Muscles
Guns Babes Lemonade
11 Track, LP (2007, Modular)
Related: Muscles.
Muscles was never about subtlety. The focus was squarely on the man himself, his sheer audacity and his passionate respect for the rise and fall of banging bass. The goofball that you used to bag out on certain music message boards has been far from idle lately, becoming Australia’s new hot superstar. Everybody should kiss him. The Muscles sound is overblown and genuinely luscious – epic softsynth lead lines, infinitely strong FM bass, kickin’ doof and his hoarse, multi-tracked voice offering party politics, heartfelt shout outs and designs for a brighter future. There’s a carefree falsetto ‘wooo!’ in practically every song and rave stabs throughout.
Guns Babes Lemonade is an adorably camp album that revels in its cheesy excess. Three tracks are named after sugary foods, however the vaguely psy-trance ‘Futurekidz’, a cosmic oscillator workout (appropriately) reminiscent of !!!’s transcendental cover of ‘Take Ecstasy With Me’ may be the sweetest and deepest hit the album offers. From the opening raver creed “Peace! Love! Ecstasy! Unity! Respect!” until the final narcissistic refrain of pure pop anthem ‘Hey Muscles I Love You’, this cheeky debut feels like one giant all-inclusive bear-hug. There’s a genuine jubilation, however, in the way Copulos sings about his friend Richard teaching him ACID that clearly isn’t caused by any chemical kick. It’s obvious Muscles gets a natural buzz from toying with his plug-ins, bettering his craft with every pitch-shift and beatmap. With a ‘huge’ moniker, huger aspirations and flexible software, there’s no reason why Muscles can’t get exactly what he wants. Obnoxious, yes, but already classic.
by Adrian Trajstman
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