New releases from Body Type and TEKE::TEKE

The second in our series reviewing singles from non Blowtorch bands. Today it's new music from Australia and Canada. Get yer hands dirty with our cool sounds from the underground.

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Artist: Body Type

Track: Miss The World

Photo Toni Wilkinson

Following their run of shows with Fontaines D.C. recently, Australian 4-piece Body Type have shared the first track from their forthcoming second album Expired Candy which is set for release on 2 June via Poison City Records.

Miss The World is a tumultuous song (and features the brilliant phrase 'oxymoronic protagonist' - Ed.)

Born out of COVID, it’s a reflection on society’s acceptance and blind compliance towards the powers that be, which has led to the ascent of corruption and a lack of concern with social justice. Miss The World gallops at pace with breathless drums, reverbing guitars and a thunderous bassline. It also questions that sense of entitlement and with the vocals getting more frustrated as the track progresses.

Sophie McComish (lead vocalist, guitarist) further expands: “Yeah, yeah, on face value this is a COVID song. But more than that, it's an ode to the realisations, personal and collective, that occurred during that time. Realisations about society, culture, values, the things that matter, the parts we play. At the end of the day, the world is totally absurd and many things make very little sense when you think about them too hard. But we gotta squeeze these little brains of ours and do the thinking, realise the realisations. Complacency is dangerous, passion is contagious.”

An interesting point to note, Body Type's debut album Everything Is Dangerous But Nothing’s Surprising was only released in May 2022. However it was delayed due to the pandemic hence the seemingly short time between albums.

The band expands on the second album: "Expired Candy is filled with hope, love, and danger, dancing with delicious uncertainty. In pursuit of joy we dreamed up songs about mothers, sisters, dogs, nans; family tantrums, forward motion, falling in love, platonic or romantic, with someone or self. Heart breaks, tooth will shatter, but she'll be there when it really matters. Flirty, feral and defiant, just how we like it. From our wild heart to yours, Body Type."

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Artist: TEKE::TEKE

Track: Garakuta

Photo Samuel Woywitka

Montreal-based Japanese psych-rock band TEKE::TEKE are back with a new single Garakuta (which roughly translates to “goods of no more use nor value”).

It’s the first to be taken from their forthcoming album Hagata which is set for release on 9 June via Kill Rock Stars.

This band create a unique sonic landscape. What other band has a flute at its heart? (Please don't send any Jethro Tull related correspondence - Ed). Garakuta launches straight in with a thumping beat before Maya Kuroki (vocals and guitar) delivers a rallying cry. She says the track is “a song of rebellion for all that has been thrown out of this world.” It is raw and guttural, as if coming from the very depths of her soul. The psych vibe is there but there is a Japanese twist also in the mix, and of course that flute. The lyrics are sung in Japanese but no matter, it is a thrilling and intoxicating track.

Kuroki further explains: “Indeed, it’s a sort of anthemic song for the rebellion of wastes…I imagined a world where everything we throw out came back to protest… And I’m not necessarily only thinking from an environmental perspective, it is rather an analogy for anything or anybody that is cast out of society because they are considered useless by the norm.”

Garakuta is accompanied by a music video animated and directed by TEKE::TEKE’s own Kuroki and Sei Nakauchi Pelletier (guitar, synth, percussion and additional vocals). And as for the album, Kuroki states: " 'Hagata’ is a very deep word, something present but also something leftover from someone or something no longer there. It's like waking up from a dream, or being connected to the other side of something.”

TEKE::TEKE have a couple of appearances booked at festivals later in the year. The seven piece do not disappoint live.

2nd September - Manchester, UK @ Manchester Psych Fest

3rd September - Dorset, UK @ End of the Road Fest

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