Positivity, Protest and Place on Matt Hsu's Obscure Orchestra's Welcome to the Neighbourhood
Every now and then a song comes along that reminds you of the untouchable strength of music. It will take something that so often falls into the bracket of leisure activity and transform it to a vessel for so much more. The song becomes a means of communication, story telling, expression of self and community. It’s a strikingly magical thing to be taken aback by the potency of the art form that you love.
Matt Hsu's Obscure Orchestra’s latest single ‘Welcome to the Neighbourhood’ does just that. Transcending what you have come to know, not only of music, but your day to day life and the things you take for granted.
A protest song from a place of positivity, Welcome to the Neighbourhood, looks at the lived experience of refugees , unethical detention, black deaths in custody and systemic racism. All wrapped up in a sea of summery sounds and soulful choruses are stories of bombs dropping on homes, voices being oppressed, uprising, laughter and children playing.
These are the voices, stories and experiences of Hsu’s collaborators Solchld (aka Aurora Liddle-Christie, a Jamaican/Indigenous-Australian activist-artist), spoken word by Anisa Nandaula (Ugandan-Australian award-winning poet and author) and Naavikaran (Indian-born LGBTIQ+ activist and body-movement artist), rap by Nima Doostkhah (Iranian-Australian hip-hop artist), vocals and instruments by Cieavash Arean (Iranian-Australian refugee and multi-instrumentalist), and baby sounds by Mira and her father Amer Thabet (Syrian actor).
It is a picture of multicultural Australia in all of its beauty, all of it’s ugliness and all of its ongoing struggle, it is a story that needs to be told and it is a truly remarkable piece of art.
Even in its musicality Welcome to the Neighbourhood is a rejection of systems of musical theory that oppress and white wash the art form. The imagery surrounding the word ‘orchestra’ is so often that of traditional music theory, 17th century European white men and a set of structures that have dictated the scope through which we assess music for centuries. Hsu throws the concept of the orchestra at the wall.
Exploring soundscapes, instruments and instrumentation of voice in ways that sound obscure to the idea of orchestra, but brilliant, bold and full of life to the ear. It is a rare feat of truly unique song construction and vision that deserves applause. Confounded by the fact that the vast majority of instruments are being played by Hsu himself. It’s hard to see the product of all these parts as anything but genius.
As a straight white male of colonial descent, it isn’t my job to tell the story of this song, but it is my job to amplify diverse voices the best I can. I implore you to listen to Welcome to the Neighbourhood and then listen to it again and again.
