January 6, 2012

Trailer Trash Tracys - 'Ester'

A band with rock'n'roll at their dark heart

Album Info

Release Date: January 16, 2012
Label: Double Six
Fact: Their name is said to have been taken from a trashy bar in Stockholm

7 / 10 Someone recently posted a SoundCloud ‘mash-up’ of every Beatles song layered on top of one another. The first couple of minutes was just ‘Revolution 9’ and the last two and a half minutes were a vision of Merseybeat hell, an unlistenable scree of “Ooooh!”s and a million muddy Ringos. But around the three-minute mark, as the crackling static arcadia of ‘Revolution 9’ clashed against the heroin slope of ‘Come Together’ and the psychedelic melodicism of ‘A Day In The Life’, it sounded uncannily like Trailer Trash Tracys.

This London four-piece strive to sound like they’re playing at least three different songs from a variety of genres at a time, in different tempos and keys, loosely connected by singer Susanne Aztoria’s drifting, amorphous melody lines and unsettling cosmic tonal warps. But, by employing the MBV trick of never allowing themselves to lose focus on their hooks through the sonic soup, it makes for an engrossing listen.

The myths they weave around this sonic maelstrom add glisten to the music’s mystery: that they were named after a Russian strip group and claim to base their songs on primeval frequencies which free the listener from guilt and fear. ‘Los Angered’ finds Lynchian surf guitars clashing serenely with the distant machines of heavy industry, ‘Rolling – Kiss The Universe’ resembles Warpaint covering all of The Flaming Lips’ ‘Embryonic’ in two minutes.

The TTT trick is to keep one foot firmly rooted in rock’n’roll. Every third or fourth tune is a synthetic homage to the sultry ’50s surf of Blue Velvet. A little more melodic resolve wouldn’t go amiss, but ‘Ester’ is a solid, imaginative debut that leaves you aglow with the ice-warmth of a blip-literate Cocteau Twins. Add in the influence of a troupe of nipple-tasselled Muscovites and 2012 could be quite the indie eye-opener.

Mark Beaumont

Rate this album

Average rating

Be the first to rate this album

To read all our reviews first - days before they appear online - check out NME magazine, on sale every Wednesday

For the latest music videos and backstage interviews, check out our sister site, NME Video.