Sydney’s Ant Enoch takes us track-by-track through his intimate, ambient, and soul-stirring debut EP ‘Big Talk Big Party,’ a breathtakingly beautiful exhale of love, loss, grief, and growth that aches with the weight of life-altering change and the persistence of the human spirit. See him slowly come undone…
for fans of Dustin Tebbutt, Leif Vollebekk, #1 Dads, Gordi
Stream: “Television” – ANT ENOCH
Ant Enoch’s debut EP opens in a moment of ambient aching.
“I’m crawling out the walls, tryin’ to let you know it doesn’t have to be this hard,” the Australian singer/songwriter declares, his warm voice melting softly over brooding piano chords and a cool, hypnotic drum machine. Raw and exposed, he channels all the tenderness he can muster into a moment of truth – and with that truth comes painful acceptance: “You shouldn’t have to lie; you shouldn’t have to dim your light.”
Some artists choose to introduce themselves through glimpses of triumph and celebration. Ant Enoch has ostensibly done the opposite; his first steps into this world reflect his lowest lows, and quite frankly, we wouldn’t have it any other way. A breathtakingly beautiful exhale of love, loss, grief, and growth, Big Talk Big Party aches with the weight of life-altering change.
Devoted to the truth
Yet the truth keeps changing
It doesn’t have to be this hard
You shouldn’t have to lie
You shouldn’t have to dim your light
Maybe it’s my fault
Such a sliding slope…
Hold you in the daylight
(What would we have left to lose)
Hold you in the natural light
(Promises of self)
Hold you in the daylight
(Falling through it all into shadow)
Hold you in the natural light
(It’s only letting go)
– “Natural Light,” ANT ENOCH
Released May 17, 2024 via Embassy of Music, Big Talk Big Party is a smoldering, soul-stirring record of intimate connection and unfiltered vulnerability. Sydney-based singer/songwriter and producer Ant Enoch spills the contents of his heavy heart out in six diaristic and dreamy songs that feel as though they were wrenched from his innermost depths. He approaches each track with a gentle, careful touch, building ambient, all-consuming soundscapes filled with sonic heat and visceral feeling.
The resulting experience is unavoidably cathartic and soul-baring, as the light of Enoch’s humanity shines through the darkness in his midst.
“BIG TALK BIG PARTY is a record about the complete fracturing that happens when you’ve been beautifully bound with someone for over 15 years and choose to go your separate ways,” Enoch tells Atwood Magazine. “It’s about processing grief and shame in the ‘perceived’ failure of it all. Acceptance, fear, new love and all the chaos that comes with meeting yourself for the first time since you were 15.”
“All of these songs were born from vintage drum machine patterns,” he adds. “On repeat for hours into the night, exploring melodies with my voice and the piano. All recorded in a DIY studio, out the back of a mattress factory in Bankstown, Australia. There was a very intentional decision to include drum machines in order to counteract the heaviness of what the songs meant, have a feeling of dance and capture the catharsis of moving through these emotions with your body.”
“My vision was to capture these raw and candid magic moments in the recording process. The vision evolved once I met Julia Borelli, who jumped on board to finish the record in Berlin, adding all the subtleties to the finished songs.”
Big moon big talk big love big heart tonight
Big rain moves earth into the riverside
Try to unpack before the morning light
Big moon big talk big love big heart tonight
Ohhhh, see me slowly come undone
Ohhh, see me slowly come undone
I go softly through the night
Carried on a bird in flight
See me slowly come undone
See me slowly come undone
See me slowly come undone
– “Big Talk,” Ant Enoch
Ostensibly a brand-new voice on the indie scene, Ant Enoch (born Anthony Beard) released his knockout debut single “Television” this past January, inviting audiences to dwell with him in sweltering pools of profound heartache as he sang about a friend’s house burning down, and reaching out to a loved one in need.
He followed that with the atmospheric love song “Tunnel Road,” a shiver-inducing seduction of intimacy’s intensity (and fragility) featuring fellow Aussie (and Atwood’s Editor’s Pick) Moreton, aka Georgia James Potter. “With every breath they take, every sweet lyric, every subtle exhale, every line they deliver in soul-stirring harmony, it all feels autobiographical, which makes experiencing this song that much more intense,” Atwood wrote in our track premiere this March, honing in on the provocative, emotionally potent lyric, “Everything that makes you feel, makes me feel” – a line that speaks to the magnetic, majestic, empathetic force when two hearts beat as one. “It’s a gentle reverie that steadily grows from a radiant whisper into a resounding roar, all the while maintaining a reverence for the fragility and the sheer beauty of what it means to be vulnerable and in love.”
Bright silver lights
Turn the headlights on
We’re shining bright
In spite of it all
No looking down
Let the love break the fall
Everything is honest now
There’s nothing wrong
With falling in love
There’s nothing wrong
It’s only the cost of loving you
Everything that makes you feel, makes me feel
Big Talk Big Party arrives in the wake of these two stunning tracks and April’s final single, the aforementioned opener “Natural Light,” whose hazy, moody nuance and confessional upheaval sets the tone for the entire EP. Enoch cites the lyric, “Every part of you is a part of everything I am,” as one of his two favorite lyrics on the entire record (the other being the chorus, “Everything that makes you feel, makes me feel,” from “Tunnel Road”). Clearly, human connection – to the self and to those around us – is paramount to the artist.
“This song is the cornerstone of the record,” Enoch says. “It signifies my absolute love for vintage drum machines. So much of my writing involves painting a canvas of sound using rhythmic and harmonic textures, then blabbing out some melodies until something sticks. This song is a perfect example of that. The music came first and brought forward forward a very raw song and set of lyrics that I hold very dear to my heart.”
Falling
Out here
Swimming
In self
Unfolding
You want love
Returning
Just like this
Open
Showing
Oh no I keep holding on…
Enoch candidly describes Big Talk Big Party as a record of intimate cry dancing, explaining its title in two parts.
“Big Talk” represents the big conversations everybody needs to have in relationships, while “Big Party” represents processing the biggest party in any relationship ~ the wedding.
“I’d say for me, this record has captured the biggest rupture in my life in a way that feels authentic and honours the craft I love so very much, that is songwriting,” Enoch reflects. “With the help of some incredible collaborators, we chose to keep all the rough edges in. The chair creeks, forklift reversing beeps, the vocal cracks, abrupt drum machine endings. Keeping the finished songs as close to the early iterations of their inception into the world.”
Joining the above three songs are new, previously unheard tracks “Beginners,” “Big Talk,” and “Big Party,” each of which is as irresistibly catchy as it is heartrending. “I really love the song ‘Beginners,’” Enoch admits. “It captures the heartbreak and fear of trying to piece a heart back together. There’s over a minute of beautiful strings at the beginning played by my friend Youka, then ending with me belting out the lyrics, ‘Try to see myself without you, try to see anything at all,’ recorded standing 15 feet from a microphone in the foyer of Riverside Studios, Berlin.”
Enchanting, entrancing, and altogether impassioned, Big Talk Big Party is a seductively soothing masterpiece.
Easily one of this year’s best debuts, Ant Enoch’s EP treats listeners to spellbinding snippets of life’s lows, and even a few of its highs (looking at you, “Tunnel Road”), all wrapped in a smoldering blanket of wondrous, soul-soaked sound. It’s a tender tempest; a gentle giant of emotionally-charged, musically nuanced self-expression that lingers on the ears, and on the heart, long after its nineteen-minute runtime.
He may not have introduced himself through glimpses of life’s highest highs, but in starting out the way he has, Ant Enoch is undeniably triumphant in capturing our hearts and minds.
“The DNA of this record is very much centered around emotional depth and the way melancholy can transcend sad things into uplift and happiness,” Enoch shares.
“I hope people take away the permission to cry on the dance floor,” he continues. “It’s a very personal and intimate moment in time that happened to be surrounded by microphones, old drum machines and a piano. All nestled out the back of Mattress Factory in Bankstown, Sydney, and finished in Berlin, Germany.”
Experience the full record via our below stream, and peek inside Ant Enoch’s Big Talk Big Party EP with Atwood Magazine as he goes track-by-track through the music and lyrics of his debut EP!
Big Talk Big Party is out now via Embassy of Music.
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:: stream/purchase BIG TALK BIG PARTY here ::
:: connect with ANT ENOCH here ::
Stream: ‘BIG TALK BIG PARTY’ – ANT ENOCH
:: Inside Big Talk Big Party ::
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Natural Light
This song is the cornerstone of the record. It signifies my absolute love for vintage drum machines. So much of my writing involves painting a canvas of sound using rhythmic and harmonic textures, then blabbing out some melodies until something sticks. This song is a perfect example of that. The music came first and brought forward forward a very raw song and set of lyrics that I hold very dear to my heart.
Beginners
I’m so in love with the string arrangement on ‘Beginners’. Written and recorded in Berlin by my dear friend Youka Snell, this song really encapsulates a lot of fears and doubts around piecing yourself back together after a break up. The beautiful chaos that heartbreak can leave us suspended in.
Television
A candid story about a friend’s house burning down, this song was the result of wanting to reach out to a loved one in need. Lyrically, I think so much of this story was actually written about myself. “You say you’re caving in, face down under the weather, barely breathing trying to hold your shit together” Not sure if I’ve related to a lyric more.
Tunnel Road ft. Moreton
Moreton (Georgia James) was such an incredibly large part of this whole record. My main collaborator and co-writer across all of the songs. It felt so special to explore themes of new love on this song and have a duet on the record.
Big Talk
‘Big Talk’ was a very late addition to the record but felt really important. A little meditation on some of the big conversations surrounding relationships. Somewhat of an affirmation for myself if I’m honest. A reminder to keep showing up to hard conversations when it comes to love.
Big Party
My main inspiration for this song was to create some dissonance in the rhythm that would match the sentiment of the song. The beat from the 1976 Korg Rhythm 55 and the live drum kit adds some beautiful chaos that matches the themes of the record. Pushing deeper into ‘Crying on the dance floor’ vibes.
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:: stream/purchase BIG TALK BIG PARTY here ::
:: connect with ANT ENOCH here ::
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© James Smithers
© James SmithersBig Talk Big Party
an EP by ANT ENOCH
