I’ve written so much about My Friend the Chocolate Cake over the years that finding a fresh angle can sometimes feel like hard work. Thankfully, their music is so spacious and enveloping that I can simply let it lead the way. With this Australian chamber pop group, the music really does speak for itself, and words can feel like a rather useless addendum to such an immersive wash of sound.
If you appreciate eclectic, artful music with a charming Celtic flavour, then look no further than today’s featured track, Yandoit. Whenever it comes on, I find myself swept up in it. The music transports me to a faraway land, centuries ago. When that Celtic tin whistle comes in, it hits all my British ancestral buttons and whisks me away on winds sweeping across the desolate grasslands of early colonial Australia. It’s grandiose.
There’s an interesting Australian connection to the title, too. Yandoit is a small rural locality in central Victoria, in the Hepburn Shire. The name is said to derive from the Aboriginal Dja Dja Wurrung language, with the meaning “travel”. The area also has a long history of Aboriginal movement through the landscape.
I’d be very surprised the song wasn’t inspired by the place and / or its Aboriginal history. The band’s founder and singer-songwriter, David Bridie, is from Melbourne and has a real knack for drawing on Australian places, heritage, nature and culture in his songwriting. He even finds inspiration in sport, in particular his beloved ‘Melbourne’ football team.
Bridie can go way deep into Australian themes, too. One of my favourite songs by him is simply called The Mangrove Song. It’s superbly written and realised, and it doesn’t get much better than that as far as Australia calling – musically and thematically.
Yandoit comes from the Cake’s second studio album, Brood, released in 1994. The album went on to win the 1995 ARIA Music Award for Best Adult Contemporary Album.
Below is the original studio recording, followed by a rare treat: the Cake performing the song live at the Caravan Music Club on 31 May 2015. It’s that humble, familiar setting and presentation that I remember so fondly from seeing the Cake perform.
References:
1. My Friend the Chocolate Cake – Wikipedia
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
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