Announced a few weeks ago to play a two-date round of headline shows in Melbourne and Sydney, The Bohicas were relatively unknown. Since the announcement, airplay of ‘Swarm’ and ‘XXX’ has steadily increased ahead of this fresh EP release.
The final track here, ‘Swarm’, has possibly the most apt name for a song of recent times, given the buzzing, frenetic energy of the band itself. The artwork for the single ‘XXX’ features a bee or wasp of some description, so it’s clearly no accident. There are only four songs to be heard here, yet The Bohicas still have an undeniable urge to tear through them all as quickly as possible, a la The Hives.
Opening number ‘Crush Me’ builds, before letting go with an all-guns-blazing instrumental chorus full of distorted guitars, hand claps and flat-out noise that has no right to sound good but somehow just does. It also features the best lyric on the release: “The last time I saw her she was in the kitchen peeling my spuds”.
The pleasing thing about this release is that the two previously unheard tracks are probably its strongest, and if not, are easily as good as the two songs already unleashed.
4/5.
