- ARSE! It’s just fun to say, as the little old ladies -seated around the mostly empty foodcourt- look at you out of the corner of their eyes and clutch their fake pearls. The Sydney three-piece relish that part of their craft. You need look no further than the most audibly rapsed lyrics on the opening cut of their new EP “I need a safe word ...I’m about to get F****D!” Safe Word is the title of both song and EP, but somehow you know, no matter how many times you yell “Cucumber!” you’re still going to get it and, hey, you were the one who chose to be here.
Believe it or not, this little floor show does have a moral compass. The new EP is a satirical, Bad Boy Bubby cum Birthday Party journey through the excesses of Australiana, celebrating just how far up **** creek we’ve managed to get ourselves, without a paddle. As the band themselves attempt to -probably unnecessarily- explain, it’s “a crucial meditation on humankind's tendency to lean into a ****ed situation rather than get itself out.”
After a few listens I wanted to say that this new ARSE outing was actually a bit safer than their old stuff, like the ragged, bloody hardcore elements the band borrowed from outfits like Feedtime and Black Flag had been reined in, just a little. After a few listens more, however, I realise it’s just not true: this is as vicious as ever. Maybe it’s because the band are so deceptively tight, like almost too organised to be oldschool hardcore. Underneath all of the slobbering, screaming and lunging all over the place is one of the more skilled bands you’ll ever hear. Listen to the rhythmic precision, listen to the complex chord progressions, this is not a bunch of seventeen year old, three-chord punks. That’s made especially obvious by the presence of Jonathan Boulet, acting as bassist and producer. One of Australia’s quieter super-producers, when he’s not putting out everyone else’s records, his own musical output -from early days as an indie-popstar, through storming garage rock and on into the experimental madness of Party Dozen- demonstrates an extraordinary ability to make whatever kind of music he likes.
These days I think that’s exactly his approach: Dan Cunningham, Tim Watkins and he started ARSE just because they wanted to make smashing punk and please themselves, not because they expected it to go anywhere. In fact, when we reviewed the first EP I showed said review to him and his exact words were “[I’m] glad that someone liked it.” Flying in the face of the band’s own relentless cynicism, it took about six months but German label Erste Theke Tontraeger got in touch and picked the record up for a Eurpoean vinyl release, followed by an explosion of interest in the northern hemisphere. Oh and then Australia started paying attention too; good to see we don’t suffer from cultural cringe any more. Go Aussie.
With ETT again stepping in for a European release of Safe Word, things are looking kind of rosy for ARSE. Good to know something’s going right, even as Australia votes in successive governments dead set on watching the nation burn before it drowns and knowing that that same nation will probably ignore this new record too. At least I’ve got another short, brutal soundtrack to accompany humanity’s slide into extinction; peeling with laughter, vomiting noise and screaming rage all the way down. Haha, ARSE!
- Chris Cobcroft.