Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Rob Hirst & Sean Sennett, Sony Music Australia 2019.
After telling you that I don’t often review singles I’m about to do it again.
Rob Hirst (Midnight Oil/Backsliders) and Sean Sennett (The Incredible Strand) have released the lead single from their up-coming EP and if the quality of this track is anything to go by then the EP should be high on our shopping lists.
Last year I reviewed their previous collaboration, Crashing The Same Car Twice and raved about the wonderful raw energy of its mixture of classic rock and punk.
I wasn’t alone in my praise.
Rolling Stone said that Crashing The Same Car Twice “captured the sheer distorted thrill of classic punk-pop.”
Nothing More/Nothing Less is a little harder to categorise.
There’s a psychedelic feel to the track mixed with an insistent Krautrock driving beat that propels the whole thing relentlessly forward.
You get the feeling of traversing an endless plain at warp speed. It’s incessant and mesmerising.
The track opens with an extended instrumental build-up that is punctuated by distorted guitar that floats its way throughout, providing a sense of spaciousness.
The recording process reveals the live and raw approach as there is no attempt to hide or remove guitar amp hum.
It all just adds an additional layer to the sound.
Rob probably sums the track up best when he described it as “Long-haul cross-country guitar-bass-drum driving music. Hit repeat, repeat, repeat. Blue singlet psychedelia/paisley-shirt reverberama.”
Apparently the boys will be releasing another new song before the EP drops in September so we should keep our eyes open.
