I said it before and I’ll say it again, there are some great musicians who have never had a lesson in their life. They just picked up an instrument and thought “I’ll give this a crack”. Others like The Cat Empire, Art vs Science and Jasia have had years of musical study, allowing them to excrete mountains of beautiful and original work on command.
Melbourne three piece Ouch My Face! are relentless on their blistering new album Bunyip. The prolific trio’s riffs are appropriately violent and loud.
Then there’s Ouch My Face! Raised in the country and trained in a Melbourne art school these misfits have always had an “I’ll give it a crack” attitude towards music making and as a result their latest Art-Punk album is the best of both worlds. The twelve-track LP Bunyip masterfully straddles the expressive and the artistic, doing away with many conventions of song writing while somehow retaining the raw catchiness of a pop-garage album. I don’t know how it works, it just does, and damn is it awesome!
The three friends comprising Ouch My Face! first donned their collaborative alter ego in 2007, hoping to experiment with music in an ‘anything goes’ environment. Since then front-woman and ARIA nominated artist Celeste Potter had been stuck in a Ben sandwich between Tip-Top© artist Ben Ely (card carrying member of Regurgitator) and raisin loaf Ben Wundersitz (undefeated NBA Xbox Champion). This tasty mid-morning snack prides itself on genre-defying, riot-evoking performances and Bunyip proves to be no exception. True to form Celeste, playing high school principle, politely welcomes us to the album in the opening track, encouraging us to listen very loudly (as if we weren’t already).
Screeching guitars let us know we’ve arrived at the second track Eye, chocked full of foot stomping beats, rambling solos and lyrics from a post-modern head and shoulders, knees and toes. Creep Heart is a spine-chilling reminder that there is a Regurgitator member in the band, it’s so weirdly misplaced and a wonderful welcome. Creep Heart is straight off a Die Antwood album.
Eaten by Buildings could have been written on a construction site. The drums pound straight into your soul, while melodies crash left and right. Also watch out for the lead guitar in the chorus, it’s backing up and you should probably get out of the way. Do the Wrong Thing urges us to do all this and more, and it’s pretty convincing.
The melancholic interlude Punched by a Giant somehow conveys intense violence while remaining the relaxing eye to this maelstrom of an album. If you like getting weird then The Hammer is the track for you. ‘Nuff said. I like yelling words! Rejection is by far a favourite track and while I’m sure there is a message buried within the lyrics I still haven’t got past yelling Rejection and jumping around.
And then it’s just gone. Celeste bids us another polite yet abrupt farewell and sends us on our way, though more than likely back to the record’s beginning.
Now out through Milk Records Bunyip can be ordered on ‘creamy while vinyl’ over on Bandcamp and Melbournites can catch their launch at The Tote on July 25 with Stockades and Dark Fair.
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