Having stalked this band back in the ‘80s when I was an underage teenage rager – at venues such as The Club in Collingwood and St Kilda’s legendary Crystal Ballroom – news that The Wreckery had reunited (for the first time in 35 years!) to record in Melbourne’s Soundpark studios was music to my ears.
Some described them as The Birthday Party-adjacent back then, but The Wreckery – who imploded after just four years – were sneering musical outliers and their live shows felt spontaneous and dangerous. They also earned the nickname ‘The Smackery’, so the fact that our first taste of Fake Is Forever is titled Smack Me Down feels like a knowing wink.
Keep up with the latest music news, features, festivals, interviews and reviews here.
“Deep in my spleen, I knew what they were seein’…” – one of the most magnetic and criminally underrated performers this country has ever produced, Hugo Race’s effortless baritone cuts through the unhinged – oft discordant – sonic chaos while Charles Todd’s distinctive baritone sax adds urgency.
There’s mentions of braving blizzards, fleeing accident scenes, setting cars alight, “Vatican exorcists” and “kids… off their heads on chemicals and smiley meds”.
Ghoulish, atmospheric drone haunts Evil Eye and Garbage Juice – with its freakshow riffs; sing-songy, taunting vocal melodies; wailing sax; and foreboding chimes – needs syncing to a horror movie. “But we’ll all be dead soon anyway, says I…” – Race really does have a spectacular turn of phrase.
We’re ever so glad The Wreckery spent four days “in a dimly lit studio” spewing forth intriguing, inventive, sinister, fiercely original songs in between bouts of “complaining and reminiscing”.
LABEL: GOLDEN ROBOT RECORDS
RELEASE DATE: 3 NOV
