The Adult Bookstore

Sliming 'Round Without A Brain Or Face
Independent

It's finally here. After four years of planning, writing, technical capitulations, overseas jaunts, gigging and odd jobs, Adelaide art-rockers The Adult Bookstore have released their debut LP, the outlandishly named 'Sliming 'Round Without A Brain Or Face'. And at the risk of descending into unadulterated sycophantism, it is without doubt worth the wait. The gap between this and their 2005 EP 'Beard:Stroker' has been utilised to tighten the band's playing and writing immeasurably, while at the same time allowing them to expand and flesh-out their sound. It's still The Adult Bookstore, but more intelligent, high class and better able to tend to all your needs.

The album opens with Mathematicians and Bottle For A Finger. Both showcase Thom Combe and Tim Horn's ability to cleverly meander their guitars around a central melody, creating a vague sense of dissonance beneath the unmistakably catchy songs. Conversely, the frontmen effortlessly harmonise their vocals on the sublime Grinning & Bearing It, with Combe's casual tenor deftly anchoring Horn's soaring alto.

The rhythm section of Tim Daws (bass) and James "Dimmy" Treloar (percussion) deals expertly with the band's broad musical palette, adroitly powering the frequent changes and occasionally off-kilter timings and accents. For proof, just check out the absolutely demented Stranger - I've listened to it twenty times and still can't figure it out.

Elsewhere the band craft a beautiful lullaby that mutates into a haunting and perverse paean to masochistic abstinence (Normal Fruit), muse on the relative likelihood of (space) alien immigration (Earth Immigration Policy) - conclusion; low - and settle for a brief brush with human contact in the face of existential angst (People Of Note).

But pulling apart this album track-by-track is like trying to appreciate a shredded centrefold - challenging and unfruitful. You're better off buying your own copy and putting it on repeat. With influences like Radiohead, Deerhoof, Grizzly Bear and pre-dross Modest Mouse and a sound all of their own, you will not be disappointed by The Adult Bookstore.

Rory Kennett-Lister