Everything about this release is a product of
Tasmania. The band name, the EP title, and lyrics like “Can you take the Ute
to the top of the road? I’ll ride in the tray with the dog and the wood”.
Everything about this release is Tasmanian except
for the actual sound, which is equally reminiscent of Songs:Ohia or Palace
Music as it is of Sonic Youth.
They’re a three piece with three distinct pieces.
The guitars are unhurried and unworried, often holding on single notes for
longer than would generally feel comfortable, and sometimes careening into
unfamiliar and discordant territory. The drums ebb and flow like tension and
release and the vocals tie it all together. The lyrics sometimes come across as
stream-of-consciousness, and maybe they are, I don’t think that lessens their
meaning.
There’s a lot of simple self-reflection. “I’m
not one to fight, never was” he sings on the EP’s second track Pacifist before
going on to sing about childhood squabbles with siblings and the anger that
builds through age.
Top of the Road and Sama Hut both centre around
living in the country. The simplicity of gathering wood and making a fire.
They're songs about the lifestyle intrinsic to the people making the music.
I spent two weeks in the area the EP gets its name
from at the start of this year and finding this release on coming home was like
a belated memento. It even turned out that old mate I’d been drinking with down
at the local recorded it in his home studio.
So I have this somewhat-removed personal connection
with the release but I don’t think that’s necessarily why I like it so much and
why I haven't stopped listening this last two weeks.
There’s an abundance of incredible, experimental
music coming out of Australia at the moment but Mount Trout is a singular
entity. They sound like actual outsiders, not the ones you see pretending with
synths and vocoders in dark clubs. This is the real thing.
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