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PREMIERE: Beautiful Beasts are back with delicious 80’s inspired sex funk to get you through your working week just right

There seems to be a bit of a resurgence happening right now for 80s-inspired groove ensembles. Think Sex On Toast with their glitter-spangled amalgamation of funk, big band horns, and camp disco undertones. It’s the kind of music that by every account should be cheesy, borderingĀ on retro overkill. But it just isn’t. It’s actually pretty fucking cool. This is where Melbourne seven-piece Beautiful Beasts sit; on the edge of falling into a chasm of retro triteness. But they don’t. Instead they fly high.

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Cramming elements of 80s cheese, disco, funk and soul into a tight pop package, Beautiful Beasts bring some pure groove on Pony Ride.

Beautiful Beasts are a seven-piece hailing from Melbourne who dabble in elements of funk, soul, disco and 80s R&B, reining everything in into a cocktail of unbridled sexual potency. With seven members they manage to traverse a lot of sonic territory, with keys, guitars, funk bass clanging together in a wonderfully cacophonous racket.

What is most present about the expansiveness of the band, though, is the vocals. With a mix of male and female vocalists, Beautiful Beasts create this sonic soiree within their music. Something that acts like Fat Freddy’s Drop do really well: it’s music to party to. But the band still retain this sense of innocence in creating their sound. It’s not lewd party music, it’s just kind of fun.

This is the vibe on their new single Pony Ride – the first of a double A-side the band are putting out. Teaming up once again with long-time producer Robert Amoruso of Melbourne hip-hop collective Jakubi – who no doubt injects an element of pop sheen to the recordings – the single sees the band return to their signature groove. All soaring vocals, clanging funk guitars, hand claps and promiscuous percussion, the tune conjures all the right elements of cheese from past musical peaks and makes them their own.

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There is an element of experimentation in the song that gives it this playful, unpredictable nature, with elements popping in and out, just briefly enough so that you forget about them, but not before they sneak up on you again. The production is dry and uncomplicated though, so everything fits in all neat and refined, just like a good pop track should.

Beautiful Beasts are taking Pony Ride (and its flip-side brother titled The 90s) on the road. You can catch them at their hometown show at The Grace Darling in Melbourne on the Eve of the Queens Birthday before they take on Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide and Mildura. Get all the details below:

Sun 12th June – Grace Darling Hotel, Melbourne VIC.
Fri 1st July – Corporate Moose, Mildura VIC
Sat 2nd July – Crown and Sceptre, Adelaide SA.
Thur 7th July – The Phoenix, Canberra ACT
Fri 8th July – The World Bar, Sydney NSW
Sat 9th July – Captain Cook Hotel, Sydney NSW