The Drones - any good (also Tropical Fuck Storm content here)

yay!

Gareth, AND Chris Abrahams?
WTF?? Who had THAT pairing on their bingo card?
AND Jim White???
A complete album from this trio????
Holy crap.... my brain can't process this beautiful bit of news right now.

Someone please make me a Drones/TFS/Liddiard program, I feel sort of lost in all the material.

honestly just start w I See Seaweed and then bounce around. I find the early Drones records fun but sometimes more skronk than song, personally I don't really start loving them front to back till Gala Mill

other than that there's only two TFS albums (first is superior) and one 70 minute Liddiard solo folk record (which rules)

My first encounter with any of this material was the first TFS album and that remains my favorite thing of the whole lot. Love the second TFS album and agree the mid-late Drones albums are probably the better ones though it’s all good.

By coincidence I was listening to Gala Mill yesterday and the line “I tell you nothing’s really changed but I am not the same” jumped out and knifed me when I wasn’t expecting. Garett knows how to deliver his lines.

I think the second TFS is pretty much tied with the first for me now

yeah I See Seaweed is as good of a starting point as any, then go forward to Feelin Kinda Free & the TFS albums if you want to hear his work get noisier & post-punkier or go backwards to the previous Drones albums if you want to hear unadorned punk blues epics etc.

& Liddiard's solo album is just its own thing

i'm not personally huge on the pre-ISS stuff, it's not bad or anything but not really my thing enough to enjoy a whole album of

re early albums - second Drones album (that’s Wait Long… right?) was the one that really kicked off in Aus - well at least amongst a certain listenership, not household name shit - my Melb friends were already talking them up as a live proposition but Shark Fin Blues was pretty much an instant classic and would strongly rep for Baby2, Sitting on the Edge of the Bed Cryin, Locust, This Time - it’s a good LP, although perhaps not the place to start?

yeah Wait Long By The River has always seemed like the most acclaimed one here, not my personal favourite by any means but there's still good stuff on it

I'll go left field and recommend Havilah as a good place to start. The songs are amazing.

https://www.abc.net.au/doublej/programs/mornings/double-j-mornings-tropical-f-storm-premiere/13393600

new TFS "G.A.F.F." here at 33:20

video coming soon here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akqQCtM2QLc

album Deep States out 20 August

oh album has leaked already before it even got a proper announcement lol

and it's in terrible quality so i'm not gonna bother listening yet

but here's the tracklist

The Greatest Story Ever Told
G.A.F.F.
Blue Beam Baby
Suburbiopia
Bumma Sanger
The Donkey
Reporting Of A Failed Campaign
New Romeo Agent
Legal Ghost
The Confinement Of The Quarks

I like "G.A.F.F." a lot but I'm definitely noticing more clunkers in Gareth's lyrics than usual

it's fine but doesn't have me excited like TFS at their best do

i feel much more excited about the Springtime album than this one but i'm sure it will be decent at the very least

Bandcamp alerted to this yesterday but that video (or probably just that this is my second listen!) has made "G.A.F.F." more endearing.

It's getting weird how much more receptive I am to TFS than the Drones. (Or at least early Drones. I have a couple of pre-ISS Drones CDs here somewhere, but mainly just remember wishing they sounded like "Jezebel" 100% of the time. More my problem than theirs, no doubt.)

I haven't been paying super close attention (probably spent more time watching them live than I have listening to their recordings) - but really enjoyed G.A.F.F - perfect proportions of funky/rockin/gonzo - awesome BVs (I feel great deployment of BVs is a significant ingredient in Liddiard secret sauce) - when I was listening I thought 'nothing else really sounds like this' and that always feels good

I guess 'laser-accurate scattershot imagery Gareth rap about the fucked up fucken world' is kind of a staple song form now - is Tamam Shud the apotheosis of this one? - but it's still effective as hell and I dug it here albeit I didn't really parse the lyrics closely

ha yep and just watched the video and it definitely sells it great - speaking of cool BVs (I guess really it's a pre-chorus or something) that moment when you first Fiona and Erica in the hotel is so great

yeah i'm really enthusiastic about g.a.f.f.

he's straight spittin, love the cadences and density of the lyrics, good funky groove

Listening to the new song, think I have T.F.S.F. unfortunately

am I bad because I don't like the Spring-Time performance of Penumbra?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=137OE5aquRg

not feeling this one

the ilx backlash begins

I wasn't crazy about GAFF but I like this one.

I really did not like GAFF. Will check this out.

(after 30 seconds) hm, kinda sounds like Pram!

into it as a more gonzo, knuckle-draggin version of that retro-exotica vibe - might have to give it a few more listens to see if it opens up as a song - but if the last one felt in danger of being a tiiiiny bit stock, this tidily avoids sounding at all familiar and i like that

can imagine it working in context on an album better than as a single

Yeah, not feeling this either. Ah well

The album will presumably still have some good stuff on it

The tune itself is quite nice, but it needs to go places, preferably after the first minute or so.

the vocals aren't mixed well & it's fairly aimless as a tune

Who the fuck mixed this record? I don't know if I'm going to be able to make it all the way through, it kind of hurts to listen to.

the leak that's been out there for the last two months is terrible quality so if that's what you're listening to i'm sure that didn't help

but i wasn't huge on the mix for the released "new romeo agent" so it wouldn't surprise me if the mix is still an issue in proper quality

No, I'm listening to the wavs of the offical release, they sound horrible.

I don't know if my ears went numb after a while or what, but it wasn't as physically difficult to listen to after the first few songs, at least.

this one is largely not for me as the singles suggested

"the greatest story ever told" is good at least though

Currently listening as well. Haven't really made my mind up

there's other good tracks too but overall it veers too much into their more tuneless side i think

Yeah that's my impression too. The Donkey for example: an impressive build but also the songwriting doesn't quite hit hard enough, nor is it anything The Drones haven't done better several times over

GAFF and Suburbiopia grew on me though

the worse tracks on this remind me a lot of the voidz, except without casablancas' distinct hooks to pierce through the mud

Oh I like the little instrumental closer!

I mean it's fine, good in parts, but I have now put on Private Execution coz I'm feelin' kinda unfair

jesus this sounds horrible, will have to work pretty hard to get into the music

Wish I hadn’t read this thread prior to hearing the record. I can’t tell if I have T.F.S.F. or if the assessment here poisoned my first impression. Definitely felt like the first track was missing sufficient bass to give it any kind of punch. And three records in I now know what a “by the numbers” song sounds like from this band.

Still room for it to be a grower. “G.A.F.F.” for instance didn’t to much for me as an advance single nor on my first listen to the whole album, but now it’s growing on me. Not sure if that’s due to quality or familiarity.

Yeah me too (wish I hadn't read this thread)

i didn't end up being as bothered by the mix as i was expecting

Yeah the mastering - if not the mix - on this is really off. So middy it's ugly.
Musically I like the album as much as the last couple really. I think there's plenty of great songs on it.
But pretty unpleasant to listen to, unfortunately.

I'm afraid each successive album has marked a further step along the decline. Hopefully their next will give the lie to that tendency.

The songs are good on the new one, I've only had a couple of listens but I'm not hearing anything as catchy as previous LPs.

Has the band commented on the mix or sound of the album? I wouldn't be surprised if they made it this way on purpose.

Following up my comment above to say that I do really like "Legal Ghost" a lot.

I've listened to it a couple more times since my initial post complaining about the mix, and I do think most of the songs are OK, but I do have to listen to it at a lower volume than usual.

Fortunately, I just discovered them earlier this year so am still actively obsessed with the first album. :)