Across the city and into your Room

by MA

Across the city and into your Room cover art
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  • Across the city and into your Room

    MA's critically acclaimed debut album.

    Includes immediate download of 10-track album in your choice of MP3 320, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.

    Buy Now  $22 AUD

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about

Time Out Sydney
5/6 stars

MA (pronounced mah) is Sydney-based duo Drew Crawford and Victoria White, who have crafted a highly textured, lush album drawing on Crawford’s work on scores for major Australian theatre companies. His classical training shines through to create a subtle, delicate and original listen, complemented by sublime vocals from White, both heartfelt and raucous. A perfect CD to play on a lazy Sunday morning. Nicely assisted by the Australia Council for the Arts.


Sydney Morning Herald
4/5 stars

A chilled out debut from this Australian duo, fusing composer Drew Crawford’s experimental pop sounds with the delectable voice of Victoria White. To say she sounds like Bjork would be a lazy comparison. To say she sounds like a lazy Bjork would be pretty accurate. That’s not a criticism: the fragile beauty of White’s vocals remain a tease without strangling the songs, preferring to let the warm beats slide around underneath. Orchestral moments are beautifully arranged on an album dripping with relaxed melody.

Smarthouse
4.5/5 stars

The debut album from Sydney-based MA is a soulful blend of classy electro-acoustic grooves that channels the sweet-raw-layered beats of Portishead. We listen in…MA is vocalist Victoria White and composer / programmer / editor / arranger Drew Crawford. Weaving together a range of string, drum, sax and guitar samples with Victoria’s pure vocals, the album takes you on a journey through playful pop, whimsical narrative, internal refl ection and the melancholy. When we fi rst listened to the tracks, we couldn’t help but be reminded of Beth Gibbons’ sweet-yet-serious vocals on top of the sampled backing in Portishead’s classic album: Dummy. White’s vocals have that beautiful quality of a real mix of purity and power, and she is well matched with the atmospheric, textured, electro-acoustic arrangements of Crawford. We loved the down-tempo honesty of this album; this is dimly-lit room, martini-in-hand sounds at their best. Sink back into your seat and enjoy

credits

released 30 September 2007
All tracks written and produced by MA © 2007 Copyright Control
MA is Drew Crawford and Victoria White
All vocals by Victoria White.
All programming, editing and arrangements by Drew Crawford.
Recorded and mixed at Big Jesus Burger Studios by Chris Townend. Extra bits recorded at Drew’s place. Mastered by William Bowden at King Willy Sound.

Jim Denley – saxophone and flute samples (1, 3, 4, 5. 6, 7, 8, 10)
Simon Barker – drum kit and percussion samples (2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10)
Chris Cobb – drum kit samples (2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9)
Steve Elphick – doublebass samples (4, 6, 8, 10)
Michele Morgan – vocal samples (4, 7, 8, 10)
Milica Stefanovic – bass guitar (1, 2, 7, 9, 10)
Cameron Bruce – Fender Rhodes (2)
Martin Kay – saxophone (9)
Michael Henry – acoustic guitar (9)
String session fixed and conducted by Kellie Dickerson. Veronique Serret and Glenn Murray – violin; Rudi Crivici – viola; Sally Schinckel-Brown – cello. (2, 3, 6 & 7)

Cover illustration and design by Laurent Sanguinetti

This project was made possible through the generous support and sponsorship the Federal Government through the Australia Council for the Arts.

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about

MA is singer Victoria White & composer Drew Crawford, a Sydney pop duo once described as "Bjork meets Hall & Oates". They’ve ... more been writing songs together since 2000, forming MA in 2005.

Victoria’s voice is her signature whilst Drew’s music is timeless and beautifully crafted. Together they make you believe in pop all over again - it's music that loves you back! less

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Track Name: Sweet Like a Wave
Today I could fall in love with everyone I meet
But he’s standing here before me
I’m head over heels
Not before, not now, but somehow
You know how this feels


All possibilities coming together
My imagination’s running away with me

I don’t care I ache with a smile as wide as the sea
There are words that could tell this story
All that’s old is new
Not before, but now, somehow
You know it is true

So sensual
Sweet like a wave as it curls at the tip like a fern
Sweet like a wave as it curls at the tip
As it curls at the tip like a fern.

© MA 2007
Track Name: No-one will be watching us
An empty road
The curve of the river
As the body unlatches
Release her.

Air pressure-sky is black with thunderclap
Feet leave the pedals and muscles contract.

Starting to roll, starting to sway and creak
Hip scattering like glass on the concrete.

In the middle of the road, succumbing
This sensation is building, hips moving

We’re almost there.

No time, neither fast nor slow.
She wants release - floodgates open.

The ground becomes a stream.

Almost unbearable, this vibration
Serotonin flowing down, opening

We’re almost there

The body goes into a kind of shock
Shaking gently, sailing, and rolls to a stop.

© MA 2007
Track Name: I Don't Want to Feel (Like This Anymore)
I don't wanna feel like this anymore
I don't wanna feel so bad
And it's not right that you should leave me
With so much love in my heart.

I have to pick myself and go on.

I don't wanna feel like this anymore
I'm tired of the ache and the broken heart
And it's not right and it's not ok and it's not ok
It's not ok.

So you want me to love again
You want me to move on
You want it to be alright but I'll have you know
I don't wanna feel like this anymore.
Track Name: Light Summer Dress
One by one
The clouds have gone away
And all I need to think about is
What to wear today
It's a cool and bright day
I might wear a light summer dress
(The one with the fallen hem)

And I can see from my bed
My room is a mess
But it’s not going anywhere
I just have to dress
For the cool and bright day
I might take a walk by myself
In the nice warm sunshine

Every day it's something else
Every minute something else
Every second something else
Something else, something

It's a cool and bright day
I might take a walk in the park
By myself, by myself
Cause it's a cool and bright day
I might take a walk by myself

One by one
The clouds have gone away
And all I need to think about is
Today.
Track Name: Japanese Bones
I know I’m ungrateful. Ungracious.
I could always spend my life elsewhere

A metallic taste in my mouth
And a smouldering ache in my chest

Spreading through the lobes of my brain
Like a disease
Flooding my system with the message
It’s time to leave

Between deep, deep water
And tall, tall buildings
Homes are on fire.

Ignorance is bliss
I’m married to my cigarettes,
And I don’t pay my bills on time.

Spreading through the lobes of my brain
Like a disease
Flooding my system with the message
It’s time to leave

After the second or third Gin and tonic
Some things are better left unsaid

Some things are better left alone
Sitting forgotten like Japanese bones
Track Name: And so I declined
I am romantic
But I’ve still got the ring of sugar around my lips
From the last time

And once I taste the acid
My stomach makes a jump for it
And so I must decline

Pathetic, self-possessed and rude
My good intentions are misconstrued
I could get lost in your kiss
But my face is white and cold
I’m not ready for this…

I don’t think I’m in a good place for you right now

I’ve been here before
And braced myself for the sky to open
And the world to end

Run for cover
I can’t get involved with such a good person
You’ve come to close
She screams “Off with his head! Off with his head!”
See, this is how it always ends

I don’t think I’m in a good place for you right now
I don’t think I’m a good thing for you right now
Track Name: Sonar Message
My heart song
Can you hear it?
My heart song
I can barely contain it,
Words elude me,
Confuse me,
And let me down
But the music comes

Lonesome lullaby (sails by the moon)
Across a king tide of concrete (deliver my heart true)
Calling in, calling out (to the one that I love
Calling in, calling out (to the one that I love)

My heart song
Can you hear it?
My heart song
I can barely contain it,
Words elude me,
Confuse me,
And let me down
But the music comes

Not conscious of the gravity of my heart song
Sending out a sonar message
Across the city into your room
You’ll know my heart by this song
My heart longs for you
You’ll know my heart by this song
My heart song

My heart song
Can you feel it?
My heart song
I can barely contain it,
Just me, the moon and the city
Humming along
Track Name: Me & Vivienne Leigh
You don’t know me
But I’ve heard who you are
Scarlett O’Hara
Blanche DuBois

On my grandmother’s side
A sadness
A miscarriage
A wreck of a marriage
And madness

The women in my family have big hands
The women in my family always had big plans

Drinking and fucking
Dulls the pain
In the park
All night
in the rain

He turned a blind eye
Violence
A passion
A grief unimagined
And silence

The women in my family have big dreams
The women in my family have never ever come clean

Standing in the kitchen at King’s Ave
She said, “You don’t know who you are
You think you do
But you don’t know who you are
You can’t
You haven’t lived
You’ve barely begun to live”

At fifteen she told me
“Girl, you don’t know who you are
You think you do
But you don’t know who you are
You can’t
You haven’t lived
You’ve barely begun to live”


And I was sure that I could tell her something
I knew it all
At least I thought I did.
Track Name: Breathing
There’s nothing like breathing in the air at midnight
But it’s the hours that will cut you down in the end
Down to size, down to sleep, down to sleep

There’s nothing like tomorrow
There’s nothing like today
There’s nothing like this moment
Yet I forget this every day

The years slip by so carelessly like pay cheques
Feel like we’re living in a B-grade matinee
Playing the fool, playing it cool, playing a part
Trying to learn it off by heart

There’s nothing like tomorrow
There’s nothing like today
There’s nothing like this moment
Yet I forget this every day
I forget this everyday
Track Name: It's a Small Word
It’s a small word
And overused
But bigger
Than any other word

It is everywhere
It is everything
It is the atom
The molecule
The gene that says yes

The Infinite
Forever
Forever
Waiting


It is everywhere
It is everything
It is the atom
The molecule
The cell that says yes

The Infinite
Forever
Forever
Waiting