Description
If the members of Midnight Oil and Yothu Yindi had formed a super group 30 years ago they would have sounded like King Stingray. This of course is partly genetics. King Stingray frontman Yirrnga Yunupingu and guitarist Roy Kellaway are Yothu Yindi’s singer Dr M Yunupiu and bassist Stu Kellaway’s nephew and son respectively.
Just like Yothu Yindi, the Yolgu rock band infuse western music with Indigenous sounds and lyrics, but there’s also a healthy of dose of the surf-rock energy which propelled Midnight Oil to national consciousness in the late ’70s.
The album also proves King Stingray’s songwriting extends beyond the infectious single Get Me Out.
These are of songs of longing for home, wonderment in the beauty of nature and the exuberance of youth when setting out to conquer the world. An important message throughout, and a refreshing one, in King Stingray’s music is that of friendship and respect. This is a multicultural band of Yolgu and non-Indigenous musicians and tight-knit friends.
