Music

Tropical Fuck Storm: Braindrops review – punchy alt punks in a burning world


A band naming themselves Tropical Fuck Storm aren’t exactly aiming at the Top 5. The Australian group’s 2018 debut, A Laughing Death in Meatspace, was a berserk, psych-punk, apocalyptic ode to a dying planet. The follow-up widens their concerns to social decay, conspiracy theories, mind control and exploitation. Off-kilter guitars crash into odd tunings: singer and songwriter Gareth Liddiard’s description of the title track as “Fela Kuti in a car crash” is bang on.

Tropical Fuck Storm: Braindrops album art work



Braindrops album cover

Braindrops certainly isn’t easy listening, but nor is it unnecessarily difficult. As with Captain Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica – surely an influence – each listen uncovers something else, and TFS seem to be similarly mapping out their own musical language.

Opener Paradise is a sandblasted grunge anthem, with guitars that sound like circular saws. Conversely, The Planet of Straw Men and Who’s My Eugene? (about Brian Wilson’s controversial former psychotherapist, Eugene Landy) are funkier, post-punkier, inversions of the Slits and the Raincoats.

Ex-Drones singer Liddiard emerges as a science-fiction-style storyteller. Maria 62’s inviting opening line, “It’s 3am, the wind is weak and warm,” unfolds into a lovely, wracked ballad, while Maria 63 uses a sci-fi narrative about Nazi witches and aliens to warn about the rise of fascism. The repetitive, mantra-like, Talking Heads-y chorus of The Happiest Guy Around is the closest they come – albeit via a side entrance – to a pop craft. The songs aren’t all as strong, but they have the hallmark of a highly promising, individual group.



READ SOURCE

Leave a Reply

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you accept our use of cookies.