Locust Revival: Mistakes | 4ZZZ Brisbane 102.1FM

- Formerly Brisbane based, now a Melbourne turncoat producer, Locust Revival has been consistently releasing records over the last few years. His self-titled 2019 release saw him embrace bright and euphoric instrumentation to contrast the dark and dreary vocals and thematic weight of his sound. In his 2020 record, Partially Here, released in the early days of COVID-19, his grim sound grew naturally.

In his newest album, a more explorative, less rigid record titled Mistakes, Locust Revival takes a step back, reflecting on his discography, and the dystopic years passed. The album kicks off with Modern Desires, with suspiciously upbeat production, challenged by the lyrics. Distorted guitars and The Cure esque Pornography era drums beam through the jangle pop that it recalls.

Mistakes, like the best post-punk, feels like a diary. The lyrics are introspective and don’t shy away from being confessional. Similarly, Locust Revival is making the music he wants to hear. His experimental attitude is in good company with The Cure, Birthday Party era Nick Cave and even Brisbane’s own Local Authority and Pleasure Symbols.

The record reaches its most experimental point on the seven and half minute jangle pop / drone hybrid Reincarnation. A fittingly titled track, these styles ebb and flow in an unconventional manner, much like the oddly danceable Decades by Joy Division or the sinister synth of Chromatics.

As much as music influences Locust Revival, Mistakes is inspired by multimedia. VVitches, spelled with a double V holds you in Locust Revival’s grasp in the similarly annunciated film The VVitch directed by Robert Eggers. The film’s musings on grief and suspicion share a cautionary tale with Mistakes, a record that soundtracks the aftermath of a tumultuous year and the self-reflection needed to find closure.

For some of the more confessional themes of the record, Locust Revival feels content to let his dreary, poetic soundscapes do the talking for him. The latter half of Reincarnation muses on a feeling through dirging, buried vocals, and bright, shimmering bass guitar.

Locust Revival’s Mistakes may haunt him, like they do all of us. For now however there’s some comfort in this reassuring record.

- Sean Tayler.