Tash Sultana is an Australian musician extraordinaire. With a fascinating solo career that showcases her ability to create and perfect her own music, she has proved to the world that even Australians can make widely accepted music for many to enjoy out there. In addition, she has her own Fender Custom Shop HSS Stratocaster, which is a very interesting fact. Still, the music is far more important here than just the legacy alone. This is her second EP and one of her most popular releases. Therefore, let’s hear this and see if it does any justice for the listener.

Synergy is the opening track and begins with some nice guitar swells. Some interesting palm muted guitar enters, along with some very Floydian Fender Stratocaster playing. This is instantly memorable and catchy, and the whole thing sounds really good. It is very obvious that Tash Sultana is talented here. Rolling bongos then enter, followed by other percussions to match it. A very inspired and inspirational listen, the guitar work here is really amazing good. Soon enough, Tash Sultana gets singing and her voice sounds like it is heavily digitally edited, which is both good and bad. A very interesting and mellow tune, this is a great tune from the beginning. There are multitracked harmonies and other great musical elements in the second half of this tune, which sound excellent. A good and enjoyable listening experience, and worth your time. Great to hear, the delayed volume swells at the end are majestic. This ends with a nice fade out.

Gemini refers to Tash Sultana’s astrology sign. It begins with swirling organs, some electronic drum sounds and some lovely singing throughout. The track sounds very warm indeed. It is a nice mixture of sounds and textures indeed. Tash Sultana’s weird singing eventually emerges. This is very odd sounding music, but it does the job quite well, provided you like this sort of thing. The pitch-shifted falsetto vocals are front and centre here, and this isn’t really a good example of guitar based music, it is more textural than that. A harmonica wah-wah solo is present here, which is incredibly odd. Weird and strange music, but amazing in its own way, this is a bit of an acquired taste musically. Nonetheless, it does sound wonderful, provided you like weird. A saxophone solo is present in the second half of this tune, which is different. A lovely listen, and something many music fans should listen to today. A great tune from start to finish. It ends with a sustained saxophone note.

Notion begins with some clean fingerpicked guitar parts that are very pretty. This sounds extraordinarily mellow and is definitely worth hearing. This has an air of Psychedelia about it, but not in a traditional sense, more like Neo-Psychedelia to be fair. A nice tune that is similar to what came before it. Tash Sultana gets singing away well, and this sounds mellow, pretty and beautiful. A very underrated and excellent tune, this sounds pretty, melodic and beautiful. A gorgeous listen, the guitar sounds are fairly unique here, to match the falsetto vocals and excellent melodies to boot. An interesting and enjoyable tune, this sounds quite like the sort of music to listen to when high. A very intricate, decent and interesting piece of music, the guitar parts in the second half are really cool. This is followed by a Bluesy guitar solo towards the end which sounds awesome. The guitar solo ends and there are many mellow guitar parts that follow, along with excellent and well-delivered vocals. A good piece of music that, regardless of its length, does not bore one at all. It ends after five and a half minutes. Weird, but quite good.

Jungle begins with some mid-position Reggae styled guitar riffs, and a sense that we have something very different here. Some great lead guitar playing is added here, and this piece comes alive. A good piece of music that is interesting, mellow, chilled and intricate, this sounds completely different to anything else musically out there. Which is a very good thing in its own way. Percussion and handclaps enter after some time, making this piece groove along. This is musically quite odd, but it is very enjoyable and different to listen to. Tash Sultana’s pitch-shifted autotune vocals aren’t the best here, but this is miles better than most music being made today in the world of Pop. Still, it works well for the most part. Some regular vocals in the chorus join on in, and this tune isn’t really so much a song, more about 21st century textures. This is the flaw of Tash Sultana’s music, and this could have been bettered otherwise. It’s good, but just not great. The singing has way too much autotune on it, and the song does drag on a bit. More screaming guitars enter towards the end, making this an improvement on the early part of this tune. It ends dramatically.

Big Smoke, Pt. 1 – Live begins with some cheering, and great Fender Stratocaster guitar parts, and launches into a wah-wah shred section of sorts. A really excellent sounding tune at the start. Tash Sultana addresses a guy in the front row whilst riffing, then goes straight into quite a good tune to hear. The Fender Stratocaster hasn’t sounded this good for some years now, to be fair. Tash Sultana gets singing and this piece comes alive. Eventually, the instrumentation stops as her vocals are front and centre here. A really cool tune to enjoy, there is some use of a looper here, and this piece sure sounds awesome. It is not too far away from the Psychedelic/Progressive Rock of the past. Still, it is uniquely postmodern and kicks the proverbial here. Some great guitars and textures are here, and Tash Sultana encourages the audience to get involved with itself. Some beatboxing then enters this tune, which is a nice feature of it all. Okay music for what it is. The beatboxing ends and Tash Sultana sings in her inimitable falsetto delivery. This live tune is a great example of how a looper can layer sounds in a live setting. There are many spacey guitar parts, followed by vocals and other sounds throughout. This is an interesting listening experience, and it does sound really good to enjoy, despite the fact it drags on a bit in length. It is over 11 minutes in length, after all. There are some awesome Jimi Hendrix styled guitar parts in the second half before this turns into a surprisingly suspenseful guitar solo instrumental. Some more excellent riffing enters, and this piece sounds awesome for what it is. It sounds like Psychedelic wah-wah hillbilly music at this point. Tash Sultana makes some excellent music, right here. Interesting, mellow and intricate, it slows right down and eventually launches into another guitar solo, which eventually has some fuzz added to it. Very weird, this is unconventional music for people to enjoy. Towards the end of this lengthy piece, some beats and melodies return as the guitar playing continues, along with the beatboxing. A good listen, although this is very long, so one’s patience will be tested. A nice tune nonetheless, although it is way too long. Tash Sultana’s vocals re-enter to finish off the track before we launch straight into the next tune.

Big Smoke, Pt. 2 – Live begins with some more clean Fender Stratocaster parts that sound excellent. Again, this is a long piece at over nine minutes long, so be patient. Tash Sultana quickly introduces the song, and this piece gets underway. It returns to the Reggae groove from part one of this live tune and adds some mellow Fender Stratocaster melodies. This is quite good, but not out there great, unfortunately. It does sound quite different to most music out there, to this day. Enjoyable for what it is, however. Tash Sultana gets singing away very well, and her falsetto vocals are pleasantly different. A good tune, but nothing overly consistent nor memorable, this sounds very interesting anyway. The beatboxing returns, which is a bit odd for this style of music at hand. Still, it is catchy. The music here does drag on a bit, despite the fact it is quite good to listen to by today’s standards. Eventually, Tash Sultana resumes singing, and this is okay for what it is. This may be better than most contemporary music today in our postmodern world, but even so, it’s not that good, to be fair. The midsection has more beatboxing and wah-wah guitar melodies. A good effort, but this could have been edited down a little for sure. Tash Sultana’s voice varies from mellow falsetto to raspy screaming, which is certainly unusual. There are more spacey Pink Floyd styled guitars in the second half of the song, before the beatboxing loops return, and this tune gets nicely layered. A good piece of 21st century postmodern music, but again, this is not great. It eventually gets super quiet, before some low-end bass guitar and guitar parts enter, and this tune progresses well towards the end. An interesting and different listen, this sounds really quite unusual for the music of today. It’s okay, but this is just jam music, which isn’t that impressive, to be fair. Electronic beats enter right towards the end, along with a fuzz guitar solo. It eventually wraps up with the bass guitar playing, which ends the piece, with a load of crowd cheering and Tash Sultana thanking the crowd.

There is definite proof here that Tash Sultana is a talented musician. However, this is not the greatest EP from this era, nor it is the greatest effort from Tash Sultana. This EP just falls flat a bit with nothing too good or interesting to enjoy here. Is there potential? Yes. Is this worth hearing? No, unless you want music to smoke drugs to. Otherwise, don’t bother, this isn’t that good here.

Needs a lot of improvement musically.

6/10