1989-present: Melanie Oxley & Chris Abrahams In 1989 Oxley formed a soul pop duo, Melanie Oxley & Chris Abrahams, with ex-The Sparklers bandmate, Abrahams (by then also a pianist-songwriter for experimental jazz trio, The Necks). She worked periodically with Abrahams, performing, writing songs and recording albums, while maintaining a career as a primary school teacher. In December 1990 the duo released a four-track EP, Resisting Calm, on Spiral Scratch Records. For the EP they used Tony Buck on drums, Mike Bukovsky on trumpet, Gerard Corben (ex-The Sparklers) on guitar, Guy Dickerson on guitar, Stuart Eadie on floor toms, Jackie Orszaczky on bass guitar and Lloyd Swanton on acoustic bass. It was co-produced by Abrahams and Oxley. National radio station, Triple J, placed the track, "Benchtop", on high rotation – a live version appeared on the compilation album, Live at the Wireless 2 (1991). Their debut studio album, Welcome to Violet, followed in October 1992 on Remote Control Records, which exemplified their "moody, emotive soul/pop" sound. At the ARIA Music Awards of 1993, Welcome to Violet was nominated for Best Independent Release. On 3 October 1994, their second studio album, Coal, appeared. Their third studio album, Jerusalem Bay, was issued in December 1998 and was produced by Oxley and Abrahams. Additional musicians included Mike Bukowski on trumpet (ex-Ten Part Invention) and Hamish Stuart on drums (Ayers Rock, Wig World, Catholics). The album includes a cover version of "Cry Me a River" written by Arthur Hamilton. Blood Oranges the fourth studio album was released in April 2003 on Vitamin Records. The Ages Michael Dwyer described their sound as "sophisticated, sometimes jazz-tinted pop" while Oxley feels "It's quite a different album to Jerusalem Bay, and it was recorded differently. That one was much more organic and live. With Blood Oranges, Chris did a lot of work before we went into the studio, quite a lot of programming". Session musicians included Stuart, Michael Sheridan on guitar and Jonathan Zwartz on bass guitar. Vitamin Records promoted the album as being "Coloured by a strange, at times, dark playfulness, [it] is dotted throughout with classic sounding songs drawn from a number of pop influences. Lyrically thoughtful, deceptively simple". In April 2003 Sydney Morning Herald John Shand reviewed their performance at The Basement, he found Oxley used "a lot of breath aerating [her] lovely voice. Unlike, say, Renée Geyer, however, this does not make it husky, but