CD Review

Talking music over a couple of drinks always ends with someone namedropping an obscure band to feel out the real players at the table. If that band happens to be Euro, even better, the hipsters will love it. But throwing in that you’ve been digging some disco punk trio from Australia should more or less guarantee an awkward silence and that unspoken barroom gloat.

That’s not to say Gerling is a new band with hardcore obscurity. Their earlier albums - Children of Telepathic Experiences and When Young Terrorists Chase the Sun - received high praises, and their distinct approach to lo-tech recording has given the band a signature sound all their own. So when they finally decided to create a follow-up record, they took that do-it-yourself style and reinvented it with complete autonomy. This time making an album written, recorded and produced in their own G.E.R.L.O.G. studios in Sydney. The end result, Badblood!!!, is another garage effort, only fancier.

Darren Cross, Paul 'Presser' Towner and Burke Reid have hit an untapped vein with BadBlood!!! Straying from the choppy chords, choppy hair and choppy vintage Ts of post-punk, these guys have nice shoes and an affection for disco balls. Playing with late 70s punk swagger, and leaning towards 80s indulgence, Badblood!!! acts as a retro-predecessor of punk morphing into synth-pop. “Blood On The Microphone Part 1,“ “We Got Venom,” and “Who’s Ya Daddy” are dance club hits no matter what era. The properly titled “Newwave Machine” is just that, and “In The City” is equally named, relishing in the pop-punk glam overtaking most city clubs. Only “Get Activated” and “Wacked Light” are gritty rockers, yet even they hover on a heavy dance rhythm. But that’s no surprise. Gerling has always been about punk-dance and beats, that’s nothing new. At least that’s what you snidely tell the guys at the bar.