Labels: Tym Records
Review by: MH
I saw this band the other day with a bunch of other decent Australian bands at a new venue in Brisbane. I hadn’t heard them before but I’d heard good things from people I generally take notice of when they recommend music to me. They come from Sydney and have been around for over a decade. While they weren’t around when shoegaze kicked off they pay heed to that generation of bands including the likes of Ride and My Bloody Valentine. In fact, I saw a Ride t-shirt and a Swervedriver t-shirt floating around at last week’s gig. You don’t see that too often these days. (EDIT: I suppose you might do again soon now that the internet tells me that Ride are reforming). The first track here is great and a good sign of things to come. I was glad this one is on here as it stood out the other night. It’s kind of restrained and mid-paced and shows their knack at songwriting. I’ve mentioned shoegaze but they do have a reasonably clean sound thanks partly to the vocals and it’s a nice balance. They do crank up the noise when they want to though and tracks like “Somebody Like You” in particular show an appreciation of Swervedriver in the guitar sound. The lyrics throughout are personal, wistful and easily relatable and there’s a maturity to the songs and the sound but I guess I’m totally fine with that these days. It’s a good sign when you see and hear a band for the first time and the first thing you want to do when you get home is look them up and this one lives up to what I heard the other night. I haven’t got to their 2001 debut album yet which is considered something of a classic in this genre around these parts.