Melbourne-based trio Gold Tango recently made their debut appearance on ‘New Weird Australia Volume 4’ with the impressive ‘Gold Telescope’ (also included here), and this debut self-titled three track EP on Exo represents their first studio release. Comprised around Christina Tester, Cinta Masters and Kody Abrams, who’ve separately spent time in Melbourne bands Flesh Vs Venom, Useless Children and Baryshinikov, Gold Tango combine organ, drums and guitar to create lush, widescreen pop that’s often as haunting as it is dramatic. ‘Gold Telescope’ certainly manages to send stray chills down the spine from the very outset, with skittering drum sticks and throbbing bass organ tones wandering beneath Tester and Masters’ clear vocal harmonies, shortly before vaguely proggy wandering keyboards arrive to take things off into a dense fog of echoing tribal drums and buzzing guitar feedback.
‘Just An Experiment’s meanwhile kicks the pace up a few notches, with jagged guitar riffs and propulsive live drums moving back to the forefront in a manner that calls to mind Bauhaus’s wiry yet tribal rhythm-powered aesthetic, though in this case it’s the presence of Masters’ comparatively warm indie vocals that nicely counterbalances the brooding undertones laid down by the backing instrumentation. In many senses though, it’s epic closing track ‘Something In Common’ that represents the real highlight here, building tension amidst howling swells of guitar feedback and ebbing organ keys, before Abram’s tribal drums suddenly lock down amidst surging overdriven guitar chords, sending Tester and Masters’ vocal hamonies tumbling like a river into a spooky as hell ‘dark carnival’-styled organ and cymbal flameout before the track’s end. An extremely impressive debut EP from Gold Tango, a Melbourne trio well worth keeping an eye on.
Chris Downton
