Deep States by Tropical F**k Storm is an unpredictable and thrilling mess

Deep States contains more filthy, hilarious, freeform ramblings from Australian avant-punks Tropical F**k Storm

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Tropical Fuck Storm: Deep States
(Image: © Joyful Noise Music)

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On winding up their former band The Drones five years ago, Melbourne-based Gareth Liddiard and his partner Fiona Kitschin decided rock was “a load of fucking wank”, vowing to “de-wank” their sound with a gloriously sloppy mash-up of vintage electronics, mangled guitar effects, surreal stream-of-consciousness lyrics and relentlessly wonky grooves. 

Sounding in places like Sleaford Mods jamming with Flaming Lips, this third Tropical Fuck Storm album is a hot mess of lo-fi noises, ragged vocals and weapons-grade sarcasm, from the dishevelled funk-punk shuffle of G.A.F.F. to the howling free-jazz meltdown that engulfs The Donkey, and the storytelling sprawl of Legal Ghost. 

Even if their calculated brand of mullet-haired kitchen-sink amateurism occasionally feels like unshaven drunken shambling, TFS are consistently inventive, thrillingly unpredictable and steeped in deadpan Australian humour.

Fully de-wanked, in other words.

Stephen Dalton
Stephen Dalton

Stephen Dalton has been writing about all things rock for more than 30 years, starting in the late Eighties at the New Musical Express (RIP) when it was still an annoyingly pompous analogue weekly paper printed on dead trees and sold in actual physical shops. For the last decade or so he has been a regular contributor to Classic Rock magazine. He has also written about music and film for Uncut, Vox, Prog, The Quietus, Electronic Sound, Rolling Stone, The Times, The London Evening Standard, Wallpaper, The Film Verdict, Sight and Sound, The Hollywood Reporter and others, including some even more disreputable publications.