Dune Rats are a rock band from Brisbane, Australia. They would describe themselves as punk rock but I wouldn’t. They maybe referring to their ethos rather than their music, but as far as their listeners are concerned this is really spaced out surf with a modern twist. They definitely brought Supergrass to mind for me – although the major difference was that Supergrass’s attempts to rekindle the flame of a classic sound could be described as successful.

Their music has an uncynical and playful wackiness that has the feel of those warm focused, blurry hippy bands flocking on the stages of Top of The Pops during the 70s and 80s. To my mind, along with hair metal and prog rock, this was exactly the kind of music that punk rock was created to destroy. It was about smashing the meaningless to bits and filling the minds of the young with passion and meaning.

The first track is called ‘Dalai Lama, Big Banana, Marajuana’ which really tells you most things you need to know about where this album is coming from. It mainly consists of the song title being repeated over and over ad nauseum to a playful, upbeat riff. The next song is about Superman and it’s called ‘Superman’. It’s all in the name of fun but at the same time it’s all a bit pointless.

The sound is very raw and built more around atmosphere and feeling than structural progression, with plenty of repetition and intensity. The vocals brush across the fuzzed out riffs, but whilst this might be pleasant if you’re stoned on a beach, in any other context the sound just washes over you and leaves no lasting memory.

Many of the tracks are, in total honesty, completely awful and rather painful to listen to. In ‘Home Sick’ the lyrics are so flimsy and careless that it sounds like they’re just making it up on the spot. It gets worst with the plodding ‘Lola’ with it’s opening lines “oh I wish we’d never fight, all your friends are super nice, oh I wish your heart’s not cold, wish you’d never grow too old”. It just stream of cliché conscious and it is bland.

It becomes really little more than limp incessant droning and it has no dynamism, soul or any kind of discernible appeal whatsoever. They have obviously tried to give the record that surfy, bleached out fuzzy quality but it doesn’t really fit properly and with songs like ‘Drugs’, the vocals just get buried in the mix and it just end up sounding like a raucous wall of nonsence.

I am sure this band has its audience and are definitely good musicians, especially the bassist. I don’t know how to place them, and I feel more than a little confused by what they’re trying to achieve. This all adds up to them being massively successful and me being proved utterly wrong. Let’s see.

1/5

‘Dune Rats’ by Dune Rats is out now on Ratbag Records.

Words by Alex Phelan (@listen_to_alex)