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[ r e g u r g i t a t o r : t h e . . . a r t . o f . s a b o t a g e ] [ t e x t . o n l y . v e r s i o n ] [ b y . j o h n . c h a l m e r s ] Following a genre defying backflip with their second album, Queensland's pop saboteurs Regurgitator have blessed the world with their third LP "...art", a crafty collection of ironically progressive melody music, a mix of rich colours, plastic furniture full of smugly endearing caches anchored in the grit of their not-so-clean, beatsy pop. Strapped into his ski boots and halfway through dozens of mobile phone interviews, frontman Quan Yeomans sounds perky about the new set. 'I'm trying to get a holiday in. I'm gonna ski today. I can JUST handle a blue run. I might give snowballing a go but I'm more into skiiing.' You're a lot more adventurous with your music than your sport I offer, reflecting on the mysteries of the band's progressive leap into samples, electro effects and naff pop while playing on every [80s] retroism in the book over the past few years. 'Ya reckon? I think this is a safe album. Maybe because we spent a lot more time on it ...' Well it's definitely less of a stylistic jump than you made between the first album "Tu-Plang" and the last one "Unit". Yet "...art" remains an adventurous leap forward into the unknown, crossing genre barriers with wilful abandon and possessing all the cynical yet natural pop savvy we've come to expect of you. 'Yeah, I guess "Unit" was a big leap stylistically, but it was also more of a commercial album, this one IS less of a jump...' "Unit" might have been radio-friendly in the long run, but it wasn't entirely fashionable. Maybe that was the point. 'Well, I guess it was accidentally commercial,' Quan laughs. 'We were just lucky.' Did the band think carefully about musical direction for the new LP? 'We tried and then basically we didn't really come up with a manifesto, so we just went off in every direction, it exploded in that creative sense. There wasn't any real focus for this album like the last one. A manifesto in itself. The album infuses catchy (and at times aggressive) guitar and a very 90s riff-based pop with a grainy dance tech that morphs mid 90s industria with early bleep electronica, retro thrashy 60s pop, punk rock, electro (as seen on the brief, vocodered title track) sceptical pap and dollops of unadulterated funk, bearing a series of mindless yet gratifying, throwaway yet extremely clever and enjoyable tunes. This time around the band escaped to the coast at Watego Bay (New South Wales) to record in customary glorified home studio lounge-room style, again with the production talents of the like-mindedly quirky Magoo (whose rise to prominence can be integrally tracked with that of the band) along to lend a hand. 'Yeah it was like a five-week holiday and we got to hang out at the beach every day. Skiing while doing interviews, swimming while doing records ... [laughs at himself]. And yeah, Magoo and the band have kinda grown together. We're good friends, and he's not afraid to tell us if it sounds like shit and vice versa.' The new Gurge set is as loaded with catchy guitar riffs as ever. Indeed, there's an element of pure funk through the new album that outstrips any past outings. So, who's doing more of the guitar work these days? 'There is quite a lot of guitar work, I was surprised because I thought we'd have been sick of it by now. But I did most of the guitar work. Martin wrote one song which he sings [bassist Ben also weighs in on the songwriting and singing duties] and plays guitar on, and drums as well, but it was the most riffing I'd done for a while. It was odd, I was getting back to my guitar roots in a really lazy kinda way -- recording guitar on Pro-Tools you do one chorus and one verse and the song's kinda done!' Quan, who's been vibing on the likes of Cornelius, Luke Slater, Basement Jaxx, and Ken Ishi among others, remains keen to pursue a stylistic sensibility within the band. ('I like the fact that this band can keep moving. I listened to our first EP the other day and it's bizarre how far we've come.') Quan mentions Daft Punk who have clearly influenced the mid-riff of a new track, the cleverly sampled "Are You Being Served?" 'Oh that's just me trying to copy,' he laughs. 'I need a lot more experience with that side of things ... I'd like to remix it as a single and do a better job, just for the novelty, it's just the kind of dance thing that it is.' I put to Quan that "I Love Tommy Mottola" (which takes the piss at the US Sony boss) could be "I Sucked A Lot Of Cock To Get Where I Am" part two. 'Possibly though it's not as crude. I think I'm finally moving away from my toilet humour phase,' he laughs before signing off for the slopes. Regurgitator's "...art" is out now through Warner. |