Since emerging 18 months ago in a Melbourne music scene brimming with subtle sensibilities, Tamas Wells has become well known to discerning music listeners around Australia. The band\'s debut three track single "Cigarettes, a Tie and a Free Magazine" from early 2002 and the subsequent home recorded ep "Stitch in Time" were praised by critics for their charming aquatic melodies and for having "some of the sharpest songwriting around" (Single of the Week) Rip It Up Mag.

In 2003, renowned Sydney producer Tim Whitten (a la Gersey, Art of Fighting, Bluebottle Kiss) heard a copy of the "Stitch in Time" ep and invited the band to Megaphon studios in Sydney to record some of their new material. "Broken by the Rise" one of the songs from those sessions was then released as a single along with a national tour in late 2003.

The single was warmly received by music press both locally and internationally, being named Single of the Week in Melbourne\'s Beat magazine and feature release in UK zine Music Works. With this praise and significant airplay across Australia it wasn\'t long before critics began wondering why more people don\'t know about Tamas Wells. "If there were ARIA\'s given for Australia\'s most underrated songwriter Melbourne\'s Tamas Wells would surely be a shoe in" Time Off Mag

The debut album "A Mark on the Pane" from Tamas Wells will be released in March 2004 on exciting new Melbourne based label Popboomerang Records and distributed nationally through Reverberation. It promises to be full of beautiful aural landscapes, dreamy melodies and superb songwriting sensibilities.

Tracklisting:
01. When We Do Fail Abigail
02. Broken By The Rise
03. Chandeliers
04. Reduced To Clear
05. Petit Mal At A Grand Occasion
06. Even In The Crowds
07. Annalee Argyle
08. Segue In Gm
09. If You Bring Me Aubergines
10. A Dark Horse Will Either Run First Or Last

Bonus Stitch In Time EP

11. Reduced To Clear (ep version)12. 41 Union Drive, Caroline Springs 13. Even Through 14 Beauty Cream 15. Stitch In Time 16. Instrumental

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What a fine acoustic band from Australia! Dreamy and docile, it's the kind of hushed folk-alternative music you might hear on the soundtrack of a recent Miramax film release, employing Simon-and-Garfunkel-esque harmonics, and dripping with melancholy intertwined with hopefulness. It rides softly on the wind until it enters the listener, resonating strongly within the heart, striking the perfect chord.

(DP) www.impactpress.com

Rainy day, semi-sad acoustic-based indie-pop-meets-folk, Tamas Wells' A Mark on the Pane is the offering of a man that is sad, but not depressed, working through his feelings with a dose of pop to help affect the listener while giving the songwriter something to perk up about. Gorgeous and subdued, here is an album that crawls along, giving extra thought to each note - and word - before offering them up to the listener. It's not complex music, either. To the contrary, the melodies are simple, but it is the way they are delivered, brushed up with an ethereal air to it, giving the songs that red-eyed, late-night, remembrance that we've all experienced more than once, as we contemplate everything extra carefully while snuggling up to our favorite record. This is the perfect record for that occasion. I'll give it a B+.

Alex Steininger In Music We Trust Webzine Feb 2005

Melbourne's Tamas Wells doesn't share Jens Lekman's flair for self-deprecating humor. And the warm arrangements he and his band come up with make Mark on the Pane much less stark than the acoustic solitude of Kings of Convenience's Quiet Is the New Loud. But the melancholy and blind belief in romance that those artists possess is all over Wells' full-length debut. It's in his breathy, quiet singing, and the gentle guitar lines of "Even in the Crowds" or "Broken By the Rise"; it guides the gorgeous lullaby/love song sway of opener "When We Do Fail Abigail." Mark on the Pane feels more like a collection of moments than a cohesive album, despite the presence of two evocative instrumental segues in "Petit Mal at a Grand Occasion" and the aptly named "Seque in GM." Maybe it's the way Wells' supporting mates' contributions are limited to the subtlest brush of snare ("If You Bring Me Aubergines") or the quiet surge of a solemn organ ("Chandeliers"), putting the focus on his plaintive vocals and studied guitar — as bittersweet and beautiful as those elements are, they also make parts of Pane sound rather similar. Nevertheless, it's a wonderful debut with a clutch of unique, almost solemn melodies and enough lyrics about old photos and sad things coming in threes to make it comfort even the most melancholy of cockles.

Johnny Loftus Allmusicguide

When this disc first started, the first thing I thought was, “This sounds like it belongs on the Garden State soundtrack.” Then I started thinking it sounds like this guy could easily do a great cover of “Puff the Magic Dragon.” Seriously though, someone should call Zach Braff to let him know he has left an artist off of his Garden State Soundtrack. Either that, or he should find a place for Tamas Wells on his next film soundtrack.

With this album, Tamas Wells has created such a smooth sound, and the smooth factor doesn’t come just in the vocals, but the instruments all blend together so beautifully. If ever there were such a thing as musical butter, this album would certainly be the way that such butter would be made. Your ears could function as the bread of course, and with your ears being warm this album will melt all over them to create the perfect tasting toast topped nicely with a gently melted musical butter.

The songs on this album seamlessly flow in and out of each other. This key factor really allows the listener to get a straight-through listen while having no jerky transitions. This album in its essence is just very humanistic. Its sounds are able to reach out and touch the soul of the listener. If that isn’t enough, while it is touching your soul it gives you a meticulous inner-soul massage. This music is ever so good at just making the connection within.

Ok, so what about the weakness of the album. Well the only weakness that might be a factor would be variation but that is quite a stretch as this album is well done from every angle. At a few times the album comes off as being under produced, but it also seems that it is intentional. So, it’s still a stretch.

This album could have been (could be) easily overlooked, but please do not let it slip past you. Tamas Wells has created such a gloriously soundscaped album that will gently flow into your ears and they will thank you for allowing them to receive such soothing sounds. For albums to check out in ’05 you can go ahead and make A Mark On The Pane for this disc.

-Brandon Carter (Decoy Music)

Tamas Wells come from the brittle but brilliant pop school of Grapes Of Wrath and Simon and Garfunkel, though not necessarily in that order. The sweet and whispering harmonies found on "When We Do Fail Abigail" you're swept back into an early sixties folk sound that is timeless. Dreamy almost to a fault with strong and at times highbrow pop sensibilities, the vocals of Tamas Wells and his band mates are almost tear-inducing. Ditto for the rich and uplifting organ meets acoustic guitar style on "Broken By the Rise", a number you almost want to crawl inside of the moment they open their mouths. It's this pattern that never ceases to captivate you, whether on "Chandeliers" or the grin-inducing "Reduced to Clear" that falls somewhere between The Finn Brothers and Alasdair Roberts. "Sad things come in threes," the line goes to start "Annalee Argyle", despite being sung with a lullaby feeling that would put an insomniac into a coma. A lone exception as far as sound harder or rougher is "If You Bring Me Augergines", but to call it harder sounding is like calling Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" a folk tune. Sadly beautiful.

— Jason MacNeil
http://www.popmatters.com/shorttakes/index.shtml

Gently strummed acoustica is becoming the norm. It’s also becoming terrible old-hat and nothing short of being as dull as dishwater; thanks heavens artists like Tamas Wells are here to put it back into some sense of normality, and structure, and bring some genuine loveliness to it.

Remember how people used to shit on Simon & Garfunkel from a great height? It certainly was in vogue for a while there, but these days it seems like “The Boxer” has been universally recognised as one of the great modern pop songs of all time. While Wells’ voice (for Tamas Wells is both a band and a person) reflects the same fragile beauty as Art Garfunkel, A Mark on the Pane is the sort of debut album that umpteen dozen acoustic strummers wish they could’ve made. What stands out about it the most is just how well done it is – every track is handled with the utmost grace, meaning that the overall album has a feeling of determined excellence to it. A gentle song like the single “A Mark on the Pain” is filtered through a surprising amount of effects that don’t come across on the initial listen, but instead take time to ingratiate their way into the matter between your ears.

It would be just as easy to reference someone like Nick Drake, but the thing that sets Tamas Wells apart from these sorts of artists is that, yes, he’s still making folk music, but it’s with a decidedly indie outlook. It’s most evident on instrumental numbers like the excellent closer “A Dark Horse Will Either Run First or Last”, where the band really stretch out and achieve a wondrous sound. A Mark on the Pane is the sort of record where you could see someone from outside the box really converting to the masses.

www.theelectricnewspaper.com

Popboomerang have rapidly become a fine little indie label, and with acts like Tamas Wells, it's obviously no great effort. Knee-jerk comparison on first hearing A Mark On The Pane is Nick Drake, but, while sonically exploring the same territory, Tamas Wells songs are of a substantially cheerier (if often more oblique) nature. Observe the song titles - `Broken By The Rise (Tibia, Asphalt And Intravenous Lines)', `If You Bring Me Aubergines', `Annalee Argyle (On The Closing Of The Florist)', and my favourite, `Reduced To Clear (The Distance From Mantel To Pawn Shop)' - here's a playfulness entirely missing from the Nick Drake catalogue. Tamas Wells (the band is eponymously named after its songwriter/founder) writes songs of a distinctly observational nature, that occasionally (`Even in The Crowds', `Broken By The Rise')
sound a little like Belle & Sebastian - and that's not a bad thing at all.

K.P. Forte Magazine Melbourne

Mr. Wells leads his quartet on a pleasant collection of soft acoustic pop songs. The music falls somewhere on the spectrum between Nick Drake and Duncan Browne and more current singers like Sondre Lerche and Popboomerang label-mate Tim Reid. Records like this, which take the ‘quiet is the new loud approach' (tip of the hat to the Kings Of Convenience for that phrase), require some spins to determine if they are worthwhile. The challenge is to create something that stays in the listener's mind while being musically unobtrusive. On a few tracks, Wells succeeds in his mission. The best song is "If You Bring Me Aubergines", with great two guitar interplay and the strongest melody on the record. This is probably the most forceful song on the record (relative to the others) and is a great example of twee rock. Wells's winsome voice is shown off to its best effect on "Chandeliers (on the parish garage sale)". Again, instrumental interplay makes this song even more interesting. The plucked guitar notes are accompanied by Anthony Francis's subtle keyboard coloring, in particular his sympathetic piano playing. As atmospheric as these songs are, they could easily come off just as well with different arrangements. This is particularly true of "Even in the Crowds", which sounds great in its languid form on disc, but could have sounded just a swell with a peppy Brit pop approach.

Mike Bennet www.fufkin.com

If you've ever seen a child find more wonder in a cardboard box than the flashy toy that came inside it, you'll understand the idea of simple charm. Tamas Wells, although not comparable to the banality of a cardboard box, offer a similar modesty.

A Mark on the Pane captures pensive introspection on tape; sonically hushed and lyrically wistful. Pitter-pattering glockenspiel and a suspended organ adorn 'If You Bring Me Aubergines', a song with a gorgeous innocence - "She will be so pleased to find that there's oregano leaves and vegan recipes." All the while, Tamas Wells sings without pretension. His voice lulls sensitively over acoustics in the quaint 'When We do Fail Abigail', and is layered with harmony in 'Reduced to Clear', a song which makes theft even a subject of beauty.

The album's most delectable track 'Even in the Crowds' has the charm of a stripped back Elliot Smith number and 'Annalee Argyle' deserves nomination for lullaby of the year. Instrumental 'Petit Mal at a Grand Occasion' teases silence out to the ether, returning later on for the short 'Segue in Gm', an acoustic meander. An eery piano and brushed drums drifts into a reverie with 'A Dark Horse will Either Run First or Last' the instrumental that closes the all-too-short debut.

Tamas Wells are currently filling that space in the scene reserved for bands with great talent and undeniable charm, but unjustified anonymity. A Mark on the Pane should see them finally come under the spotlight with a few graceful shuffles of their indie feet.

Soph
www.ozmusicproject.net

Melbourne based singer / songwriter Tamas Wells has been playing around the traps for a number of years now which has helped develop his unique and sedate style.

The music of Tamas Wells is difficult to pigeon-hole. The laid-back beauty of 'When Do You Fail Abigail' if anything in tone reflects classic Beatles songs like John Lennon's 'Julia' or McCartney's 'Blackbird' (both from the White Album). If you take that as the reference point you will start to understand where Tamas Wells in coming from.

In another time, he would be called a folk singer, but these days with the likes of Jack Johnson, the correct political term is Adult/Alternative.
'A Mark On The Pane' is a consistent collect of songs. Wells has found his style and sticks to it.

Tim Whitten, who has worked with Hunters & Collectors, Bluebottle Kiss, The Go Betweens and Mick Hart is behind the controls. With that resume he was well qualified to keep the sound focused purely on the guitar and voice and bypass an attempt at any studio trickery. With Wells, less is more.
The lyrics are picturesque. A song title like 'If You Bring Me Aubergines' is most certainly the first time I can think that the vegetable gets such a high-profile mention in a love song.

With the final track 'A Dark Horse Will Either Run First or Last', Wells uses up all his words in the title and keeps the song instrumental to concludes the album like some sort of movie soundtrack.

Tim Cashmere www.undercover.com.au/reviews

Tamas Wells takes music seriously and with a strong debut album I suppose he has every reason to. After a strong of singles and Ep releases, Tamas has finally headed up to Sydney with a few backing musicians to record this full length album – a collection of bittersweet, gentle and subtle songs that come together to make a warm and unobtrusive record.

Tamas has developed as a songwriter with a very mature style of lyric writing with poetic verses and interesting use of vocabulary. Backed by melodic guitar riffs and sung in a sweet and often rhythmic voice, much of the album plays like a lullaby. Stand out tracks include the single When We Do Fail Abigail, Broken By The Rise and my personal favourite, the more upbeat almost Beatlesque (in the Penny Lane era) Even In The Crowds. The final track, an instrumental, is quite a beautiful piano piece called A Dark Horse Will Either Come First Or Last.

While the album stylistically is light & gentle, it does have a melancholy ring to it that is just a little lonesome and just a little bitter. It has that distinctly Melbourne feel about it and is possible a bit low-key at times, but overall it’s a nice collection of tunes for late night listening. And it proves that Tamas is a talented musician and songwriter.

Clare Stuchbery – Beat Magazine Melbourne

My favorite artist from Australia is Tamas Wells. His record is hot. Sounds like Travis, Elliot Smith, Beatles, Belle & Sebastian, Death Cab for Cutie. Produced by Tim Whitten. In an ideal world it'd air on KCRW and "The OC" simultaneously. Play it if a blonde girl breaks your heart. "Annalee Argyle" by Tamas Wells
Gary Salveson www.demodiaries.com

This is a wonderful slice of melodic pop out of Melbourne which has been beautifully produced by Tim Whitten who has worked for the likes of Bluebottle Kiss and Gersey in the past. It is a quaint little album which meanders along with very little change in obvious dynamics, yet managers to become incredibly intoxicating the more you listen to it. The album swoons and preens with some simple guitar picking and dream like sounds.

There is a touch of Grant McLennan on A Mark On The Pane, which eases towards the English in genre and mode. The wonderfully titled If You Bring Me Aubergines is gorgeous ad the depth of the closing track; an instrumental A Dark Horse Will Either Run First Or Last is perfect in it’s delivery. The mood of the album veers towards the ambient yet it manages to keep clear of any lacklustre feelings or simple emotions.

The recording at Megaphone has really paid off for the band and Whitten as the guitars and keyboards have a beautifully wholesome sound that sits against the sparse vocals. When We Do Fail Abigail is a bittersweet drama that belles a great song writing sensibility. Things pick up a fair bit on Broken By The Rise a pretty straightforward jaunt with a hint of accordion. I’m not sure which radio stations in Sydney could pick up on Tamas Wells apart from FBI and possibly JJJ. The album is not exactly bursting with singles or particularly obvious. As a piece of art, A Mark On The Pane is a worthwhile experience.

Apparently the band will be on a National tour which will hopefully put them in the public eye. Perfect for a rainy day in any city.

Sebastian Skeet Drum Media Sydney

Soothing reflective melodic pop that is highly reminiscent of the softer side of The Shoes. A Mark on the Pane is the debut album from Australia's Tamas Wells. Previous releases (a single and an EP) sparked good word-of-mouth...prompting producer Tim Whitten to step in to produce this album. In addition to Wells, the band consists of Nathan Collins, Anthony Francis, and Owen Gray. These fellows create heavenly music in the truest sense of the words. Beautiful melodies, dreamy arrangements, and vocals that are virtually out of this world combine to create genuinely satisfying soft pop. True, this music is fairly one-dimensional. But when the dimension sounds this good...who cares? Tamas Wells tunes are crafted to perfection and delivered with real style. We have heard few debut albums that rival this. A Mark on the Pane is bound to set the hearts and minds of soft pop lovers on fire. Cool, memorable cuts include "When Do We Fail Abigail," "Petit Mal at a Grand Occasion," and "If You Bring Me Aubergines." Truly lovely stuff... (Rating: 5+)
www.babysue.com

Ah - the promised Holy Grail.....

The entree to 'A Mark On The Pane' was Tamas Wells' 'Broken By The Rise' single, which marked a turning point for this web site, and to some extent my own listening material, inasmuch as I broke my golden rule of not reviewing singles or EP's. There is a logical reason for this rule and 'A Mark On The Pane' is a good example of my (possibly flawed) logic. When a multi-track single is truly amazing, so much so that it is discussed at length on the feature 'album' page, it is difficult to come up with fresh additional comments for the full album.

And so it is with this album - to repeat my praise of this delicate piano and guitar led collection of might flatter the artist, but readers might find it nauseatingly patronising or over-zealous. I can only point out that the additional album tracks follow the formula of the songs found on the single - acoustic musical gastronomie, filled with lyrical delights, melodic harmonies, served on a bed of Beatlesesque 'White Album' pop, presented on a unique hand painted platter (excuse the pun) of undeniably superior, albeit simplistic, instrumentation.

I can only reiterate the comments I made in the review of the single, point you in the direction of it (below - rather flatteringly, the label uses a quote from it), and hope that some of the enthusiasm rubs off. I wouldn't presume to try and convince anyone that the joy that comes with discovering an album like this is a once in a lifetime experience, but it is one of those timeless gems that will be on many personal top 10 lists for many years to come.

Stu Olds www.musicworkz.co.uk