Tape/Off - Chipper - LP (2014)

Labels: Sonic Masala
Review by: MH

Brisbane has some very good bands. The longer I’m here the more I notice that. When I first arrived I was aware of a few of them – mainly Arrows who have since split up, and In Sepia, who had already split up by the time I arrived here. Tape/Off are very different to those two bands but are also very good. There were murmurings about them when I first arrived but either they weren’t very active until recently when this debut album arrived or I hadn’t been watching closely enough. There are a couple of other releases on their Bandcamp page to check out that came out prior to “Chipper”.

Anyway, this album shows a number of different influences as early as two tracks in. The opener is a slowly drifting shoegaze track and it leads into the rougher indie rock of “Peggy’s Lookout” which suggests Sonic Youth are a major influence. The rockier moments feature distorted guitars and things get pretty rowdy and while they are driven at times they also go in for a more awkward lofi style which is probably where they get the Pavement references from that I so frequently hear when people talk about this band. It’s probably early Pavement rather than the more laidback latter day era. That mix of sounds helps to keep this album ticking over nicely. The absolutely driven “Pedestal Fan” is a standout as is “Climates” which features Tom Lyngcoln from The Nation Blue on vocals. The slacker indie of “Escalator” is another good song and might be my pick of the more laidback tracks. Also, it forms part of a strong final three tracks here but what we have here is a rather fine record on the whole.