Tagged By twelve point buck

LISTEN: Twelve Point Buck – ‘As Warm as Toast’

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Twelve Point Buck are some quiet achievers, slowly plodding away, developing their sound and consistently putting out releases every few months. The drip feed (although almost certainly unintentional) has the effect of building anticipation for future efforts and providing a neat moment to take stock of how they’re slowly but surely exploring every fuzzy-nook and garage-centric cranny of their sound.

As Warm as Toast, the second EP from the Sydney-based four-piece, sees them cultivate the heavier elements of their grunge sound, but always with a point of difference. The lead single, ‘Happy Djong’, is spliced with foreign-language samples that preface distorted licks and drum breaks. The four tracks succinctly summarise their ability to make blithe uptempo tunes and nihilistic slowburners with equal skill. 

What really attracts me to their sound is their refusal to pander to indie rock conventions, taking pride in their brooding structures (see, for example, ‘Forte Piano‘, which is essentially a succession of verses seamlessly running into one another). Twelve Point Buck are good in a way that I can’t typecast, because they really just sound like they’re doing their own thing.

You can download As Warm as Toast for $0, and keep an eye on what they’re doing because it’s probably going to be something you won’t want to miss.

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INTRODUCING: Twelve Point Buck

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Twelve Point Buck have been making beautiful fuzz rock for a hot minute now, but 2015 has seen them develop into a fully-fledged four piece, putting out their first EP Boris this March.

It was a long wait (they had me drooling over their sad-girl shoegaze track ‘Twenty Two’ for almost a year in the interim), but Boris made me forget the delay entirely. The Blue Mountain outfit’s debut EP is essentially what would happen if Kim Deal and Billy Corgan were mashed into one person and that person’s mouth made melodic noise whenever it opened, like one of those perpetually-gaping clowns at a fair. In fact Twelve Point Buck’s music has that kind of lingering, ethereal air that would make it the perfect soundtrack for exploring dilapidated showgrounds.

Despite delighting in the melancholy of it all, I was pleasantly surprised at the EP’s sunny turn when ‘Callie’ popped up two tracks in. I can’t tell if it’s the song’s title or the bright, jangly guitar line and almost mindless repetition that makes me think of a Californian road trip. The off-kilter vocal arrangement creates the dynamic the song needs to stop it from melting into the sound wall that comes with gals-just-wanna-make-a-pop-song (and have fun) guitar pop. It’s also a necessary break from the spread of luscious distortion and droning vocals that fills the remainder of the EP. (You don’t want to spend ALL of your time wandering around a terrifying showground, do you?)

Head along to the Oxford Art Factory on May 30th for the EP release party.

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