…re-mastered by Mikey Young, Melbourne, AU.
“Julie K” is, perhaps, the money track from this retrospective, capturing the droning buzz, the rocketing propulsion, the echoey romantic ache at the heart of this short-lived Bunnyman-into-Bailter Space-ish post-punk outfit. We get it twice, maybe three times on this expanded reissue, first as it appeared on the 2011 Drone Attacks EP, second in a rougher, more abrasive and distorted live studio version and third (possibly?) in a demo experiment in pure sonic texture called “Julie’s Last Wish” which may or may not be related to the EP cut. The song is a glorious, guitar-blaring grand gesture, touching Sonic Youth’s feedback-addled transcendence and cutting it with a 1980s new wave infusion of melody.
T54’s Joe Sampson would go on to found the jangle-popping Salad Boys… “Always weak for NZ lo-fi and equally a fan of the early R.E.M., so of course I fell for this buzzy daydream of a record.” But here, with bassist Sam Hood and drummer Matt Scobie, the noise is louder, the pop is shrouded shimmering layers of dissonance. T54 sounds like certain Clean songs, and so did the Salad Boys, but oh, my lord, they are different Clean songs. Think “Point That Thing” live, versus a nice, well-behaved “End of My Dream.”
“CR Model” is, if anything, even more fuzz-crusted and frantic than “Julie K,” its soft, slanting vocals skittering uneasily over a roiling bed of clash and distortion. It also gets two airings, and the second is even more viciously serrated than the first.
A few of the songs that T54 tries out live in the studio appeared a couple of years later on the band’s sole Flying Nun record, In Brush Park from 2013. “Oh Nina” saunters fuzzy and unstrung through lyrical banks of jangling haze, a reasonable precursor for the Salad Boys sound that would emerge a few years later. “Life Is Swell,” too, has a noddy, hypnotic lilt to it, the drums gathering for a thundering gallop under fragile vocal melody.
The demos are, on balance, less concerned with song structure and more interested in sonics. “Le Snack” hazards some wild, spiraling guitar experiments. “House Music” is definitely not house music, in the Chicago dance sense, but a twitchy, narcotic exploration of two-note guitar licks and drifting abstract vocals.
In Brush Park got a bit more attention than Drone Attacks, given its Flying Nun association, but even so, outside of New Zealand, most people missed T54. This expanded version of the debut EP is a fine way to catch up, and well worth your time if you like the harsher, dronier sounds of Bailter Space and Sonic Youth. — dusted