Emerging from the post-punk era of the 1980s, Australian band The Wreckery is making a formidable comeback with their single ‘Smack Me Down’ out last month and new album Fake Is Forever due on 3rd November, via Golden Robot Records.
This is said to be The Wreckery album that never was but always should have been.
Formed in Melbourne by Hugo Race and Ed Clayton-Jones on their return home from tenure with Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds in Europe and the U.S.A; Robin Casinader joined on drums having played with the pair previously in art punk outfit Plays With Marionettes. Nick Barker and Charles Todd finished the line up on bass and sax respectively.
The Wreckery were a big hit on the live circuit and had a large and loyal following. They were infamous at a time when heroin chic was de rigueur and Burroughs and Bukowski topped our reading lists. They became the poster boys for the dark side, tapping the seam of the old delta blues and the Flannery O’Connoresque imagery of a toxic, dilapidated world.
At the crest of the Australian post punk era, Melbourne’s The Wreckery played atmospheric rock with film-noir swagger and renegade attitude, carving a loyal following. Critics quickly positioned them as successors to a darkly exciting avant-garde Melbourne tradition previously marked out by The Birthday Party.
Early recordings for Rampant Records (1985-87) showcased The Wreckery’s fusion of swamp blues and noir-jazz, delivered with a deadpan, reckless, and romantic cut (check out the ‘Ruling Energy’ video). Sadly, creative tensions saw the band implode as they were reaching their peak with the Laying Down Law album (Citadel Records, 1988). Yet another great and dangerous rock ‘n’ roll band who became a danger to themselves.
Nick Barker went on to a successful solo career, and Race, Clayton-Jones, and Casinader remained active in music with a variety of projects. In 2008, Memorandum Records issued Past Imperfect, a two-CD anthology drawn from the group’s catalogue, and The Wreckery reunited to play a handful of shows in support.
35 years later, the new album Fake is Forever is intended delivers on unfulfilled promises, revealing. The DNA is still there – the signature sound of Charles Todd’s baritone sax; the scathing lyrics and vocals of Hugo Race; the distorted angular guitars of Clayton-Jones; the eclecticism of multi-instrumentalist Robin Casinader; Nick Barker and former Plays With Marionettes drummer Frank Trobbiani fuse as the solid engine room of this group. All the original edge with a new maturity and control.
The songs still emanate from the deep, dark end of the musical gene pool. The sarcastic, provocative lyrics of ‘Smack Me Down’, ‘Get A Name’ and ‘Young People’; the musical fury of ‘Stole It from Alpha Ray’ and ‘Evil Eye’, the romantic melodrama of ‘The Devil In You’ and ‘Whistle Clean’, the deranged rock of ‘Dragonfly’ and ‘Garbage Juice’ – Whereas the band in the 80s were brash and angry this record finds the band conjuring quiet menace, sensual, intoxicating.
New single ‘Smack Me Down’ was crafted by the songwriting talents of Hugo Race and Alannah Hill, and as the opening track on their upcoming album, Fake Is Forever, slated for release on 3rd November, delves into the ironic aftermath of youthful indiscretions, being delivered with explosive energy.
You can save ‘Smack Me Down’ here and order Fake Is Forever here.
