Tropical Fuck Storm
Soft Power
Tropical Fuck Storm Records
Soft Power is the second single from Tropical Fuck Storm (TFS), a band comprised of Gareth Liddiard and Fiona Kitschin from The Drones, Lauren Hammell of High Tension and Erica Dunn from Harmony and Palm Springs. Their second single following Chameleon Paint earlier this year sees Liddiard and co. continuing to head down their off-kilter, guitar-textured hip hop route of soundtracking uneasy dreams and gritty trippiness.
Similar stylistically to the tracks Boredom off The Drones’ latest record Feelin Kinda Free, Soft Power furthers the adventure by splitting itself into two distinct parts, a ‘normalish’ song part and a slowed down moment of reconciliation as its outro. Over both parts there are textured palm-muted guitar licks, looped echoes and feedback noises, that are merged messily with the solid 4/4 drums pitched high in the mix.
A shout out has to go to Liddiard’s pub-rock-skip-hop drawl (as he shuffles himself ever nearer an ARIA Hip Hop nomination), that is balanced out by Kitschin’s pop-sensibilities as she intones “lie to me” and “soft power” in the song’s chorus. These, repeated ad nauseum, bore into the listener’s skull, making this dramatic, heavy piece ultimately very hook-laden and dare I say it, poppy.
MICHAEL HOLLICK
