Review from UK's top Alt Country site
MARISA YEAMAN Pure Motive (Deep Pearl Records 2005)
Review by David Cowling http://www.americana-uk.com/html/reviews.html Americana UK review site

Eccentric touches bring this self-produced Australian to life. Intriguing, this somehow seems immediately Australian and has the same feel as the work of Ed Kuepper or The Triffids, the same sound that seems to exist on the edge of a great nothingness, suggestive of wide-open spaces. The mainstream is the twinkling lights in the distance, though she seems to avoid the easy track at every turn. The guitar break in 'Vacant Sign' is more like the sputtering sparkly mess of leaky neon than aspiring to five star comforts.

The songs themselves, like the novels of Tim Winton, seem to be hewn from a specific sense of place, one that is universal but nonetheless rooted - 'No Fences' suggests miles of red dust rather than just being a trite metaphor. Her guitar style is one that always avoids the commonplace - why play chords in the same old ways when you can find new constellations? It helps to keep things interesting. Her voice isn't something that will seduce you - you won't want fall in love with it and the record positions you to admire it rather than embrace it. She brings out the piano for the powerful 'My Funny Valentine' alike 'Lonely Puppet' and here she tickles as many of the black keys as the white.

Her appeal is quite difficult to dissect: I think it is mainly in her stubbornness to make the songs sound like she wants them to - a producer or record company would shave off these rough edges. 'Another Day' has all the elements of a Nashville blockbuster, a lovely melody, elegant washes of pedal steel and a guitar break that is slightly off-key: the elements stack up precariously, you expect the whole thing to crumble but what the songs lack in elegance of construction they make up for with rugged charm.
David Cowling