Album Review: Near Myth - Idiot Mystic

Recorded in a suburban studio won by drummer Joe Hammond in a magazine competition, Melbourne art-pop five-piece Near Myth's debut LP is oblique but intriguing.

Skittering, syncopated percussion and precision bass lines interlock with prickly guitar and unnerving synth trimmings, while singer-songwriter Marcus Teague's talky vocals lend a dazed quality to his spaced-out lyrics: "Lost the scent in the fur of your neck / picked it up again at drinks on the deck," he caws on We Can Have A House. Talking Heads and Flaming Lips are obvious influences, though the sparse, murky arrangements more immediately recall Portland, Oregon eccentrics Menomena.