Laura Amelia Smith - Truffles

Hear The Track Here

Regular readers will know that I pretty much review anything that comes down the pipe and I think that is one of the ways my own tastes have changed along the way, because I find some incredibly young artists doing some very good things and I find that heartening. Laura Amelia Smith is a 12 year old (yep, you read that right) Australian who had made three tracks so far, this being the third. Although I couldn't put my hand on my heart that her music had in any way knocked me out, it was certainly proficient enough to get my attention. So between Laura's Bop (February 2007) and Waist Deep in Popcorn (March 2007) it showed that Laura's work was interesting, more especially for her age than her dexterity.

Small fingers, ya see...

As I noted on both occasions though, it's her accomplishment at this age that makes it interesting because you can imagine what she might do with more years under her belt. Anyways, Truffles is the third tune up and its immediate impression upon playing was that this couldn't be Laura - or someone had helped her (a lot) with production. Either way, it's a lush, wide open space that will captivate any listener lucky enough to wander in it's path, it certainly did that for me. Moreover, the more I played it, the more I began to notice the little changes of pace and mood happening between the instruments, all a considerable improvement on the lady I had heard previously.

As a guitarist, I recognised her initial style but Truffles brings it a lot closer home. Even a more accomplished player would get a kick out of the way Laura puts this tune across. Age means nothing in an aural dimension matey, get a load of the pleasure this track brings along with it. Essentially an acoustic solo guitar peice augumented by lush strings, spheres, Truffles is so full of little musical surprises that even more seasoned musicians would be proud to call their own. It's not without it's little problems; there is a massive glitch at 2:20 or so and the sound from that point on degenerates slightly but it doesn't detract from how good a track it is musically. 12 or no, you either know what you are doing or not, and Laura shows growing confidence in herself and it shows.

Excellent instrumental, relaxing and invigorating. Highly Recommended (even with glitch)