DOUBLE DATE - S/T
Contributed by splendid ass
The counter-point(force?) to my post-punk woes. DOUBLE DATE’s debut is more aux cord jammed into cracked Sydney pavement than stern genuflection at what came before. Sure, I hear you yelling at the screen. Of course there are precursors and the echoes of a million post-punk outfits pinging off the edges of this tape. These are well-trodden paths, no doubt. But DOUBLE DATE sounds like they’re actually having fun walking down them. Oozing with a similar steeze that gave PERFECT ACTRESS its oomph, DOUBLE DATE act the gracious hosts, introducing us to the Sydney idiolect via viz driving gothic freebase.
The bass playing here is an obvious standout, so much so that I will no doubt steal most of these ideas for my own (and far more derivative) musical ventures. Max puts on an absolute mastah class of melody and consistency, the four-stringa sketching out song structures, constructing the skeleton on which down-picked guitars and synths form the musculature. Verónica’s vox breathes life into the effigy, never forcing the issue, sitting atop it all in wonderful reverb’d disaffection.
This will be a release for heads and something I can heartily recommend to this audience. Max’s zine/label Barely Human courageously removed itself from social media this year and has been experimenting with mail-order tapes. I hope in-particular that any Australian readers not yet familiar will familiarize themselves with his work. But regardless of your interest in the more theoretical/fictional accounts of this strangely diffused subculture we find ourselves, on tunes and vibes alone, DOUBLE DATE is worth the sniff; indicative of a DIY ethos, entirely resistant to its bastardisation into aesthetics.
Released by Boom Boom Room Records, listen here: https://boomboomroomrecords.bandcamp.com/album/bbr002-double-date-cs
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