The Thousands

Lots has been made of ‘shit-gaze’ and ‘no-fi’ production values in music for a while now, most notably in America where the blown-up, overdriven sound of originals like Pink Reason, Times New Viking and Vivian Girls has seriously crossed over in indie circles to become almost a movement in itself, regardless of content. What once was a no-choice, broke recording option for songs that simply had to be heard, now seems confused – over there, anyhow – by mannered style considerations and second-wave questing to be the next real, ‘lo-fi’ thing.**Luckily, us provincials can ignore all that crap and concentrate on the perennial business of making do-or-die garage rock. Melbourne duo, Super Wild Horses, sound fashionably of the moment on their debut 7", but then again they’re so primitive that to say as much is a waste of time. The six cuts included are mostly one/two chord riffs with schoolyard singing amidst pounding, echo-warehouse drums – super minimal, short, catchy and wound-up in the girls’ special brand of distancing tin wool. More solid garage ruckus from Aarght! (Eddy Current, Dead Farmers, Ooga Boogas) with an extra dollop of Electric Prunes‘ dream