Nite Songs

  Rising out of the back alleys of the Sunshine Coast, the Chats basically make Amyl & The Sniffers look like King Crimson in terms of musical simplicity with Get Fucked  being the follow-up to 2020's High Risk Behaviour . It's pretty clear very early on that not much has really changed in the world of the Chats with the opening four tracks 6Ltr GTR , Struck By Lightning , Boggo Breakout  and Southport Superman  zipping past in a little under six minutes. To be fair, there's the odd attempt by the Chats to break out of their two-minute-thrash-punk straitjacket such as the mid-paced Price Of Smokes  which could almost be the weird missing link between the Cockney Rejects and Wire or the I Wanna Be Your Dog  indebted Emperor Of The Beach  but what generally carries this album through is that the Chats are just very good at what they do which is simple no-nonsense heads down thrash as evidenced on Ticket Collector , Panic Attack  and Out On The S...

  So here we go, part 2 of the end of year rundown as we reach the Top 40. Cue up one of the old Top of the Pops themes if it helps with the atmosphere for this bit. Anyway... 40. PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS - "Viscerals" ( Bandcamp ) Unquestionably the heaviest album on this list, it's easy to get put off Pigs x7 (as I will refer to them here to save space) by the hipster-ish name but lurking within Viscerals  is a brutally heavy guitar assault with Sabbath-heavy sludge-metal riffs on tunes like Reducer , Crazy In Blood  and Hell's Teeth  which sink their teeth into you and refuse to let go. Slightly terrifying on your first listen, oddly addictive by your fourth. *** 39. RIZ AHMED - "The Long Goodbye" ( Bandcamp ) Best known for his role in the excellent film Four Lions , The Long Goodbye  proved that Riz Ahmed is a hell of a talent as a musician as well. A furiously angry diatribe from the point of view of a British Muslim which compares his relati...

  Now the last time I had a group land in my review pile from Australasia who were hyped as the next big thing and played ultra-stripped-down back to basics garage punk, it was New Zealand's Amyl & The Sniffers 12 months ago. And...well, let's say I didn't quite see the hype about it. So given that Aussie garage punks the Chats have arrived here with a similar sort of hype, it's safe to say I was a bit cynical going into listening to this one. Hold the front page though because High Risk Behaviour  is...well, it's alright actually. Sounding like Dirt Box Disco relocated to a particularly grotty Sunshine Coast neighbourhood and stripped down to the basics sonically, the Chats aren't big or clever but there's something at least enjoyable about their ultra-knucklehead take on garage punk - all three chord rampaging and songs about booze ( Drunk And Disorderly ), drugs ( The Kids Need Guns ), STD's ( The Clap ), being skint ( Pub Feed ) and getting beate...