''Persia'' is the fourth
extended play
An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...
by the Australian
psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...
band
the Church, which was released in August 1984. It was the follow-up to their earlier 1984 EP ''
Remote Luxury'', and continued in a similar stylistic vein.
The material from both five-track EPs was collected for international release on a compilation album, also called ''
Remote Luxury'', later in 1984. In 2001,
EMI Australia released another compilation album, ''Sing-Songs//Remote Luxury//Persia'' (see also, ''
Sing-Songs''), which had remastered versions of all tracks from each of the three EPs, in their original running order.
Background
The Church released two extended plays in 1984, ''
Remote Luxury'' in March and ''Persia'' in August, but only in Australia and New Zealand. Both EPs reached the Top 50 on the
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 ...
Albums 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. Most of the tracks on ''Persia'' were written by lead vocalist
Steve Kilbey. Compared to their third studio album, ''
Seance'', the atmosphere was lighter and less gloomy. The band's trademark guitar sound was complemented by the keyboards of
Craig Hooper (from
the Reels
The Reels are an Australian rock music, rock band which formed in Dubbo, New South Wales in 1976. It disbanded in 1991, and reformed in 2007. Its 1981 song "Quasimodo's Dream (song), Quasimodo's Dream" was voted one of the APRA Top 30 Australian ...
), who joined as an auxiliary touring member.
Reception
Evan Cater of
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 ...
observed that "it manages to draw from the best qualities of neo-psycheldelia and pop-rock without succumbing to the genres' respective pitfalls. It is atmospheric without being spacey or formless, catchy without being superficial, and mellow without being lethargic".
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 ...
deemed it "excellent", noting that it "yielded such radiant Church moments as 'Constant in Opal' and 'Shadow Cabinet'".
Track listing
# "Constant in Opal" (
Steve Kilbey) – 3:28
# "Volumes" (
Marty Willson-Piper) – 4:02
# "No Explanation" (Kilbey) – 3:52
# "Violet Town" (Kilbey) – 3:28
# "Shadow Cabinet" (Kilbey,
Peter Koppes,
Richard Ploog, Willson-Piper) – 4:18
Personnel
;The Church
*
Steve Kilbey: lead vocals, bass guitar, keyboards
*
Peter Koppes: guitars, backing vocals
*
Marty Willson-Piper: guitars, backing vocals, lead vocal on "Volumes"
*
Richard Ploog: drums, percussion
;Additional musicians
*
Craig Hooper: keyboards
* Leon Zervos: sound effects
;Production work
* Engineer: John Bee
* Mastering: Don Bartley at EMI
Studios 301, Sydney
* Mixer:
The Church, John Bee at EMI Studios 301, Sydney
* Producer: The Church, John Bee, recorded at EMI Studios 301, Sydney in June–August 1984
References
{{The Church
1984 EPs
The Church (band) albums