- Everything about this release is a product of Tasmania. The band name, the EP title, and lyrics like “Can you take the Ute to the top of the road? I’ll ride in the tray with the dog and the wood”.

Everything about this release is Tasmanian except for the actual sound, which is equally reminiscent of Songs:Ohia or Palace Music as it is of Sonic Youth.

They’re a three piece with three distinct pieces. The guitars are unhurried and unworried, often holding on single notes for longer than would generally feel comfortable, and sometimes careening into unfamiliar and discordant territory. The drums ebb and flow like tension and release and the vocals tie it all together. The lyrics sometimes come across as stream-of-consciousness, and maybe they are, I don’t think that lessens their meaning.

There’s a lot of simple self-reflection. “I’m not one to fight, never was” he sings on the EP’s second track Pacifist before going on to sing about childhood squabbles with siblings and the anger that builds through age.

Top of the Road and Sama Hut both centre around living in the country. The simplicity of gathering wood and making a fire. They're songs about the lifestyle intrinsic to the people making the music.

I spent two weeks in the area the EP gets its name from at the start of this year and finding this release on coming home was like a belated memento. It even turned out that old mate I’d been drinking with down at the local recorded it in his home studio.

So I have this somewhat-removed personal connection with the release but I don’t think that’s necessarily why I like it so much and why I haven't stopped listening this last two weeks.

There’s an abundance of incredible, experimental music coming out of Australia at the moment but Mount Trout is a singular entity. They sound like actual outsiders, not the ones you see pretending with synths and vocoders in dark clubs. This is the real thing.

- Nathan Kearney.