I remember reading a review of Pikelets performance at a festival. I'm not sure if it was Laneway Festival or perhaps something smaller and less hip. Whatever it was, the author noted that Pikelet would have won the award for best use of a loop station... if there was such an award...

Hang on. A loop station? I LOVE loop stations! (I'd long struggled to master my own loop station, along with contact microphones and a vibraphone). I'd known of Pikelet as the former friend of a friend called Evelyn. I'd never even met her but here she was, blowing my mind through a review as an artist of some critical acclaim having mastered a loop station. 

Pikelet is a bit of an enigma, I first came across her when she was playing drums for a hip hop band. That was before Australia's whiteboy funk/hip/hop jazz explosion in the early 2000's. It totally floored me to hear that she now spent her time playing with an accordion, a bunch of toys, drums, glockenspiels, pedals and liberal use of a loop station.

 It also turns out that I completely missed the fact that she's spent the interim in a bunch hardcore bands...

To listen to her new album is to enjoy the fruits of Pikelet's creativity, patience and sense of humour. Some gorgeous tinkling here,  a deft touch on a harp there, warm synths, guitars, harmonies built upon loops and the military pounding of a drum, all crafted into a pop song. It sounds restrained and intricate but when she throws her head back and sings it also sounds just like the sun has come out.

So, imagine CoCo Rosie - in northcote, wearing cardigans having a musical conversation with Sally Seltmann. I feel enchanted.

Pikelet's new album Stem (Chapter Music/Love and Mercy) sees her move from a solo artist with some great tricks to an artist with a maturing voice, more confident in her songwriting and ready for the world to stand up and take notice.

Check Pikelet out at http://www.myspace.com/ovalyn