Sydney trio Talons are perfectly of their time and that time is right this minute. Dancing and thrashing themselves upon a high-wire act, this proto-punk band are balanced in a tug of war between melody and bristling, visceral energy.
This debut album of ten swift left/right punches swims the same shark-infested seas as bands like Die! Die! Die!, Les Savy Fav and The Blood Brothers. It only takes a few minutes for the band to reach its first (of many) musical precipices, during the second track ‘Redheads’ – guitars squalling like Sonic Youth in full flight, the vocals of Christian Best ripped red raw and the song merely seconds away from spontaneously combusting. Balance this with the stalking moodiness of ‘Dazzling Metallic Stallions’, which could whiplash into a frenzy as easily as it could shift down into a jazz break, and again it’s the polarising internal combustion of the music itself that firmly holds your gaze.
Digging down into the songs reveals a complexity that is negated at first by the sheer audacity of the delivery. The borderline moments of hardcore (‘Keys & Codes’, ‘Scoffers & Understanders’) always seemed stuffed with countermelodies and backbeat scholastics that thankfully give way to focused that allow you the chance to breathe. Even with the addition of woodwind in ‘Mudrockets’ and strings bolstering ‘Dazzling Metallic Stallions’, it’s the fact that new and exciting things are still being done with our well-worn three-piece rock band mould that make Talons a damn fine way to wash 35 minutes from your life.
"Talons blew the fucking place apart! There’s a cut-throat brutality to their sound, a brittle teeth-grinding severity that’s distinctively un-Melbourne in a way – an underlying cynicism
indicative of Sydney life perhaps? We pride ourselves on the quality of rock music coming out of this town, but my word when Sydney produces diamonds they are jagged, robust
little fuckers and they’re not afraid to tell it like it is. Talons blew my fragile little mind and turned a killer night into one of the gigs of the year."
“Thundering out of your speakers with unnatural force, Ducats is a punk rock EP of the highest order – steeped in the sounds of Australia’s rich punk/alt rock past but also veering off in previously unheard directions. Talons are one of Sydney’s tightest live bands right now, but luckily, their songs lose none of their power when transferred to tape.”
a long time ago i talked to you guys and you cats didnt have any real recorded material...and some one sent me a couple song tuesday niggggghhht??? i forget the name but still have the songs on disc.
it's Hennessy from now on. As Marden says: No Hennessy, no show to see. But we'll buy you a beer. And the 31st of Oct is going to be unreal...thanks, kids.
We may just break out Monster Mash for an all star jam. If it's half as good as the version we did when drunk out of our minds at a Halloween gig in Bowral four years ago, it'll be just fine with me (Trent went all out and dressed as Doc from Back to the Future...footage apparently exists).
![Corpus [NEW ALBUM SAMPLER]](http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/50/s_85415d4cf8e74588992a92148aef2eca.jpg)
