Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever

Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Endless Rooms (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 45:32 minutes | 570 MB | Genre: Indie Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sub Pop Records

While initial ideas for Endless Rooms were traded online during long spells spent separated by Australia’s strict lockdowns, the album was truly born during small windows of freedom in which the band would decamp to a mud-brick house in the bush around two hours north of Melbourne built by the extended Russo family in the 1970s. There, its 12 tracks took shape, informed to such an extent by the acoustics and ambience of the rambling lakeside house that they decided to record the album there (and put the house on the album cover). For the first time, the band self-produced the record (alongside engineer, collaborator and old friend, Matt Duffy). The result is a collection of songs permeated by the spirit of the place; punctuated by field recordings of rain, fire, birds, and wind. “It’s almost an anti-concept album,” says the band. “The Endless Rooms of the title reflects our love of creating worlds in our songs. We treat each of them as a bare room to be built up with infinite possibilities.”
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Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Sideways to New Italy (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 39:47 minutes | 527 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Sub Pop Records

The brilliant Hope Downs from 2018, carried by wonderfully fluid melodies, had made Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever THE Australian combo everyone was talking about. This Melbourne quintet led by the trio of singer-guitarists Joe White, his cousin Fran Keaney and Tom Russo didn’t reinvent the wheel but excelled in slightly punk-tinged indie pop, carried by those clear guitars so cherished by The Byrds and R. E.M. from the IRS Records period, and especially their older compatriots Go-Betweens and Triffids that RBCF seem to worship… With Sideways to New Italy, the Australians drive in this melodic nail by enriching their “100% aussie indie” vision. RBCF’s passion for 80’s pop is noticeable, like on The Only One with its Orange Juice-inspired tunes and on Sunglasses at the Wedding with its Belle & Sebastian influences. There are traces of The Feelies too. It’s a real bubble bath for the ears of the fans of this era. But in spite of all these many exemplified and dated references, there’s nothing outdated about the modern and addictive rock’n’roll of a band that brilliantly does something new with the old and reminds us that a good composition doesn’t need any artifice to become an instant classic. Magical. – Marc Zisman

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