With a wall of fuzzy, jangling guitars and arcing riffs, the new single from Melbourne’s Tina and the Hams is a powerful piece of indie rock with frayed edge interludes that recalls a nervy Talking Heads or Arcade Fire. The edgy verses are swept aside like a tsunami cutting through the coastline by an epic widescreen chorus that roars with passion. The song ebbs and flows like a coastal tide – reaching dramatic crescendos and then receding and flowing with a psychedelic tinge. Damian Frood says of the track:
The song is essentially about looking for something that’s right in front of you. More specifically it’s a thank you note to my family. However, the theme of ‘searching’ also led me think of the ‘Autumn Of Terror’ that swept through the east end of London in 1888. Dorset Street was ground zero for a murder mystery that is still yet to be solved 133 years later. Had the authorities been more scrupulous they would have realised that the author of those terrible atrocities was right in front of them in broad daylight and undoubtedly roaming Dorset Street.
There is a tangible edge to the song: a certain level of nervous energy and enigma:
She was standing in the archway
Now I’m looking through her window
Was she staring at the ceiling?
The new track will be provided to current and future purchasers of the WAY/PetRicHor 7” on Bandcamp (see my reviews of these tracks here) or available for download on its own via Bandcamp below:
Tina and the Hams are Pete Batt, Craig Tigwell and Damian Frood.
