REVIEW: Eddy Current Suppression Ring

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REVIEW: Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Rush To Relax

Written by Dale Slamma

Rush to Relax tries to exude a boyish charm. It rattles around garage sounds with what it thinks is raw and real musical expression with an indie sensibility and annoying talk-singing. It is boring. I like the drumming but then I almost always like the drumming, this has to do with my hypothesis about poetry and nothing at all to do with the album in question.

I came in on this album when it was half way through. I turned it on then wandered off to do my washing, when I came back I thought I was listening not to Eddy Current Supression Ring but Sydney’s underground, so underground they’ve never seen sunlight, band Garry David. My confusion lasted about five seconds but it was a profound and telling confusion. Garry David are a joke band, fronted by the delighted and delightful Bob Blunt. The rest of the band appear to be a mixture of failed musicians who are now middle-aged, sad and possibly alcoholics. Garry David work because they are taking the piss and more or less having a good time. Eddy Current Suppression Ring are a different kettle of fish.

I’ve listened to Rush to Relax more times than I cared to, just to be sure that I didn’t like it. I took it on the bus, up a ladder and all over the streets of Newtown, the changes in location and altitude failed to make a difference. Rush to Relax is boring, repetitive and without any evidence of talent. The songs remind me of being ten years younger and thinking my hair was pretty good, it wasn’t, I was mistaken about the hair and Eddy Current Suppression are mistaken about their album. In their press release they say, ‘We are all super stoked on it and think its our best thing yet’. I’m glad I haven’t heard the other albums.

You will like this album if you ever coveted thick black-rimmed glasses, bought dead man’s trousers at an op shop or have been to the opening of a group exhibition at a tiny art gallery where you knew not only all of the artists in the show but every single person in the room. You probably bought your drink from a volunteer standing behind a milk crate full of cheap beer and the worst kind of goon. Your ex-girlfriend went home with the milk crate guy but you pretended not to care.

2/5 Stars

No Standout tracks.

Rush To Relax is out now through Shock Records.

At the TOTE in Melbourne last year. R.I.P Tote (sad face).