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Music

Ever seen a volcanic eruption? Clever are far more intense

A degenerate amalgam of mutated underground punk and venomous noise rock, Clever are one the most furious forces to hit the Brisbane underground music scene in 2016.

A shambolic collection of Brisbane locals drawn from Per Purpose, The Wrong Man, Sewers and Psy Ants, the four-piece comprises of drummer Callum Galletly, guitarist Fred Gooch, bassist Harry Bryne and front man Mitch Perkins. Formed in 2015 the group’s incisive noise punk has become a regular feature within Brisbane’s underground scene. Their music is rage incarnate, exacerbated by the swelter of Queensland’s oppressive heat.

Clever your eyesore's sweat
Photo by Glen Schenau

When the mundane becomes oppressive, Clever will lash out in all their rage. One listen to Your Eyesore’s Sweat is like watching a volcanic eruption.

Backed by malicious guitar riffs and pounding rhythms Perkins inhabits the role of the tortured and bitterly twisted demagogue. The question of where this persona comes from is too dark of a notion to consider, but there’s an undeniably seductive rawness to the group’s tormented signature sound.

Cutting the chaos of their live act into two minute track, Your Eyesore’s Sweat is the first single from the group’s forthcoming debut Kewdi Udi. The fevered track takes the form of an adrenaline fueled confessional. Littered with fevered allusions, threats, stifled screams and dark contemplations the song draws the listener into the stifling underbelly of Australian suburbia.

There are no pretences to Clever and the endearing rawness of Perkin’s vocals blister through the band’s sonic chaos. “Let’s all go for ‘sugar’ in the park” exhorts the derisive vocalist. Slurred and vitriolic vocals recount vivid scenes of streets so wide “they’ll swallow your feet.” The Queensland Police occupy the role of shadowy antagonists. Whether product of deep seeded paranoia or real they constantly lurk in the periphery of the troubled narrator. Fiery lyricisms capture the hellish oppression of the mundane, creating feelings of entrapment, oppression and feverish isolation.

Your Eyesore’s Sweat‘s suffocating cacophony bleeds with malice. Goosh and Bryne shred with impunity while the frenzied militancy of Galletly’s drum work continually manages to keep the group a few milliseconds from structural implosion. A frenzied tempo ebbs and flows before cataclysmically accelerating to oblivion. A brief yet deftly executed outro brings the track to swift conclusion suggesting a cold control underscoring the sonic anarchy.

Tearing apart at the seams there’s something invigorating about this Brisbane band’s volcanically self-destructive sound. Whether you’re looking for music that will take you over the edge or simply revel on the euphoria of being on the brink of utter chaos, Your Eyesore’s Sweat is the perfect psyche-up track.

The group’s debut LP Kewdi Udi is expected to drop on March via Homeless Records.