Melbourne experimental outfit Tropical Fuck Storm have given fans a teaser of their forthcoming 7″ single, releasing the mesmerising “Legal Ghost” earlier today.
Having released their last full-length by way of Braindrops last year, Tropical Fuck Storm are a group who refuse to let something like a global pandemic stop them from the release of new music. Sharing the cult-themed “Suburbiopia” back in March, the track was released as a 7″ single which helped tide over fans feeling hard done by thanks to COVID-19-related cancellations.
Now, with plans to be “sequestered up in the bush making new noises” apparently resulting in a new record due for release in 2021, Gareth Liddiard has dug into the archives and served up a reimagined version of one of his earliest tracks.
In early April, a handful of archival releases from Liddiard began to appear online, with live records from The Drones emerging alongside a collaborative effort with Rui Pereira called Bong Odyssey. Recorded on four-track tape machines between 1993 and 1998, one of the songs on this album was titled “Legal Ghost”, and seemingly stuck with Liddiard enough to revisit it more than two decades later.
“This is the first song I ever wrote that I thought was a decent song,” he explained of its origins. “Everything before it was just a big tantrum, but this song had a touch of class.
“When I was putting the Bong Odyssey record together again last year, I heard it and thought it was something that could work well with TFS. The original was really cool, but it still sounded more like a sketch of a song and wasn’t quite fully realised, so I took the song to TFS and we fleshed it out a bit.”
The result is a sprawling six-minute composition which captures the very essence of the dissonant performance style that make Tropical Fuck Storm a mesmerising presence on the local music scene.
“Legal Ghost” is set to serve as the A-side to an upcoming 7″ single from the group, which will be released via Flightless Records on September 11th.
The B-side to this single will feature a version of Talking Heads’ beloved ode to mortality, “Heaven”. In keeping with the vibe of “Legal Ghost”, it was recorded on the same four-track as the A-side, and features guest performances from Don Don (Augie March) and H’y (Suss Cu*ts) on pedal steel and violin respectively
Tropical Fuck Storm’s upcoming “Legal Ghost” single will be released on September 11th, with pre-orders available now via Flightless Records.
