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Live Review: Nice Biscuit bring a psych-pop apocalypse on 'Captain'

28 February 2018 | 9:25 am | Kyle Fensom

Nice Biscuit bring a psych-pop apocalypse with their impressive single, 'Captain', the first release from newly-launched Sydney label Break Even Recordings.

Brisbane six-piece NICE BISCUIT have unleashed their latest single, ‘Captain’, an electrifying four-and-a-half minutes of apocalyptic psych-pop. ‘Captain’ is also the first release to come out of the newly launched Sydney-based independent label, Break Even Recordings, an imprint of Inertia Music designed to provide a platform for emerging Australian artists, and kicks things off in impressive style.

A Krautrock-indebted rhythm section provides a stable bedrock for rolling, psychedelic guitar solos to freely roam, before the track solidifies into a groove that makes way for the double harmonies of front-women Billie and Grace. The relentlessly driving beat, a loping bass line and murky, distortion-driven guitars coalesce into a groove that sounds as if it were slow-moving through a thick layer of sludge, offering an eerie, portentous atmosphere to Billie and Grace’s breathy vocal performances.

It would be easy to say that the songwriting feels loose and free-flowing throughout the track, but in fact it’s intricately structured, with heavy interludes breaking up the verses and multiples sections and motifs that introduce themselves, build and then never repeat again, harkening back to Nice Biscuit’s jam band origins. The playing feels similarly loose in spirit, but the band displays a tight, cohesive singularity when they all lock into the same groove towards the end of the track, or when they pause for a virtuosic, rapid-fire break before the final verse. It's an exciting step forward for a band that has continued to evolve, and now with the team of Break Even behind them, it really feels like they're only just getting started.

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'Captain' is out now via Break Even Recordings. Catch Nice Biscuit on tour!

IMAGE: Savannah van der Niet

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