- Brisbane’s indie-noise guitar outfit Screamfeeder first started pumping out tunes over a quarter of a century ago. They produced six quality albums over the next decade or so, topping it off with their 2004 compilation Introducing Screamfeeder, which was a collection of their singles and almost-singles up until then. Whilst there were the occasional live performances after that, the recorded output from the individual members of Screamfeeeder was through various other collective and solo projects.
It wasn’t until 2017 that another album appeared, the highly praised and widely played Pop Guilt. The three top quality singles from that album – Alone in a Crowd, All Over It Again and Karen Trust Me - have now been added to an updated and fully remastered-for-vinyl edition of the 2004 compilation, which is being released for Record Store Day with the title Patterns Form – a play on the key refrain from the song Hi Cs, which featured on the 1996 album Kitten Licks.
If you have somehow managed to get through your life to date without ever hearing some Screamfeeder, this album is an ideal starting place. The high energy is present across all twenty-four tracks. The male / female vocal mixing of Tim Steward and Kellie Lloyd ensures variety and reduces any sense of sameness, while the sharp energetic interplay of drums and bass is anything but formulaic. The guitar sound mixes in with this in a way which over the years has drawn justified comparisons with groups as such as Pixies and Dinosaur Jr., but comparisons shouldn’t blind people to the fact that Screamfeeder’s catalogue of tunes stand tall on their own merits.
Available as a gatefold double-vinyl release, as well as on CD or online - have a listen to these tunes and you’ll readily hear a pattern forming. It reveals some of the best indie-rock to come out of Australia – this century or last.
- Andrew Bartlett.