Tirzah review – London musician underscores sonic experimentation at debut Australian show

Tirzah performed at Forum Melbourne on Thursday 13 June.

If you’ve come expecting a run-through of Tirzah’s most played songs on Spotify, you’ll leave feeling short-changed. This becomes apparent a few songs into Tirzah’s first ever Australian show.

Those songs, such as the London musician’s early, house music-influenced singles “Make It Up” and “I’m Not Dancing,” are more melodically immediate and structurally linear than anything on her two most recent albums, 2021’s Colourgrade and last year’s trip9love…???

Since the project’s beginning, Tirzah has been a two-person operation. Her website’s metadescription reads, “The music of Tirzah Mastin and Mica Levi.” And much like the work of her collaborator – who’s gone from fronting outsider indie rock band Micachu & the Shapes to composing unsettling scores for films like Under the Skin and The Zone of Interest – Tirzah’s music has gradually moved away from conventional songcraft to embrace discord and ambiguity.

The performance, in front of a close-to-full Forum, revolves around noisy, non-pictorial guitars, icy pianos and redlining drum loops. At the centre is Tirzah’s voice – unfiltered and earnest, soaked in emotion, but always at one remove from the genres she gestures towards (such as alt-pop, R&B, trip hop and house.)

It’s her first time in Australia, so the crowd can be forgiven for desiring a set of old favourites. The likes of “Holding On” and “Gladly” from 2018’s Devotion are nowhere to be found, however, as Tirzah and her bandmate, Coby Sey, immerse themselves in the distorted, speaker-rattling sounds of trip9love…??? 

The same drum machine loop features in nearly every song on trip9love…???, giving its track-listing a feeling akin to a continuous DJ mix. This quality is even more pronounced during Tirzah’s one hour on stage, as the chord revolutions and kick drum thuds of “u all the time” make way for the chord revolutions and kick drum thuds of “F22.” There’s more than enough rhythmic momentum to get the room moving, but the Melbourne crowd is tentative. 

Forum fits 2000 people and a quick Google search suggests this is the biggest headline show Tirzah’s ever played. But not everyone is impressed. Some people spend the whole show waiting for something to happen. Later, at Coby Sey’s after-show DJ set at Max Watt’s, someone tells me they had to move several times to escape the hubbub of crowd members deep in conversation.

It’s frustrating that the room isn’t more engaged, but Tirzah doesn’t lose focus, and for those who relish the looser arrangements and in-your-face subs of trip9love…???, there is much to admire about Tirzah’s commitment to its off-centre moods and textures.