Royal Commission: Emotional Support Australian
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Royal Commission’s first single is a raw and ready burst of irreverence and alt-rock charm, setting up Dean Robb’s latest project for potential greatness. Alfie Sansom reviews the song to make sense of the single…
Melbourne’s Royal Commission is a DIY alternative rock project by Dean Robb, recorded on second-hand guitars and pedals, a $13.95 microphone from Jaycar (apparently an Australian tech shop) and a drum machine. Robb describes it as a bedroom project, ‘bona fide 4-track recording like back in the old days’. Judging from this debut single, it’ll be a collection layered in noise and irreverence.
Emotional Support Australian is a rollicking embrace of the nonsensical and brash. Or at least that’s what I understood from the few words I managed to catch, swinging as Robb’s vocals do between Stephen Malkmus, Frank Zappa and Mark E. Smith. In fact, it sounds like a cleaner, more playful Jawbone and the Air-Rifle from Hex Enduction Hour, trading portents of doom for Spaghetti Westerns and beach photocopiers.
The chorus, “having a good time with some ladies”, is almost fusty, far too jaunty to be chauvinistic, as though the protagonist isn’t quite sure what or, quite frankly, how to have a good time with some ladies, but to hell if that’ll stop him! I can almost picture him looking into a mirror, comb in hand like the Fonz. It’s all delivered with a tongue in cheek, a hand in pocket, a groove that’s hard not to sway to. With an EP on the way in March, Emotional Support Australian is a cracking way to kick off this new musical venture.
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All words by Alfie Sansom. More writing by Alfie can be found at his Louder Than War author’s archive. You can also find Alfie’s work on his website, Argus Far.
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