Perth indie rock outfit The Reductors have today released double single Practical Girl/Tremors, its arresting dose of post-punk energy and biting social commentary marking a thrilling sonic evolution for the band.
The group stamped its mark on Western Australia’s indie music scene with the release of debut album Caboose in 2017, cementing their loyal following through radio play and regular live shows.
Their sound, style and lyrical approach have since undergone a conscious evolution with Caboose’s highly structured songs, complex arrangements and precision recording making way for a deliberately stripped back, deconstructed and immediate experience.
Recorded at Poons Head Studio in Fremantle and produced by Rob Grant (Tame Impala, Queens of the Stone Age, Death Cab for Cutie), Practical Girl/Tremors is edgy and abrasively textured.
“We made a conscious decision to make our sound more raw than it has previously been and enhanced that by doing more live tracking and using fewer takes,” says frontman Luke Nixon.
“Caboose was heavily structured and precisely edited, and had recognisable retro influences, to create an undercurrent of civility, familiarity, and nostalgia. It was our way of exploring the isolating and alienating effect of our society’s rules, norms and institutions. The creation of Caboose was a necessary step in the subsequent dismantling of its artistic premise and we had needed to learn the rules of making it in order to unlearn them and free ourselves of their constraints.”
The new recordings strip back those tenets and structures as the band delves into the individual psyche to explore how our own emotional mechanisms and experiences shape our perceptions of the world.
Opening track Practical Girl examines how the pressure to conform causes people to wrestle with their own identities. It tells the story of a woman who works hard to meet the impossible expectations placed upon her, while feeling guilty for dreaming of what could be.
“Practical Girl is a reflection of the impossible contradictory state most of us are in as we try our best to lead fulfilling lives while being governed by expectation and obligation,” says Nixon.
Musically, the song is grounded by a pounding, methodical drumbeat, as though practical girls are being stamped out of a mould. The guitars are bold and brutal, from the overdriven main riff, to the braying bends of the bridge and the piercing modulations of the outro.
Tremors delves into the internal dialogue we all have about the consequences of our life decisions. Nixon’s haunting vocals speak of loss, regret, remorse, and pain arising from past choices, as the band moves between driving post-punk and a killer guitar solo.
The Reductors began as a loose collective back in 2010 and have since honed themselves into a slick four-piece outfit consisting of lead singer and guitarist Luke Nixon, lead guitarist Aidan Gordon, bassist Gareth Bevan and drummer Erin Gordon.
Part post-punk, part retro, The Reductors inject their music with melodic hooks and well-balanced harmonies, backing up their lyrical mastery with musical finesse.
Alongside musical influences The Smiths, The Kinks and The Velvet Underground, The Reductors’ sound is informed by literary and artistic greats like Philip K Dick, Man Ray and David Lynch.
The Reductors will celebrate the release of Practical Girl/Tremors with an official launch at the Bassendean Hotel tonight.
