The Antipodes has been responsible for sending us a decent variety of chanteuses in recent years, although few of them has been as avant-garde as Belle Phoenix. Her route to the UK has been circuitous, to say the least. Thanks to a Finnish father, after investing all of her funds on forming a band, recording her first album (‘The Glorious Dead’, 2007) and touring Australia, Germany and the UK (where she played to 20,000 attendees at the ROX Festival main stage), Belle applied successfully for a Finnish passport and now finds herself settled in Camden, London.

Her sound is defiantly retrospective, taking in influences as inevitable as fellow Aussie Nick Cave and as diverse as the UK’s very own Siouxsie Sioux. The resultant atmosphere can be as refreshingly wild, demonically dark, or as enigmatic as she wishes it to be. This is a performer, who knows her muse and is unconcerned about possessing a stand-out character. Think ‘Punk’ and ‘New Wave’, rubbing shoulders with poetry and, at times, remarkably resonant beauty, Belle has experienced the troughs and occasional peaks of a musicality that developed on the floors of recording studios, surrounded by gigging musicians.

Her new album, ‘Nine Lives’, is as vibrantly different and genre-busting as it needs to be, to be heard. The opening track, Old Crow Misery, performed by her new British band, is strongly reminiscent of the aforementioned High Priestess of Punk, as it darts schizophrenically from electric verses to its simple chorus. By track four, Dead Inside, you can hear elements of The Ramones sizzling in and out of the genocidal references. Yet, track five, The Devil‘s Son, is reflective and individual, with its driving drum beats and clashing guitars, possessing an intrinsic knowledge of its subject matter. Yet, by track seven, Dance With Me, Belle has dipped into her inner Cave to produce a haunting and measured song of such intense beauty and stultifying innocence that it provides ample demonstration of her cultural leanings. She repeats the slower and more intense performance with the ninth and final track on the neatly packaged CD-in-a-can presentation.

Some Kinda Cactus, is a self-referential analysis of her own life, packed with irony and delicious string accompaniments. This girl can sing, as well as entertain and her creative conviction is more than evident. Put Belle Phoenix on your new music list and be as delighted as her intoxicating blend of musical nous can make you.