EP Review – Skink Tank EP by Skink Tank (2020) (Psychic Hysteria)
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Over the years I have made no secret of my absolute admiration for the varied tenets of the Melbourne jangle-pop scene, as it takes on (and just about beats) Brooklyn (New York) to claim the mantle of ‘jangle central’.
Skink Tank are my latest discovery from the city and seemed determined, even with the relative brevity of the EP format, to provided a potted example of all that is so fine about the Melbourne Jangle recipe.
The best of this debut EP is all Aussie bravado and is best seen in Melbourne Water and The Day After New Years Day. Forceful diatribes of everyday life and it’s failures, shouted out with the unabashed bombast / unconcealed blue collar accents and lyrical expression, they provide a strange mix of subtle deadpan disinterest and apposite jangled melodies that ooze lazy sunshine. It’s the sound of House Depositwith just that extra bit of intensified grumble.
The remainder of the album visits Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever ramshackle intensity in Isn’t It Nice and In The Morning, whilst the left field haunts of Melbourne jangle are represented in Like Nothing on this Earth and Look At Me Now. Such trackS dispel any semblance of tempo and drift to near spoken word vocal deliveries that are fractured by lo-fi jangled noodlings. It’s The Finks ‘Charlie’s Manifesto‘ in texture, with an added heart beat.
Amid the strongest of competition, this could be a new Melbourne act capable of being among the city’s best.
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