GutterPutter

Tropical Fuck Storm (also known more politely as TFS) is the name given to the Australian supergroup that’s made up of the members of some of the country’s most notable acts. Co-lead singers Gareth Liddiard & Fiona Kitschin are initally recognised as being a part of the acclaimed The Drones whose success from Wait Long by the River… in 2005 grants a wave of recognition to the Australian music scene. Meanwhile, drummer Lauren Hammel & guitarist/keyboardist Erica Dunn were known for popping in & out of the Australian scene through performing in several obscure bands throughout the 2010s (albeit never collaborating with each other before TFS). When the band was founded in 2017, their debut in A Laughing Death in Meatspace was released a year later to positive reviews for its blend of punk blues influence to recognisable post-punk distortion on top of literate subtexts. Now, Deep States is made to continue on the stylistic that the band had set out or rather, grow in its grotesque feedback & distortion even more – the blues touch is still there, but it’s underneath all of the harsh layers that is buried. The treasure of course being that it’s all about conspiracies, politics & pain; personal topics that can sting for long but the drive to shock is what makes punk so big in the first place. The question is, will TFS succeed in it as with Meatspace?

You might find that the answer to such is that for a while, it’s a yes. The intro in ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’ may not be the most mind-blowing, but it makes up in its impassioned singing & sludgy distortions as lines are thrown in a bout of criticism against the moral high ground. ‘Good luck being perfect, now I’m back in town/ Raising your standards ain’t gonna save you now’ is a sure way to prove your appeal to even the tightest gentlemen & ladies of the society. ‘G.A.F.F’, one of the singles of the album, taunts the media’s obsession with tragedies & politics with expletives, a rhythmic singing from Liddiard & in the last half of the song, proceeds to double down on its shocking theme. With a parallel being drawn between businesses & warfare, the semantic field paints a damning portrayal of the society that’s bound in contradiction through fetishising the problems that it causes. ‘Blue Beam Baby’ is one that I’m not to much of a fan of as while it tackles with an interesting notion that is the Blue Beam conspiracy theory, the execution dilutes the potential. The attempted harmonic singing via production layering & Liddiard’s high notes verge into being as hysterical as its subject matter.

‘Suburbiopia’ is similar to the previous track as it’s around ‘an epic exploration of the upside of being in a suicide cult’ according to the description of its official Youtube video, yet my ultimate impression is that it can be a hit-&-miss. The vulgarity & overt comment on the bad side can get in the way of its message. The industrial sounds though is a nice touch & it adds to the disorienting noises that rings through. ‘Bummer Sanga’ is the most on-topic about the COVID pandemic & the mental toils that can ensue from having to stay at home for the whole year & a half, something that can come off as being way too divisive even for the band’s rampant commentaries. Personal opinions completely aside, I would say that it doesn’t have my interest as much as it does my empathy. ‘The Donkey’ touches on the Marxist subtexts with a story of Biblical vengeance where the eponymous donkey wishes for a storm to flood the world in order to end his life of servitude under the hands of Caramellia. While it is a tad tiring to try & listen through it all with the noise rock aspect not as sharp as had hoped, the narrative is worth the listen for those with a strong fondness for the poetics.

The last third of the album is when we start to see the kicks in the supergroup come through with ease as ‘Reporting of a Failed Campaign’ gives off a brutal reminder of publicized figures like the late John McAfee. Based around the tragic downfall of the scheming Lenny, the tale helps to keep you well enticed on top of the riveting instrumentals that refuses to hold back in its frail sanity. The singing is well on the cusp of screaming & yet, the final line where Liddiard restrains it for a bit adds to the despair as time proves to be the final judge of all sins. ‘New Romeo Agent’ is a hard left turn in the whole record, an inverted variant of a dream pop song around a romance that’s on the cusp of causing a lifetime of destruction. The combination of the industrial drums, eerily sparse synths & Dunn’s melodic singing makes for quite a feat that sticks out like a fine flower. It’s quite easily the best track to a fault; people who might first learn of the band via this track are going to be taken by surprise much like MGMT’s following did with ‘Kids’.

As we draw to the close, ‘Legal Ghost’ deals with the inability to move on from the passing of a loved one & the indifference that the world has around the crucial event. The lack of distortion right until the end of the song as Liddiard starts to screech out the title in agony adds to the dissonance between the lack of care from everyone & the personal affliction of mourning. It’s all the more rending as it’s inspired by the passing of his former girlfriend in his early 20s’, adding fuel to the gravitas of the loss especially given the nostalgic search for freedom at the young age. It’s thus when we reach to the end with ‘The Confinement of The Quarks’ when there is a sense of relief amidst the largely instrumental outro. Maybe it’s the bittersweet use of the dissonance or the swooning sounds that marks the sense of finality in the middle of a largely ringing roars of the guitars or the synths. Given all that’s been explored throughout Deep States, it makes sense for all of the noises & industrial effects to somehow come to the point of resignation. Regardless of TFS’s shortcomings in this LP, one can’t help but feel ‘The Confinement…’ to be a potential foreshadowing of what might eventually come later in the future.