Elusive NSW South Coast duo Tropical Strength unveil new single “Pile of Shit” and announce their debut album “Zutti”, out on Friday, May 11th, 2018, on Farmer & The Owl via Inertia Music.
The new track arrives to us via a video shot entirely on selfie-stick by Tropical Strength's protagonist/frontperson Al Foil as he traverses Europe.
Watch the video for “Pile of Shit” below.
A veritable collage of Australian sideshow psychedelia - “Pile of Shit” builds and warps whilst a host of lo-fi animations created by Will Chittick steadily encroach the screen, all but taking over as the song loops towards its conclusion. The DIY visual treatment, edited by James Kates, is fitting for the song's message, which Foil explains is “dedicated to my own reflection - a message from me to me”.
Self-recorded at home over an ambiguous period of time, “Zutti” as an album was almost never to be. “When I first started recording I had no intention of releasing an album”, says Foil. “The songs were more like musical diary entries and ambient sound collage experiments than anything else. I guess that's why the final product is so anomalous and genre-fluid”.
Eventually collaborating with his brother, who plays under the pseudonym Sir Dinsington, the Tropical Strength project rose to consciousness. “With my brother's input we became more involved with developing the ideas into songs. A lot of the time he would mishear me singing from my room and what he had heard would be better than what I was actually singing”. The result is a sonic collection which holds both a special kind of disarray and creative purity, recorded without the pressures of time or judgement, and totally void of extrospective intent.
Where keen eyes may recognise the duo and Foil from other South Coast bands including Shining Bird and The Pinheads, Tropical Strength sees Foil realise the potential of his own introspection as primary songwriter, letting it shape his individual musical narrative.
Foil compares his songwriting style to authors like Flannery O'Conner or Haruki Murakami, “Kind of like how they go about writing a book - we'd start a song without knowing where it was going after conceiving an idea”, he explains, “where that idea comes from is somewhere unknown, but it has a special quality, and you start collaging the rest of the song around it... like capturing a fleeting spirit out of the ether and then building an appropriate home for it”.
As well as previously released singles “Let's Take A Walk” and “Tomorrow Never Snows”, some of the duo's more experimental offerings also made their way through this process and onto “Zutti”, including “Let the Sunburn”, “created whilst I was zoning out in a lecture conducted by a man with a tone of voice resembling the hum of a refrigerator”, and 50 second teaser jam “Sixtle”, “which sounds like a disco run through a vacuum cleaner”.
“Zutti” is truly a personal and emotional musical retrospective of Foil's life to date, created naturally alongside his brother. Influenced by the events of his past, present and often imagined (yet no less valid) realities, the album is as much a journey into our protagonists inner-psyche as it is one portrait of growing up in small-town coastal suburbia. Dreamy, yet often warped and isolated soundscapes are brewed together with just the right amount of nostalgia. Tropical Strength is ready to invite the onlooker in, and serve “Zutti” to the world.
Pre-order “Zutti” here.
Tracklist:
1. Wake in Fright
2. Stand by Me
3. Let's Take A Walk
4. Brian We Know
5. Pile of Shit
6. Here I Am
7. Sixtle
8. Let's the Sunburn
9. Vertigo
10. Tropical Strength
11. Tomorrow Never Snows
12. Zutti
13. Where Does the Time Go
Live Shows 2018:
Friday, April 20 | Waywards, Newtown NSW
Saturday, April 21 | Frank's Wild Years, Thirroul NSW
Friday, May 11 | Alpha Gallery, Sydney NSW
Saturday, May 26 | Secret Location, Coledale NSW
Weblinks:
www.facebook.com/TropicalStrength
www.instagram.com/tropicalstrength
The new track arrives to us via a video shot entirely on selfie-stick by Tropical Strength's protagonist/frontperson Al Foil as he traverses Europe.
Watch the video for “Pile of Shit” below.
A veritable collage of Australian sideshow psychedelia - “Pile of Shit” builds and warps whilst a host of lo-fi animations created by Will Chittick steadily encroach the screen, all but taking over as the song loops towards its conclusion. The DIY visual treatment, edited by James Kates, is fitting for the song's message, which Foil explains is “dedicated to my own reflection - a message from me to me”.
Self-recorded at home over an ambiguous period of time, “Zutti” as an album was almost never to be. “When I first started recording I had no intention of releasing an album”, says Foil. “The songs were more like musical diary entries and ambient sound collage experiments than anything else. I guess that's why the final product is so anomalous and genre-fluid”.
Eventually collaborating with his brother, who plays under the pseudonym Sir Dinsington, the Tropical Strength project rose to consciousness. “With my brother's input we became more involved with developing the ideas into songs. A lot of the time he would mishear me singing from my room and what he had heard would be better than what I was actually singing”. The result is a sonic collection which holds both a special kind of disarray and creative purity, recorded without the pressures of time or judgement, and totally void of extrospective intent.
Where keen eyes may recognise the duo and Foil from other South Coast bands including Shining Bird and The Pinheads, Tropical Strength sees Foil realise the potential of his own introspection as primary songwriter, letting it shape his individual musical narrative.
Foil compares his songwriting style to authors like Flannery O'Conner or Haruki Murakami, “Kind of like how they go about writing a book - we'd start a song without knowing where it was going after conceiving an idea”, he explains, “where that idea comes from is somewhere unknown, but it has a special quality, and you start collaging the rest of the song around it... like capturing a fleeting spirit out of the ether and then building an appropriate home for it”.
As well as previously released singles “Let's Take A Walk” and “Tomorrow Never Snows”, some of the duo's more experimental offerings also made their way through this process and onto “Zutti”, including “Let the Sunburn”, “created whilst I was zoning out in a lecture conducted by a man with a tone of voice resembling the hum of a refrigerator”, and 50 second teaser jam “Sixtle”, “which sounds like a disco run through a vacuum cleaner”.
“Zutti” is truly a personal and emotional musical retrospective of Foil's life to date, created naturally alongside his brother. Influenced by the events of his past, present and often imagined (yet no less valid) realities, the album is as much a journey into our protagonists inner-psyche as it is one portrait of growing up in small-town coastal suburbia. Dreamy, yet often warped and isolated soundscapes are brewed together with just the right amount of nostalgia. Tropical Strength is ready to invite the onlooker in, and serve “Zutti” to the world.
Pre-order “Zutti” here.
Tracklist:
1. Wake in Fright
2. Stand by Me
3. Let's Take A Walk
4. Brian We Know
5. Pile of Shit
6. Here I Am
7. Sixtle
8. Let's the Sunburn
9. Vertigo
10. Tropical Strength
11. Tomorrow Never Snows
12. Zutti
13. Where Does the Time Go
Live Shows 2018:
Friday, April 20 | Waywards, Newtown NSW
Saturday, April 21 | Frank's Wild Years, Thirroul NSW
Friday, May 11 | Alpha Gallery, Sydney NSW
Saturday, May 26 | Secret Location, Coledale NSW
Weblinks:
www.facebook.com/TropicalStrength
www.instagram.com/tropicalstrength