08/08/2015 – Rat Columns-Fooling Around (2015)
Aussie’s lead the way with forward thinking indie rock
At the moment there is a lot of good music coming from Down Under. Tama Impala, Courtney Barnett and Moontown Records are all releasing exciting and insanely catchy records. Now Perth’s Rat Column is looking to add their name to that list.
On their new EP, Fooling Around, they’ve cleaned up their brand of droney indie psych and made is all sharp and jaunty. This change in sounds works really well with these four songs. Before they sounded like The Warlocks covering The Jesus and Mary Chain, but now it’s Roxy Music Meets the Strokes. And what’s more it sounds amazing!
Title track Fooling Around kicks things off in fine form. At over seven minutes you’d be expected to think it’d drag and drone, but surprisingly its flits and skips until its logical conclusion. Yes there are extended droney instrumental parts, but it all works for the benefit of the song and you hardly realise it’s length until it draws to a close and you realise you’re teas gone cold.
Should I Leave You Alone? is the sound of the Jesus and Mary Chain being fed into a tape machine that not only eats the tape, but spits it out all disjointed, then is fed back in again. As the loops become more muddled before a heart-breaking guitar line comes in and balances it all out until it reverbs itself out at the end.
Ultimately this is the sound of a band who don’t care what the rest of the world are doing, very much like Furness in America, they’re on their own making the music they love and if anyone else likes it, awesome, and if not, awesome as they sound like their having a great time making it. Fooling around? No chance they’re just waiting for the new world to catch up with their musical vision.
https://www.facebook.com/thisyearinmusicxx
https://uk.pinterest.com/thisyearinmusic/
thisyearinmusic 
I like the thought of the Aussi band marching to their own band. Shouldn’t we all be like this? If only I could write in a unique style. Great to hear about this band.
Hmmm, I don’t think I have ever really listened to Aussie music. Thanks for the review! Also, I agree with Francene. It should inspire us all to buck convention sometimes. 😉
I love when musician do what ever makes them happy and not just what the thing in style is