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Chet Faker – THINKING IN TEXTURES

First published in The Big Issue, April, 2012

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This debut EP from Melbourne singer and producer Chet Faker gives an almighty nod to the legions of male neo-soul and R&B vocalists preceding it. But Chet’s brand of bedroom R&B estranges itself from the overproduction and ‘star power’ bombast of his R&B forerunners by being impressively intimate in subject matter and sound.

This record is both from the bedroom and about the bedroom, taking us on a journey of sexual yearning while also managing to be a cruisey, companionable and chilled out ride. In a voice that’s at once familiar and hard to place, Chet delivers a dub-influenced cover of Blackstreet’s 1996 single ‘No Diggity’ (a homage to a classy prostitute), his hoarse rendition of Dr. Dre’s lines “I can’t get her outta my mind /I think about the girl all the time” communicating the obsession of unrequited lust with a sophistication Dr. Dre couldn’t muster.

Standout track ‘Cigarettes & Chocolate’ is a genuinely inventive pastiche of ghostly vocal loops, beats and warm guitar that evokes the spook-factor of Burial as well as The Avalanches at their most irrepressible. Diggity. Definitely diggity.


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My name is Kate Hennessy. I am a freelance arts and travel writer and music critic. I contribute to Guardian Australia, The Sydney Morning Herald/The Age, The Saturday Paper, The Australian, The Australian Financial Review, The Wire (UK), NME and more.

Latest posts

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    January 28, 2023
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    November 8, 2022
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    September 6, 2022
  • Zen in the Arabian desert

    June 6, 2022
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