Tic Toc Tokyo
Artefacts

It’s all happening for Melbourne based, Tic Toc Tokyo, and well it should given the hard yards they’ve been putting in since their inception in late 2005 – there’s barely a stage gone un-graced, barely a square foot of sticky carpet left untrodden by this quintet in the past couple of years. As a result, the band have pulled up their collective socks and scored themselves finalist cred in the Garage To V competition, and as well, have released this, their first recording, the Artefacts EP. This EP is like Rove McManus – short, sharp and impeccably dressed. Hang on, Rove isn’t sharp, he’s an eedjit, so Artefacts is short, sharp and impeccably dressed all on it’s own, which highlights to a tee – or in as much a four tracks can – the distance Tic Toc Tokyo have covered in only two years.

Clanging guitar and peanut butter-thick bass opening proceedings, the track, ‘Colour Of Place’, and if you’d not heard the band, you could be forgiven for thinking, ‘here comes the three chord rock’, but then that 80s no-wave vocal comes in, closely followed by some cunning changes, nicely arranged, this is good, a definite grower. ‘Action Time’ is just that, frantic but kept in tight check; ‘Dialogue’ gets your bounce back on while ‘Ladies In Vogue’ bundles it all up nicely, packs it back in the van and they’re off to their next post-punk destination, leaving you with the guitar ringing in your ears and the bass still shaking your trousers. I’m not a fan, but I can dig Artefacts – pleasing and rockin’ at the same time, a good start.

by Sam Fell