Australian Neo-proto-punk garagerockers ECSR released 11 new songs in May without much, if any, fanfare and not as some marketing or PR stunt but because they seem to actually give zero fucks. If anything they are making a bit of effort to curb their success which includes multiple award nominations on their home turf including the Australian Music Prize for their album Primary Colours in 2009.
That said, their songwriting seems effortless if they can write as many tunes as they have over the past 20 years without any stinkers among them. Stripped down to the no-frills essentials of rock’n’roll, the minimal instrumentation of guitar, bass, drums and vocals capture the energy and attitude of each performance. I dare you to listen to absolute banger “Swimming Hole” and not want to pogo out the door and bounce right up into the sunny sky. My current favourite song, the playful-yet-intelligent albeit very depressing lyrics still don’t stop me from needing to listen to it over and over again.
Like Billy Childish covering Fugazi or maybe vice versa? The groovy riffs kind of remind me of late 90s DC stuff like (the?) Make-Up, garage punk that rose from the grave of seminal post hardcore band Nation of Ulysses. More specifically the song “Bop” reminds me of former Circus Lupus members Chris Thompson and Chris Hamley’s Monorchid who are one of my all time favourite bands. There’s a few mellower tunes too, like “Turtle” and “Empathetic”, that are also good and give the album some contrast and variety. The latter kinda reminds me of another all time fave “Ride On” by Bon Scott-era AC/DC, until the vocals go all Mick Jagger falsetto that is.
Every song is good tho. I’d have to go back and read every review I’ve ever written to be sure but I don’t think that’s something I say often. There’s lots of great music coming out of Oz these days- Gee Tee, Michael Beach, Split System, Tame Impala (lol jk)- and they all may owe something to ECSR. Released on the bands own Suppression Records, my only complaint is the vinyl sold-out before I even had a chance to figure out how to get myself a copy!?
