Tummy Rumbles

Tara
Batrider
Remote Control, 2007
4 stars

Right now it's mid-morning and I'm hungry as hell. I skipped breakfast, and my stomach is making noises that sound like a possum and a koala fighting over food scraps. I imagine that, was I to press a microphone deep into the folds of my stomach, the resultant recording would sound much like the snarling, sick, rumbling rock of Tara, the latest LP from Kiwi ex-pats Batrider (and the first released since moving to Melbourne). Tara is angry, but not so angry that you can't enjoy it musically - the tunes on here will stick in your head for days. And the album is only improved by the inclusion of mini-album Pink Guitars, Yellow Stars, which contrasts Tara's fury with a set of great stripped-back acoustic songs that could have easily stood up as a release in their own right.

Artwork: A

Published in mX, Thursday 30 August 2007.