We here at Sonic Masala have been huge fans of Australian malcontents The Peep Tempel for some time - their last album Tales was a true highlight of 2014. They are back with Joy - a simple truism. The way this band manage to growl, gurn and glower with equal measure of intellect and idiocy - telling tales of gritty Australian Gothic in all its Dead Heart, Wake In Fright garish glory.
The grinding noise winds around Blake Scott's abrasive vocals like barbed wire, the ticker-tack patter of drums an egg-timer counting down into the depths of the broken, blasted soil of 'Kalgoorlie', tales barked and mewled of losers, fighters, bruisers, nightmares one and all. 'Totality' is a more obvious propulsive affair, yet with a desolate space emanating from the quieter moments - a scum-film sweat skin forming over all it touches. 'We You Forget' is a barbed anthem to the frazzled and frayed disenfranchised, revelling in the rabble of suburban offcuts; 'Rayguns' a manic screed against the insidious machinations of a political landscape gone mad, the rich taking the last lifeboats and nonchalantly cutting the life buoys in half, those left the detritus of the outlying land, born to lose and racing each other to the bottom. They even have some Krautrock and seductive barroom blues to burn on 'Neuroplasticity' and 'Go Slow' respectively, which is always a lot of fun. 'Constable' though is the grizzled highlight, an anecdote told through rolled cigarette smoke, cracked lips, salt-stained singlets, a sea of stubbies and dismantled furniture surrounding our laconic bruiser of a narrator, the king of his damaged domain.
The trio have been playing around the great southern land over the past month, playing alongside the likes of The Spinning Rooms (they are back out there, yes!!!) and Eyes Ninety, and have a couple more up their sleeve in Sydney and Melbourne - make sure you catch them, they are incredible. And while you're at it, grab the Record from their Wing Sing store here.
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