From Bankstown to Berlin, Sydney solo-artist ANT ENOCH travels across the alt-pop landscape on his autobiographical debut EP ‘Big Talk Big Party’, out 17 May via Embassy of Music. Produced by ENOCH in his makeshift studio at the Sydney’s Bankstown mattress factory, finished in Berlin’s Riverside Studios with resident engineer Julia Borelli and Australian singer-songwriter MORETON, ENOCH follows in the footsteps of Nick Hakim, Puma Blue, Okay Kaya, and Lover Buffet as he paints a picture of the steepest learning curves around self-esteem and intimacy in the emotionally deepest shades of modern pop.

 

Setting off with ‘Natural Light’, a meditation on transparency and acceptance in relationships ENOCH calls ‘the cornerstone of the record’ paves the way for bittersweet ‘Beginners’ about getting back on your feet after a breakup, a song in stark contrast with the glass-half-full attitude of ‘Television’, a paean for resilience Rhí McPhelim of Right Chord Music wrote being ‘bound with a wistful charm, a quiet but commanding display of ANT ENOCH as a solo talent.’

Halfway through the EP, co-writer MORETON joins ENOCH for ‘Tunnel Road’, a poignant duet on profound, all-consuming love Mitch Mosk of Atwood Magazine described ‘a shiver-inducing seduction of raw intimacy, soulful passion, and smouldering sound,’ followed by sombre keys of contemplative interlude ‘Big Talk’, a lead up to guitar-driven closer ‘Big Party’ depicting the arrival at a crossroads in life and the tough questions that will follow.

 

Retracing his steps back to the birth of ‘Big Talk Big Party’, ENOCH’s main focal points for the EP have been clear from the get-go. “The DNA of this record is very much centred around emotional depth and the way melancholy can transcend sad things into uplift and happiness,” ENOCH explains, revealing his secret ingredient responsible for triggering emotional release. “There was a very intentional decision to include drum machines in order to counteract the heaviness of what the songs meant, have a feeling of dance and capture the catharsis of moving through these emotions with your body.”

 

The commendable job for pushing ENOCH’s mix across the finish line has been done by Julia Borelli, a voting member of the Recording Academy for the Grammy’s. “After I’d produced it, I was really looking for what they call in the industry ‘a finisher’, a producer who can come on board at the last twenty percent get from here to there at my own point in production.”

Stream debut EP ‘Big Talk Big Party’ 

Follow ANT ENOCH: Spotify | YouTube | SoundCloud | Instagram | Facebook