Guitar, bass, drums, vocals. Sometimes you just want pared-back, inventive rock. Tunes you can hum to but are not endless chorus. Riffs that are neither underdone nor overused. Rhythm that pops out of the groove often enough that you don’t get bored. Vocals with variety and identity. Harmonies. All the ingredients for good indie rock.
Small Town Incident hail from Sydney and comprise Gordon Kovacs (guitar/vocals), Keith Hamlyn (bass/vocals) and Rohan Geddes (drums). It’s clear from the start that they know what they’re doing with this collection of ten songs all between about two and three and a half minutes.Opening track ‘Million’ starts off quietly enough with a bit of field recording (in as much as a pub is a field) including some unplugged electric guitar warming up before launching into some loopy, bouncy, almost mathy riffs supported by bass and drums. This soon gives way to some rasping, off-key vocals from Hamlyn, ever-increasing fuzz and assorted solos of a bar or two at a time. It’s a solid but in some ways restrained start to the record that points you in the direction of what’s to come.
The whole record has a great sense of the guys sharing both the slog and the spotlight, with the clear and uncluttered lines weaving around each other as if on some giant merry-go-round, rising up and down on the well-oiled ride. Indeed Kovacs and Hamlyn share the song-writing and vocals roughly half and half which helps make the sound hard to pin down.
Although there’s a degree of familiarity in these songs I can’t put my finger on it and they don’t sound like anyone else in particular. Perhaps it reminds me of the late ’80s and early ’90s when Sydney was bringing out the best independent/alternative stuff in Australia (and a lot of world-class tunes as well), not so much in its sound but in its persona. It’s unapologetic in its honesty and gets better with every listen because the sound is accessible enough to draw you in from the start, yet imaginative enough to keep on giving.
These guys are clearly at the point where they know that they can play all sorts of wonderful and different sounds but they don’t haveto play all of them in order to be interesting and inventive. The production by Bow Campbell (guitarist in Front End Loader) is spot on for these songs, helping them achieve an unassuming, unpretentious feel.
These guys are not about playing rock-star and strutting around like peacocks. It’s all about delivering strong, well-written rock songs with skill and maturity and it deserves your attention.
You can listen to “Malcontent” on bandcamp.
