onetonnemusic

This is not the next logical progression from their earlier work, it’s very much in the same style of previous TMOC work and doesn’t depart greatly from that. I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing, we’ve all had a band we really dug release a follow up album that we didn’t really like, so if you are convinced that this is the pinnacle of Aussie rock then you’ll more than likely dig on this anyway regardless of what I say.

This album doesn’t really have the same kind of standout tracks such as interloper and LMA which was a big hit for TMOC on their Ill at ease record. The album moves quite nicely though, doesn’t drag at all across the 12 tracks and is pretty easy listening for anyone who doesn’t mind a bit of slightly harder rock. It’s genuine and enjoyable, it doesn’t really feel like they were particularly trying to score a big hit with this record – it just moves along. This could be a bad thing, but in this case it seems to work okay. I would of liked to see a bit more variety – but tracks like ‘Sleep’ really connected well for me and served as a nice counterpoint for the rest of the album.

Standout tracks include ‘Let Chaos Rule Supreme’ I dig the clean guitar opening and the distortion rhythm and drums makes for a rather fine track – possibly even my pick of the album – I’d get down and boogie my head off if I heard them play this one live. If you didn’t already get the references in the earlier albums there’s a lot of references to the second world war – its not that TMOC are all about Aussie war related stuff but they often touch on it – in a respectful but I think, anti war kind of way. Lone pine certainly makes references you’d have trouble missing -

“We dragged our boots over no mans land and held our sway when lead did swing…”

“…Nothing ahead nothing forward but the naked and dead”

I think this could be easily misconstrued as popping a hard topic into a song and calling it thought provoking as an easy out – I don’t think that’s the case, it’s a quite heartfelt tribute I think.

This album had a few surprises for me, I think it’s well worth a listen, and I’d love to see this guys update their website and play a few gigs sometime in the near future. I could say some bollocks including the words “seminal” and “pub band” – but that would be crap of me – when I started getting into their tunes I couldn’t get into the pub, and used to get down to their tracks on my massive old tape walkman on the way to school – they are infact, a mighty fine local outfit and I’m impressed by this album.

Mark of Cain – This is this…
Web: http://www.tmoc.com.au
Review cd supplied by: http://www.amrap.org
Rooart #74321847672
Released: 2002