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A Laughing Death in Meatspace
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A Laughing Death in Meatspace
A Laughing Death in Meatspace is the debut album of Melbourne-based supergroup Tropical Fuck Storm, formed by members of The Drones, Palm Springs and High Tension. The band, wishing to step away from the more rock-centric sound that The Drones were known for prior to their final pre-hiatus album Feelin Kinda Free, utilized a range of obscure digital guitar effects, synthesizers, drum machines, and DAW software such as ProTools to create the music. Finished less than eight months after their first few live performances, the speed at which the album was recorded also had a heavy influence on its idiosyncratic sound, which combines genres such as punk blues, art punk, psychedelic rock and noise rock with influences from pop and electronic music. Written by Liddiard with contributions from other members, the lyrics have been described as apocalyptic and darkly humorous; tackling subjects such as technological advancement, political polarization, socioeconomic inequality, xenophobia, culture wars and many others. The album title links a Silicon Valley slang for the physical world with the neurodegenerative disorder of kuru found in the Fore people of Papua New Guinea.
Four singles were released from the album over late 2017 and early 2018. Music videos for each of them (including the track "The Future of History") were also made available on the band's official YouTube channel. Shortly after its release, the band signed with Joyful Noise Recordings, who were responsible for distributing the album in the US. The album enjoyed a "generally favorable reception" internationally, garnering praise for both its raw and unusual style as well as its lyricism. Several noteworthy musicians such as Thalia Zedek and Britt Daniel have also expressed their love for the album since its release, and it went on to appear on numerous year-end lists from publications around the world.
After the release of I See Seaweed in 2013, Drones founder Gareth Liddiard expressed his desire to step away from the more rock-centric style of previous Drones albums on Feelin Kinda Free, their final album before going on hiatus. "Before we moved to Melbourne back in the 90s," he said in an interview with Musicfeeds, "we were a very weird sounding band. It was Melbourne that turned us more into a rock band, which kind of helped us to get gigs. This is a return to the way we were before in a way – getting drunk, getting stoned, noodling on anything you can find and making weird little songs." The year following their hiatus, Liddiard and longtime bandmate Fiona Kitschin started writing material for a new project under the name for the record label (coined by Dan Kelly) under which the last Drones album was self-released. The pair recruited Erica Dunn (Palm Springs) and Lauren Hammel (High Tension) during the summer of 2017, prior to embarking on an American tour. According to Dunn, "They just rang me up. Gareth and Fi were on loudspeaker like excited children. The pitch was 'Do you want to play guitar? We’re just going to do some weird shit.' And I was like 'Okay, sure.' Then Gareth said 'We might go to America in the next month, are you free? And we have to write some songs.' Sure I'll clear my schedule. Hammer [Lauren Hammel] was a bit different though, because [Gareth] didn't know her and he had to take her to the pub." Shortly thereafter, the band embarked on a tour of the U.S. with Band of Horses and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard during the autumn of 2017.
Teenage Engineering OP-1 keys and drum machines. Anything made by Eventide. Granular Effects stompboxes. Lots of weird obscure iPhone drum machine apps. Contact mics. Tea towels gaffed onto all the drums. Magic mushrooms.
A Laughing Death in Meatspace was finished in less than eight months after the band played their first shows in September 2017. Recorded by the members themselves at their home studio (titled Dodgy Brothers Studio), Liddiard later said that it was "all done in a rush [...] it was weird. Mad experimentation really, at the same time trying to keep it groovy and succinct. Trying to figure out what kind of weird angle can each of us fit. Everything was written fast, [...] It was a good way to make a record. We didn’t have much time to reflect which is good. We just banged everything out and got on the road." In an interview with Happy Mag, he also stated that the record was made while the members were learning to be a band together: "So it’s not perfect or fully formed or anything but it’s cool."
On being asked of the album's "really interesting" use of guitar fuzz on tracks such as "Antimatter Animals" and "The Future of History", Liddiard revealed that he'd tried to "mix into the box as much as possible.... compress, eq, effects and dirt etc. I like to print it all coz otherwise you never make any hard decisions and shit gets bogged down [...] Digital is crystal clear and clean so it’s actually kinda hard to dirty everything up." He added: "I have a bunch of old Quad Eight and Electrodyne and API and JLM stuff and I just crank the gain and try to knock the peaks of on the line amps. Then I hardly compress anything after that." After recording the drums, the band would use ProTools to manipulate certain portions of the groove, creating "the most unlikely sort of beat". This was done in order to "get away from that four on the floor, classic John Bonham [drumming style]. [...] It’s gotta be groovy."
The explosions in "Two Afternoons," "A Laughing Death," and "Rubber Bullies" are glorious and frightening, so big they don't feel quite real, but there's a story trying to climb out of the noise, carried by Liddiard's weariness, his uncynical fatalism, but shaped by the counter-vocals of Kitschin and Dunn. Liddiard is responding instinctively to the war they are all describing; they are thinking about it. Soon you may begin to hear him as the background singer, and the women in the background as the leads. The balance shifts inside the songs, back and forth, back and forth, and you can feel as if this is what history sounds like as it's being written.
In interviews, the band said that they were "thinking about what [they] were not going to do" whilst recording the album. "The only loose reference", Liddiard revealed, "was a Fela Kuti type thing where it's more groove based, girl vocals and boy vocals, but instead of having boys back girls or girls back the boys, it’s on a more even keel. It's more rhythmic." The band were also listening to Suburban Lawns and hip-hop musicians such as GZA. Liddiard had also expressed his appreciation for pop & electronic musicians & producers such as Rihanna, Blevin Blectum, Missy Elliott and Timbaland, calling the latter two "iconoclasts". In other interviews, Gareth listed Mohamed Rouicha, George Michael, James Brown and Captain Beefheart as influences, and described the record's sound as "funky". Of the songwriting process, he said: "I’m deliberately trying to write shorter, and more sort of pop. In The Drones it’s a savoury thing, but this it’s trying for something sweet and savoury, more like Talking Heads—it’s a minor chord thing but you can dance to it. It’s like a [...] [s]mall budget disaster movie. [...] There’s a sense of fun, a playfulness".
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A Laughing Death in Meatspace
A Laughing Death in Meatspace is the debut album of Melbourne-based supergroup Tropical Fuck Storm, formed by members of The Drones, Palm Springs and High Tension. The band, wishing to step away from the more rock-centric sound that The Drones were known for prior to their final pre-hiatus album Feelin Kinda Free, utilized a range of obscure digital guitar effects, synthesizers, drum machines, and DAW software such as ProTools to create the music. Finished less than eight months after their first few live performances, the speed at which the album was recorded also had a heavy influence on its idiosyncratic sound, which combines genres such as punk blues, art punk, psychedelic rock and noise rock with influences from pop and electronic music. Written by Liddiard with contributions from other members, the lyrics have been described as apocalyptic and darkly humorous; tackling subjects such as technological advancement, political polarization, socioeconomic inequality, xenophobia, culture wars and many others. The album title links a Silicon Valley slang for the physical world with the neurodegenerative disorder of kuru found in the Fore people of Papua New Guinea.
Four singles were released from the album over late 2017 and early 2018. Music videos for each of them (including the track "The Future of History") were also made available on the band's official YouTube channel. Shortly after its release, the band signed with Joyful Noise Recordings, who were responsible for distributing the album in the US. The album enjoyed a "generally favorable reception" internationally, garnering praise for both its raw and unusual style as well as its lyricism. Several noteworthy musicians such as Thalia Zedek and Britt Daniel have also expressed their love for the album since its release, and it went on to appear on numerous year-end lists from publications around the world.
After the release of I See Seaweed in 2013, Drones founder Gareth Liddiard expressed his desire to step away from the more rock-centric style of previous Drones albums on Feelin Kinda Free, their final album before going on hiatus. "Before we moved to Melbourne back in the 90s," he said in an interview with Musicfeeds, "we were a very weird sounding band. It was Melbourne that turned us more into a rock band, which kind of helped us to get gigs. This is a return to the way we were before in a way – getting drunk, getting stoned, noodling on anything you can find and making weird little songs." The year following their hiatus, Liddiard and longtime bandmate Fiona Kitschin started writing material for a new project under the name for the record label (coined by Dan Kelly) under which the last Drones album was self-released. The pair recruited Erica Dunn (Palm Springs) and Lauren Hammel (High Tension) during the summer of 2017, prior to embarking on an American tour. According to Dunn, "They just rang me up. Gareth and Fi were on loudspeaker like excited children. The pitch was 'Do you want to play guitar? We’re just going to do some weird shit.' And I was like 'Okay, sure.' Then Gareth said 'We might go to America in the next month, are you free? And we have to write some songs.' Sure I'll clear my schedule. Hammer [Lauren Hammel] was a bit different though, because [Gareth] didn't know her and he had to take her to the pub." Shortly thereafter, the band embarked on a tour of the U.S. with Band of Horses and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard during the autumn of 2017.
Teenage Engineering OP-1 keys and drum machines. Anything made by Eventide. Granular Effects stompboxes. Lots of weird obscure iPhone drum machine apps. Contact mics. Tea towels gaffed onto all the drums. Magic mushrooms.
A Laughing Death in Meatspace was finished in less than eight months after the band played their first shows in September 2017. Recorded by the members themselves at their home studio (titled Dodgy Brothers Studio), Liddiard later said that it was "all done in a rush [...] it was weird. Mad experimentation really, at the same time trying to keep it groovy and succinct. Trying to figure out what kind of weird angle can each of us fit. Everything was written fast, [...] It was a good way to make a record. We didn’t have much time to reflect which is good. We just banged everything out and got on the road." In an interview with Happy Mag, he also stated that the record was made while the members were learning to be a band together: "So it’s not perfect or fully formed or anything but it’s cool."
On being asked of the album's "really interesting" use of guitar fuzz on tracks such as "Antimatter Animals" and "The Future of History", Liddiard revealed that he'd tried to "mix into the box as much as possible.... compress, eq, effects and dirt etc. I like to print it all coz otherwise you never make any hard decisions and shit gets bogged down [...] Digital is crystal clear and clean so it’s actually kinda hard to dirty everything up." He added: "I have a bunch of old Quad Eight and Electrodyne and API and JLM stuff and I just crank the gain and try to knock the peaks of on the line amps. Then I hardly compress anything after that." After recording the drums, the band would use ProTools to manipulate certain portions of the groove, creating "the most unlikely sort of beat". This was done in order to "get away from that four on the floor, classic John Bonham [drumming style]. [...] It’s gotta be groovy."
The explosions in "Two Afternoons," "A Laughing Death," and "Rubber Bullies" are glorious and frightening, so big they don't feel quite real, but there's a story trying to climb out of the noise, carried by Liddiard's weariness, his uncynical fatalism, but shaped by the counter-vocals of Kitschin and Dunn. Liddiard is responding instinctively to the war they are all describing; they are thinking about it. Soon you may begin to hear him as the background singer, and the women in the background as the leads. The balance shifts inside the songs, back and forth, back and forth, and you can feel as if this is what history sounds like as it's being written.
In interviews, the band said that they were "thinking about what [they] were not going to do" whilst recording the album. "The only loose reference", Liddiard revealed, "was a Fela Kuti type thing where it's more groove based, girl vocals and boy vocals, but instead of having boys back girls or girls back the boys, it’s on a more even keel. It's more rhythmic." The band were also listening to Suburban Lawns and hip-hop musicians such as GZA. Liddiard had also expressed his appreciation for pop & electronic musicians & producers such as Rihanna, Blevin Blectum, Missy Elliott and Timbaland, calling the latter two "iconoclasts". In other interviews, Gareth listed Mohamed Rouicha, George Michael, James Brown and Captain Beefheart as influences, and described the record's sound as "funky". Of the songwriting process, he said: "I’m deliberately trying to write shorter, and more sort of pop. In The Drones it’s a savoury thing, but this it’s trying for something sweet and savoury, more like Talking Heads—it’s a minor chord thing but you can dance to it. It’s like a [...] [s]mall budget disaster movie. [...] There’s a sense of fun, a playfulness".