Since forming in 2013, Melbourne band Rabble Rouser have been trying to “locate the common ground between Kanye West, Yoni Wolf and Led Zeppelin”; it’s a quest for what might well be mythical territory, but one that sees them on a raucous and intriguing path.

Produced, recorded and mixed by Simon Cotter (Augie March, Dan Sultan, Courtney Barnett), Rabble Rouser EP carries on the mix of melody and madness that characterised the band’s double A-Side, I’m A Human Blues / So Damn Tired. The EP’s fuzzy, lo-fi debauchery kicks off with All the Right Friends and its delectable ramshackleness. “All our friends’ll be married or dead twenty years from now. All our friends will have forgotten our name. So we’ll just roll around again”, they sing over the EPs friendliest melody. It’s followed by Bonnie Pink Champagne, which starts out like something from an evil-eyed Nick Cave, before collecting eerie sci-fi sound effects and collapsing into a sinkhole of feedback, screaming “Bonnie” as it falls. Statues is the calm before the melodic storm of closing track Particle. Actually, Scratch that: the first moments of closing track Particle are the melodic calm before the raging storm of the second half of closing track Particle.

Rabble Rouser EP is available on a name your price basis from the band’s Bandcamp page:

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