Say word! Summertime heat and your man may or may not be out of town because you know the vibe. There’s a lot going, going, ghetto(!) right now and there are things that came across my desk at the last possible moment but we get it. The Last Shall Be Thirst is in the deck and yeah, Thirstin Howl The 3^rd, brings back that Golden Age, that Boom Bap! The track I can’t get enough of is “The New Yorker” featuring Varona Lytheia. It’s nostalgic but completely contemporary. Guess who else is back… Matmos with its 6-song Metallic Life Review (Thrill Jockey) and yeah, I could chill to the duo’s layered tracks here. Matmos is never conventional but that’s the charm of it.

TROPICAL FUCK STORM – FAIRYLAND CODEX

Uproarious moments in our lives are often unexpected challenges, and we meet them as best we can. The past few years we haven’t witnessed many that have been willing to take a road or route less travelled but there have been the few that were willing to fly the proverbial freak flag, not for the sake of notoriety but because it’s a prerequisite for creativity and a willingness to allow it to flourish. Damned be the naysayers.

Enter: Tropical Fuck Storm. The name alone sparks interest as it rolls off the tongue, it always has, as the second word is always enunciated more than the other two. Well, when I say it anyway. The band from down under isn’t categorized or filed neatly as one particular thing, as it moves around art punk spaces and experimental maneuverings, with noise rock tags being much too simplistic for it to share. The band – vocalist/guitarist Gareth Liddiard, vocalist/bassist Fiona Kitschin, drummer/programmer Lauren Hammel, and vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Erica Dunn – return with their fourth full-length release Fairyland Codex (Fire Records), which is…different. The album is different in the sense that nothing is quite like a Tropical Fuck Storm, as songs are dismembered, reassembled, and snapped to pieces once again.

We can take “Dunning Kruger’s Loser Control,” which is probably my favorite track here, as a clear-cut example. While Liddiard’s lyricism here may be a grind, dealing with the mundane wrapped in bullshit as(s) we rinse & repeat the same cycle, the band pieces together melodies that shouldn’t work, but do, with rhythms that gallop around multiple angles, and harmonies that balance everything else out especially around its choruses. The splendor surrounding it all is magnificent, with a malignant tumor around the musical gristle. Things may seem as if they’d fall apart, but never do. That’s the beauty of the group’s songwriting.  Tropical Fuck Storm rarely moves quicker than a mid-tempo, instead relishing around creating canopies of layered sound to indulge us all. On “Irakandji Syndrome,” caterwauling guitars that never fall into self-indulgence instead coat moments and spaces within to electrify. Liddiard’s lyrics are filled with dread as the group melds its instruments together and tears them apart at the same time. It’s both frightening and intriguing at the same time. But it’s “Goon Show,” with its psych punk blues throb that might just garner your attention here. Liddiard’s words are bleak and mirror societal ills that force you to stand at attention, but it’s the pulsing rhythm that holds onto an infectious melody layered with vocal harmonies that’s oddly hypnotic.

Throughout Fairyland Codex, songs are beautifully disjointed, coated with sugary melodies. Tropical Fuck Storm never gives up quality for quantity using instruments to their full capabilities without need for overindulgence. While TFS’s music may live on the fringes, the band attacks with a mainstream fervor that will never allow anyone to shake the songs out of their heads. This is one of the greatest albums of the year. Indeed.