Media Puzzle New Racehorse cassette
You know something, folks? I thought I was getting sick of egg-punk-adjacent bands. I’m now realizing that I’ve been bored with egg-punk bands who thought that sounding like an egg-punk band was enough to make them an interesting egg-punk band. You understand what I mean, bud? While New Racehorse features some of the classic egghead tropes (DEVO-eqsue drum machine, chorus pedals, timid and mousy vocals, high-octave synthesizers), MEDIA PUZZLE does a great job utilizing their space by incorporating samples and a horn section (for only a handful of tracks, but it’s a substantial difference). And while this isn’t breaking ground for the genre, it’s quite clear that a lot of care and time went into the structuring and writing of these songs, with nuanced swaths of atmospheric soundscapes mixed with the familiar twangy guitars and topics of angst and unrequited love. Thank you, MEDIA PUZZLE, for restoring my faith in the power of the oval! Of course this comes straight from Australia, the modern kingdom of rock’n’roll.