Every now and then an album slips through the cracks in the giant steel walls of mass marketing and consumption that literally makes you stop in your tracks… Words all of a sudden mean something, the melody sings to your heart like a long lost lover… there’s no flash tricks, no fake sentiment…and the whole sound reminds you that long ago music like this was the norm, this was what music used to be about.

The Restless’ self titled debut album is just such an album. From the opening guitar squirms of Can Of Worms (already receiving great national airplay via AIR sampler late last year), to the symphonic peaks of Nature Whispers Her Secrets To Me, to the final throes of By My Hand, this body of work resonates powerfully with themes of light and dark, stillness and movement, complacency and frustration…, continuously wooing the listener one moment, challenging them the next…

The Restless formed in 2000, releasing two independent e.p.’s (2001’s Fear Of The Water, 2002’s Clayfire, Burn Your Day) and playing sporadically around some of Melbourne’s inner city institutions, such as The Empress and The Rob Roy. Both e.p.’s received good support at the time from independent radio, and the band slowly built up a loving and loyal following.

Then around the beginning of 2003, The Restless set to work recording their Debut Album. After winning time at Metropolis Studios from subscribing to RRR, they recorded drum tracks for all the songs, then layered slowly and with care the rest of the tracks and final touches at Cavalier Music, lovingly engineered by Justin Skim. The final result even took the band by surprise, with each song sounding like it was being filtered from a higher power… from soaring vocal lines to the trademark twisted violin screams, The Restless’ sound took itself to a newer, grander level.