Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Rob Hirst + Sean Sennett, Sony music 2020.
I have been eagerly awaiting this EP for some time.
Rob Hirst (Midnight Oil) and Sean Sennett (Crush 76, The Incredible Strand) released one of the best albums I’ve heard in years with 2015’s Crashing The Same Car Twice and then started teasing us with a series of singles for an upcoming EP.
Finally that EP has arrived and it’s been well worth the wait.
Driver Reviver consists of five tracks and prior to its release they have issued three singles Nothing More/Nothing Less, Driver Reviver, and Prove Yourself.
Nothing More/Nothing Less is a mesmerizing slice of psychedelic rock built around a drone like single guitar note. It is insistent and excitingly intoxicating.
Driver Reviver is a power love song with a narrative about how the protagonist meets a girl who volunteers at a driver reviver stop. They fall in love, buy a rundown house on the highway, form a band and live happily ever after. Once again, the song is delivered with great intensity.
Prove Yourself is built around a crashing four chord riff and it’s a throwback to classic Aussie rock. As Rob explains, “(It’s) a rousing rock’n’roll dedication to motivation.”
The two as yet unreleased tracks on the EP are Miss Amanda Wishing Belle, a perfect slice of sixties psychedelic rock and The Man With The Star In His Hand, which has Sean Sennett on lead vocal.
The Man With The Star In His Hand is a brilliant rock track that incorporates all sorts of influences from the broad spread of Australian rock. I hear some Saints, some Gadflys. In fact, I hear something different every time I listen to it.
With Rob Hirst on drums and Sean Sennett on guitar, the band was fleshed out with the addition of Derek Haas on bass and either Jeff Lovejoy or Jason Milhouse on guitar, depending on the particular track. These blokes know what they are doing and it would have been great to have been in the studio when they were laying the tracks down.
I really like what Rob and Sean are producing. It’s been a long time since I’ve been so excited by new music. They play the sort of stuff that I’d like to play myself.
