CONWAY SAVAGE - TOO DARK TO SEE (LILAC COLOURED) (2LP) VINYL

CONWAY SAVAGE REMAINS ONE OF THE MOST SINGULAR FIGURES IN AUSTRALIAN MUSIC. A PIANIST, SONGWRITER AND VOCALIST WHOSE PRESENCE IN NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS FROM 1990 TO 2017 HELPED DEFINE THE EMOTIONAL AND SONIC LANGUAGE OF THE BAND ACROSS THREE DECADES. BORN IN COUNTRY VICTORIA AND SHAPED BY THE LIVED-IN TEXTURES OF PUBS, REGIONAL LIFE AND LATE-NIGHT PERFORMANCE, SAVAGE BROUGHT A DISTINCTLY HUMAN, RAGGED LYRICISM TO EVERYTHING HE TOUCHED. NICK CAVE WOULD LATER DESCRIBE HIM AS “THE ANARCHIC THREAD THAT RAN THROUGH THE BAND’S LIVE PERFORMANCES,” WHILE THE BAD SEEDS’ COLLECTIVE TRIBUTE CAPTURED THE BREADTH OF HIS CHARACTER: “IRASCIBLE, FUNNY, TERRIFYING, SENTIMENTAL, WARM-HEARTED… HONEST, GENUINE… [WITH] THE GIFT OF A GOLDEN VOICE, HIGH AND SWEET AND DRENCHED IN SOUL.” IN BOTH HIS COLLABORATIVE WORK AND SOLO RECORDINGS, SAVAGE STOOD APART AS AN ARTIST WHO BALANCED FRAGILITY AND DEFIANCE, AND AN UNMISTAKABLE VOICE IN AUSTRALIA’S CULTURAL LANDSCAPE.

THE TOO DARK TO SEE ANTHOLOGY GATHERS TOGETHER RECORDINGS THAT TRACE THIS REMARKABLE ARC: FROM THE INTIMATE AND ELEGIAC TO THE WRY, UNGUARDED AND QUIETLY TRANSCENDENT. FROM 1993 ONWARDS SAVAGE RELEASED ACCLAIMED SOLO WORK THAT PRIVILEGED ATMOSPHERE, STORYTELLING AND EMOTIONAL TRUTH OVER POLISH, AND EXHIBITED A LO-FI HAUNTED QUALITY, WITH SPARSE SONGS ECHOING WITH COUNTRY, BLUES AND FOLK.

THIS FIRST-EVER ANTHOLOGY OF HIS MUSIC, NAMED AFTER HIS SONG ‘TOO DARK TO SEE’ FROM HIS 1993 DEBUT EP, COLLECTS TOGETHER 24 TRACKS, INCLUDING MANY RARITIES. EARLY SELECTIONS SUCH AS ‘FAIR AND TENDER LADIES,’ ‘1000 DAYS’ AND ‘YOU DID AS YOU WERE TOLD TO DO’ SHOW HIS GIFT FOR REINTERPRETING FOLK TRADITION THROUGH A DISTINCTLY ANTIPODEAN LENS, WHILE SONGS LIKE ‘TRAIL OF BROKEN HEARTS’ AND ‘I TRUST YOU HAD A GOOD TIME’ INTRODUCE THE BITTERSWEET, OBSERVATIONAL WRITING THAT WOULD BECOME A HALLMARK OF HIS SOLO WORK.