<p><span><span><em>- Create, Simulate</em>, the new EP from Brisbane band Nice Biscuit, may be indebted to the past, but never feels anything less than forward thinking. Through these six psychedelic slices, Nice Biscuit, capture battles against woes of ecological concern and misogyny in a country that’s changing. </span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Nice Biscuit’s previous release, their album <em>Digital Mountain </em>from 2018, introduced us to their witty and charming rock. On <em>Create, Simulate</em>, they merge their lighthearted psychedelia, its garage and pop influences, with meaningful stories. Having seen Nice Biscuit live twice - recently in December 2020, and the first time in early March 2020, mere days before the world went into lockdown - the improvisational, yet tight and compact energy of their EP is as immersive as the matching dance moves and costumes that are staples of their live show.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span><em>Fem Chem</em>, the lead single and opening track, is a dazzling cut of spaced-out rock that takes influence from the Perth psych rock scene, namely <strong>King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard</strong>, <strong>Psychedelic Porn Crumpets</strong> and <strong>POND</strong>. Yet charming vocals courtesy of lead singers <strong>Grace Cuell</strong> and <strong>Billie Star</strong> provide femininity that contrasts the heavily male dominated sub-genre they perform in.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span><em>Pink River</em>, at a second shy of six minutes, opens with distorted fuzz from the band’s guitars, it packs a punch, channelling the nostalgic charm of listening to ‘70’s rock playing through a portable AM radio. Nice Biscuit have long been described as a space-rock band, still, lyrics that describe gravity-defying fruit are a particularly meta self-reference to the psychedelic world they’re creating; one song at a time.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>After <em>Space Dogs</em>, an instrumental interlude that would be equally fitting soundtracking a spaghetti western, the EP’s final two tracks <em>Candle</em> and <em>Limbs</em> create a nice symmetry for the EP, not least because they are as stark and stunning as the first two!</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Though we’re only two months into 2021, <em>Create, Simulate </em>by Nice Biscuit makes a case to be considered the best EP of the year so far. Its mix of garage and psychedelia is as refreshing as it is charming. <em>Create, Simulate </em>is rock music in orbit, Nice Biscuit’s most timeless and telling work yet.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>- Sean Tayler.</span></span></p>
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