- I nearly didn't listen to this. It turned up in a package of singed, crinkled paper, daubed with a smear of red paint and bound in brown string. That's fine - a pretty sweet, hand-made receptacle for your cd is ok by me, but no tracklisting!? I shook that singed piece of paper and nothing fell out. Very fortunately I actually listened to the disc before yanking it out of my computer in a fit of pique. The rather delicious folk music there-in made me google the hand-written name in tiny, little, spidery writing on the album cover: The Forty Thieves. I ended up matching the songs up on Soundcloud and pulling the titles off there, individually. Our other music director at the station laughed at me, but, well, there are only really three of them and they are pretty dang good. So, The Forty Thieves are four Brisbanites who met in the dark and seedy night, dragging their assortment of unusual instruments together for a jam session that turned out to be quite conducive. Amela Djuherič brings a piano and guitar, Joshua Beattie a banjo and accordion, Jacob Clarke the violin and cello and Matthew Malone the guitarrón and mandolin, while all of them do a bit of warbling with their voices. I think there are even more instruments than that, I'm fairly certain I heard some recorders hidden away in the first tune, Friend; ok, I can understand not wanting to admit you play recorder. Still, Friend is a rich and tuneful song that builds from a simple strumming of the banjo into a thick harmony with triumphally pounding drums. I'm guessing The Forty Thieves have been stealing time in studios somewhere, because the production they're packing on this disc is most impressive for a first-time, back-yard folk band. The lyrical content of Friend is a little unusual: sung from the point of view of a ghostly, imaginary friend urging his real-world counterpart to leave him behind and rejoin the company of other people. That could be quite a heartbreaker, but it's delivered with such warmth it's hard not to feel good at the end. Don't worry, the next one, On My Grave, will have you feeling just wretched. I'm guessing it must be Amela Djuherič who takes over the vocal duties for this tearjerker of a bewildered lover inviting us to the grave where she was abandoned. Both Amela and whichever of the boys it is who does the main vocals do a really good job - sweet but slightly husky voices and his with a quavery quality that gives it a unique character. The last proper song balances the sorrow of a chap's lost love with a stomping chorus beseeching cold winter with a wry laugh to return his lover to him. This might be a tiny little EP, getting about Brisbane, tied together with string, but with a sound like they have I'd be very surprised if we didn't hear a whole lot more from The Forty Thieves in the new year.

- Chris Cobcroft.