Wooden Boy

Wooden Boy was recorded by The Cactus Channel — a ten-piece band from Melbourne, Australia — all born in the 90s and raised on the internet. Yet somehow, this astonishing follow up to last year’s rave-reviewed debut, Haptics, sounds like it could have been recorded in the 1970s, or possibly in the distant future. A timeless, placeless cinematic odyssey, Wooden Boy could have been an alternate soundtrack to Ghost Dog — if Lalo Schifrin and the Meters were collaborating on the RZA’s score. Or maybe Wooden Boy was what happened when Lars Von Trier got invited to direct an episode of Soul Train. What any of it may actually mean is left to the listener’s imagination.

Funk aficionados will hear shades of New York on this record, echoes of El Michel’s taking on Wu-Tang, the influence of Budos and Menehan et al. But this is the Generation Z version; both more tempestuous and more introverted. Recorded analog in the digital era, presented faceless in the celebrity era, inexplicably ambiguous in the soundbite era, is this the album the world needs right now? Undoubtedly yes. In a world where the NSA can read the text message that dumped you, what does a person need more than sad soul music from the future? Wooden Boy, baby, Wooden Boy.

“The new album might be called Wooden Boy, but there is nothing wooden about these guys. Totally hypnotic, unique and wonderful.” – CRAIG CHARLES, BBC 6 Music

“The Cactus Channel combine an infectious love for the music with intense and gritty playing” – PHIL GATES

 “They’ve certainly come of age, literally and musically.” – PARIS POMPOR, 2SER

 “No hyperbole. No hipsters. Just hipness” – MIKEY CAHILL, The Herald Sun