Triosk – The Headlight Serenade (Leaf/Inertia)

Sydney group Triosk’s third album The Headlight Serenade is far more charged and directed than their previous recordings. Laurence Pike’s drums flutter, skitter and skip over Ben Waples warm bass. Adrian Klumpes piano lines casdade and synths drone. With such instrumentation there are immediate lazy comparisons to be made with that other Australian group The Necks, but Triosk are far more lively and their compositions full of energy spilling off a multiple directions. With the organic nature of these tracks aquatic metaphors seems most apt – the muffled piano on Lost Broadcast shimmers like swimming underwater looking upwards at sunlight reflecting through the surface; Laurence Pike’s drums pitter patter and sparkle like rain in a sunshower on Intensives Leben. A drone sways and oscillates drunkenly on Headlights. The only oddly placed track is the closer, Fear Survivor, which rudely breaks the mood. This is a remarkable instrumental album and deserves much praise.