''Bird Noises'' is the first extended play by

Australian rock Rock music in Australia, also known as Oz rock, Australian rock, and Aussie rock, has a rich history, rooted in an appreciation of various rock genres originating in the United States and Britain, and to a lesser extent, in continental Europe an ...

group,

Midnight Oil Midnight Oil (known informally as "The Oils") are an Australian rock band composed of Peter Garrett (vocals, harmonica), Rob Hirst (drums), Jim Moginie (guitar, keyboard) and Martin Rotsey (guitar). The group was formed in Sydney in 1972 by H ...

, which was released on 24 November 1980 under the band's own independent label, Powderworks Records / Sprint Music. It was produced by Leszek Karski and manufactured and distributed by CBS/Columbia. ''Bird Noises'' reached the Top 30 on the Australian

Kent Music Report The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music historian David Kent from May 1974 through to January 1999. The chart was re-branded the Australian Music Report (AMR) in July 19 ...

Singles Chart.

Background

On 24 November 1980, Australian rock music group,

, released their first four-track extended play, ''Bird Noises''. At the time Midnight Oil consisted of

Peter Garrett Peter Robert Garrett (born 16 April 1953) is an Australian musician, environmentalist, activist and former politician. In 1973, Garrett became the lead singer of the Australian rock band Midnight Oil. As a performer he is known for his sign ...

on lead vocals and

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica incl ...

;

Peter Gifford Peter Gifford (born 6 April 1955), sometimes known as "Giffo," is an Australian musician. From 1980 until 1987, he played bass guitar, Chapman Stick and sang backing vocals for Australian rock band Midnight Oil. Midnight Oil Gifford is cred ...

on bass guitar and backing vocals;

Rob Hirst Robert George Hirst (born 3 September 1955) is an Australian musician from Camden, New South Wales. He is a founding member of rock band Midnight Oil on drums, percussion and backing vocals (sometimes lead vocals) from the 1970s until the band ...

on drums and backing vocals;

Jim Moginie James 'Jim' Moginie (born 18 May 1956) is an Australian musician. He is best known for his work with Midnight Oil, of which he is a founding member, guitarist, keyboardist and leading songwriter. Career In addition to Midnight Oil, Moginie ha ...

on lead guitar and keyboards; and

Martin Rotsey Martin Rotsey is an Australian guitarist and a member of the rock band Midnight Oil, which was active from 1977 to 2002 and resumed performing in 2017. Career In 2006, he joined fellow Midnight Oil member Rob Hirst's projects Ghostwriters and ...

on lead guitar. It was the first recording by the band to feature Gifford who had replaced the band's earlier bass guitarist, Andrew James. It was produced by former

Supercharge In theoretical physics, a supercharge is a generator of supersymmetry transformations. It is an example of the general notion of a charge (physics), charge in physics. Supercharge, denoted by the symbol Q, is an operator which transforms bosons in ...

band member Leszek Karski for Powderworks Records and Sprint Music label at Music Farm Studios in

Byron Bay Byron Bay ( Minjungbal: ''Cavvanbah'') is a beachside town located in the far-northeastern corner of New South Wales, Australia (in Bundjalung Country). It is located north of Sydney and south of Brisbane. Cape Byron, a headland adjac ...

and distributed internationally by the CBS/Columbia Records. The track, "Wedding Cake Island", refers to the island of the same name off Coogee Beach, Sydney. In 1990 the EP was re-released, on CD, in the United States by Columbia Records.

Reception

''Bird Noises'' peaked at No. 28 on the Australian

Singles Chart. Note: Used for Australian Singles and Albums charting from 1974 until

Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a trade association representing the Australian recording industry which was established in the 1970s by six major record companies, EMI, Festival Records (Australia), Festival, Sony Music ...

(ARIA) created their own

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent t ...

in mid-1988. In 1992, Kent back calculated chart positions for 1970–1974. According to Australian musicologist,

Ian McFarlane Ian McFarlane (born 1959) is an Australian music journalist, music historian and author, whose best known publication is the ''Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop'' (1999), which was updated for a second edition in 2017. As a journalist ...

, ''Bird Noises'' "continued the development heard on ''Head Injuries'', with 'No Time for Games' and 'I'm the Cure' being particularly impressive. ''Bird Noises'' also boasted the anomalous, but delightful

Shadows A shadow is a dark area on a surface where light from a light source is blocked by an object. In contrast, shade occupies the three-dimensional volume behind an object with light in front of it. The cross-section of a shadow is a two-dimensiona ...

-like instrumental 'Wedding Cake Island'".

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

's William Ruhlman noted the group had tried "some musical variations after two albums of hard rock ... the music in fact was restrained, and the group tried acoustic instruments and a moody instrumental for an intriguing change of pace from their usual style".

Track listing

Charts

Certifications

Personnel

Midnight Oil

– lead vocals,

– bass guitar, backing vocals *

– drums, backing vocals *

– lead guitar, keyboards *

– lead guitar

Production work

* Producer – Leszek Karski (for Instant Relief) * Engineer – Ross Cockle * Mixer – Leszek Karski * Studio – Music Farm Studio,

; mixed at

Studios 301 Studios 301 is an Australian recording studio and is both the longest-running professional recording studio in the southern hemisphere and the largest studio complex in Australia. History The studio was founded in 1926 under the Columbia Grap ...

, Sydney. Credits:

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1980 debut EPs Midnight Oil EPs Sprint Music albums