Eddy Current Suppression Ring
Primary Colours

If part of Aussie pub rock is about lack of pretension then Eddy Current Suppression Ring are its new crowned kings; they play it at its funnest and most unaffected. Or maybe they just take its good bits -- the drinking bits and dancing bits, where good jams win out over the overwrought, and melodies are up there with sweet riffs.

Eddy Current's post-punky sort of rock is disciplined but held together with a lackadaisical tension. They’re more carefree than Wire or The Saints and frayed at the edges in a way that is uniquely theirs. On Primary Colours -- their second album -- the range of the 10 songs covers quite a few bases and paces, all with a terrific combination of disaffection and humour and liveliness. Even ‘Wrapped Up’, their self-proclaimed “power ballad”, contains a cheeky casualness despite its rolling pace.

Frontman Brendan Suppression comes off nonchalant, but like their sometimes-slack rock he has the range to kick a big chorus when necessary. He moves around all over songs just like he would on stage, singing with a non-swagger about regular dilemmas like “fixing the reception” on ‘We’ll Be Turned On’ (on which they even bust out the jaunty keyboards). On ‘Which Way To Go’, a not-so existential ballad about making life decisions, he shuffles his way through “weighing up the pros” and “weighing up the negatives” but he “still doesn’t know which way to go”.

The band, on the contrary, have got their direction exactly right, producing a great second record that rocks continuously through. With a relaxed attitude and a love for good energetic songs, it seems impossible not to like them.

by Richard MacFarlane