For a musician who spends many of his recording hours in a bedroom, Brat Farrar is more Punk Rock than you or I will ever be. This is the second album of short and snappy homemade songs from Melbourne-via-Europe Sam Agostino (one-half of Digger & The Pussycats) and it delivers in spades.
There’s a lot to love about “Brat Farrar II” if only because it sounds like “Brat Farrar I”. In fact, you could interchange many of these songs on an iTunes mix playlist (or something similar) and be hard pressed to pick what came from where.
Brat Farrar is the Jay Reatard of garage rock - only he’s still breathing..Their shared modus operandi - snotty tunes married to lo-fi production with forays into electro-punk - makes for succinct and exciting music.
Recorded in Melbourne and a fishing village in Croatia, where Agostino spends much if his year, “II” runs the gamut from explosive bursts of pop punk (“Off To See The World”) and space rock (“Johnny Sparrow”) to Kraftwerk-meets-Suicide tripping (“Vapour Wave) without a wasted note.
The plodding “I’m Dead Now” is an unusually subdued opener but the ominous drive of “Do You Really Wanna Know” flicks the switch to punk rock in a flash. The bile-laden “You’re a Mess” maintains the rage while the icy vocoder vocal in “Wouldn’t Give You Up” recalls Devo in their most starkly devolved state.
“II” clocks in at 32 minutes with only one song cracking the four-minute mark. It’s DIY fare that’s ideal for people with OCD and while not exactly disposable, it will rush past you before you’re aware that it’s time to hit the repeat button.
Of course it’s released on vinyl (by P Trash) as well as CD (by Off The Hip).
