lyrics are a world away from that.

It’s a classical tale of a breakup, initiated by the other, and the singer trying to work through what just happened.

It was “the final break as you walked out the door”

She sings, “I’m trying to figure you out” but “I can’t seem to write it down.”

There’s some history to this break though, something perceived as not right but which festered  “’cause you never really tried to fix it.”

It is definitely seen as final, because she concludes “I don’t know how to leave this mess, but I do”

A good instrumental, great lyrics and a great voice to go with it.

You’ve done the rising star performances, go for it!




Llaney Jade - But I Do - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-10-06

The initial opening had me thinking, this was some amped up ambient theme with vocal, but then came a heavier and more impactful passage.

Yes, this is the goods.

There’s a lot to like in this track. 

Except for a couple of bridges, the rhythm remains constant despite the change between the lighter and heavier passages.

It ties it all together.

The guitar lead break is lovely, well executed.

The background in the heavier passages does seem a bit ‘wall of sound.’

Sometimes the story seems to vanish behind that wall, but then this is a dream reverie, so maybe that’s quite appropriate.

A song that starts with “you can never be my friend again” is definitely heading into some rocky territory.

But then the singer cries, “I’m a lonely dreamer” and we hear the first iteration of the refrain “It’s a dream it’s a dream, it’s a dream, all the people you wanted to be.”

What are we left with?

“It’s easier to run away”

In a dream there are no consequences, in the real world, running away may not be the best plan.

This song is complex, it is layered, it teases and challenges you to listen.


Devon Street - Charis (Dream) - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-10-06

This song begins almost hesitantly, just one musical thread.

By the end, it’s a fully fledged swooping magpie of a song.

At the outset we have a set of beliefs. Announcing them puts the singer on solid ground.

“I believe in words”
“I believe that a heart can change”
“I believe in truth”

Most importantly, believing in “the power [words] wield for bad and good.”

The master of manipulation and propaganda, Joseph Goebbels said, “a lie told once remains a lie but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.”

Then challenging the other, “would you call me delusional?”

And the impact of the word “delusional, that word is so cruel.”

She rejects any impact from being called “delusional, am I a fool, so be it.”

The final assertion – “I believe I’m through” – into a build before the musical climax.

Sometimes I found it hard to distinguish the vocal line in the climaxes.

There’s something ironic about the production coming close to swamping the vocal line being performed a singer who performed on The Voice.




Anna Weatherup - Delusional - Tempo Review

BVroadcast 2025-10-06

OK, the first thing that stands out is that this, unlike a lot of his past work is definitely not hard rock.

I can only imagine what it felt like to find that acoustic guitar, definitely an omen.

It’s an omen that has been fulfilled.

This is a beautiful song, it has an acoustic base, and a vocal to match.

The tempo is measured, restful, there’s no urgency here.

The lyrics match the lightness of the song.

This is definitely a holiday song – sunshine, lay back, listen to the waves.

The theme is to relax, be accepting, take it all in. There is no climax here, be and enjoy. 

This is a beautiful and relaxing song.


Regan McVeigh - Dance Around The Moon - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-10-13

If you grew up, as I did, in the late 1960s, then a major influence on your aesthetics would have been Robin Boyd’s “The Great Australian Ugliness” which critically and mercilessly addressed suburban Australia – the brick venereal disease.

Just an aside, I think the McMansions must have him spinning in his grave.

Anyhow, I’ll try to supress that in this review. It was home to many of us.

The mood of this piece is relaxed, almost introspective in its feeling.

It starts with a guitar and a drum and piano background.

Then it switches to a piano with a guitar and drum background.

Is there a drum solo coming?

The lyrics are clever and for once there’s a reference to the Covid lockdown without decrying the limitations it enforced on us.

It’s just there as one more thing that happened.

“This house it’s really been through it all.”
“Lockdown, breakdown breaking through the wall.

All in all, “There’s nothing like our yellow brick veneer.”
“There is no place like home.”

There’s great instrumental bridge following these lyrics.

For me the instrumental wins over the lyrics, even though they are well written and witty.

The only comment I would make is that at times I found the vocal harmonies were hiding the lyrics, and would have benefitted from a reduced level.

This is a lovely song, and I mean lovely, you can feel the love in it.

By the way, the drums finally get something like a solo during the finale of the track.


Stella Anning - Yellow Brick Veneer - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-10-13

For some absolutely incomprehensible reason the idea of a Welcome to Country ceremony is too much for some to handle.

It’s actually simple. Our First Nations people have been on this land for over 60,000 years, this has given them a connection to country unmatched in the rest of the world.

Colonists have been arriving during the past couple of hundred years, and despite the wars since those arrivals started, as Nancy says a Welcome to Country ceremony is about extending inclusivity and community to everyone.

They are the traditional custodians of the land, we acknowledge that, we take their welcome as it is offered.

It is so good to hear another song from Nancy Bates.

In this release, ‘I Belong’, the first thought I had was elegance through simplicity.

Simplicity is timeless, effortless and can be inspiring, as it is here in this song.

A guitar, moving between two notes, gradually including more of a melody, till Nancy’s voice joins in.

She talks of country and what it means to her.

“I belong, I belong, let the love of country make you strong.”
“I am free, I am free, part of everything that lives and breathes.”

Then the instrumental swells to a climax, with Nancy singing in language.

Nancy talks about the aim for this song as being to provide a centring and extending that inclusivity and community.

It does this brilliantly.


Nancy Bates - I Belong - Tempo Review

Broadcast 2025-10-13

This is a wonderfully put together piece, that begins and ends with the sound of rain.

That sound evokes feelings of relaxation and nostalgia, often creating a soothing atmosphere, as it does here.

In this piece we seem to have all three. A relaxing sound, nostalgia for what has been lost and music which provides a soothing atmosphere.

Rissa has a beautiful voice, it’s even over her entire range in this song, but as she’s the songwriter, I’d expect she would write for her range.

The production is high quality, with the vocals being clear throughout the song.

Having said all that, here’s the thing. The song fails to stir any emotional response from me.

The rhythm of the song comes over as unvarying, and while there’s a swell to the instrumental harmonies at one point I couldn’t connect with it.

I am left completely puzzled.



Rissa - Fall Out - Tempo Review

Weekly uploads of reviews and interviews from the program, "Tempo". "Tempo" is a weekly radio program presented by John Lamp, highlighting a wide range of music and music reviews on 94.7 the Pulse in Geelong, Wadawurrung country. John has been involved in community radio since 1976, initially with a music program "Parcel of Rogues" on 7CAE-FM in Hobart, Tasmania. After moving to Geelong, he joined 94.7 the Pulse on the program "Folks Alive", which morphed into "~meanderings~." John then spent a decade on the station Boards of Management before returning to the air in 2022 with his new program "Tempo." Full programs can be accessed at the link below.

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