Melbourne-based post-punk combo Focus Group revelled in creating abrasive, vibrant and loud guitar intricacy, underlying with bristling punk energy, without ever losing melodic quality, punctuated by solid, drum repetitions, deep meandering bassline and intensively evocative keyboard nuances, blasted by Fall/
The 5-piece debuted at the start of the year with their compelling first full-length album “Theories”, replete with relentless pulsating, kraut and garage tinged, post-punk groovy flourishes and sharp outbursts, interspersed by a couple of shivering introspective ballads, like the enthralling and moving “Imaginary Friend”, recalling the most sombre and melancholic the Church.
In the band’s style, the new single, “New Job”, is a feverish and swaying number, that back and forth from smouldering angsty tension into restrained erupting sparks of urgent passion and anger. Steadily stout propelling drums along with sinuously swelling dense bassline, burdened by deep menacing guitar stabs and alarming bright swirls of keyboards, set a seethingly anxious backdrop for caustic, rebellious sung-spoken-vocals, that coalesce and surge in intensity into shredding, layered textures of abrasive 6-string riffs, dramatic blinding synth sweeps, pounding rhythm, riding, with shimmering bold vigour, to a final vibrating blast of defiance and subversion.
“New Job” is also part of V/A ‘Stay Inside: Songs From The Great Indoors’, a collection of music ‘born and bred in this period of isolation and a testament to the enduring power of creativity during uncertain times’, via local labels Osborne Again, Dinosaur City Records, Spunk Records, Blossom Rot Records, Hotel Motel and Inertia Music.
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