Audiac aren’t going to give you anything that you haven’t heard before, but bare with me, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Audiac aren’t going to give you anything that you haven’t heard before, but bare with me, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. You’ve seen movies that look similar, sound similar, tell a familiar tale and yet you still love to watch them. With that in mind it’s worth knowing that Audiac seem to have set themselves the goal of creating a well-produced, rock album that will have you tapping your feet, playing air drums and hopefully carrying your arse off to one of their live shows. So, with ‘said goal’ set, does El Toroloco achieve it?
The energy purveyed on album openers Light Years Away and No Feelings entice enough for further listening, they offer gritty guitar chords and the expected solos to match. There’s even cow bell thrown in for good measure.
Pulling Blanks and Outer Space settle the listener in for a more typical Britpop sound full of vocal harmonies and "sha-la-lala’s". Once again there’s the well-executed balance of tight drumming, guitars and vocal to carry each track.
Andrew Schraa, core songwriter and lead vocalist, stays fairly true to his sound. At times there’s a British tinge to what he’s producing, vocally and musically but it is not totally unexpected considering the long line of musical influences outlined by the band.
Midway through the album we are greeted by the more softly arranged If You Were Ever Meant To Be There which still manages to possess very catchy melodies and slowly ascending guitar and drums. Half A Guitar and Stripey both offer up some smoothly formed guitar lines and nicely arranged keys to reignite the pace of El Toroloco which concludes with the ‘cranking’ City Boy, Pixie and Bonnie & Clyde. It’s well-packaged and solidly executed from the Melbourne five-piece.
Best Track: If You Were Ever Meant To Be There
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: Meltdown ASH, Baby 81 BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB, The New Pop Dialogue SNOUT
In A Word: Crazy bull
JOHN DONALDSON
