Album Review: Tiny Spiders - Tiny Spiders

Local self-proclaimed grunge pop duo Tiny Spiders have grown from strength to strength after what feels like a very short period. Not surprising seeing the pedigree of guitarist Innez Tulloch (Feathers, Pastel Blaze) and Cameron Smith (Ghost Notes, Mt Augustus, Tape/Off) and the energetic live shows they have spewed forth over the past year. Now after a couple of single releases comes their eponymous debut, and it's just as energetic, frenetic and schizophrenic as could be possibly dreamt for.

Opening with a squall of obnoxious noise, the album erupts into Shadows, a rocking number that could be classified as indie pop if it wasn't so loud. This is Tiny Spiders' calling card, and is the inherent constant across the rest of the album. This mood is maintained on Roger Roger, Tulloch's guitar bursting out of the speakers. Hooks are rife on Shoot The Rainbow Rays Out and fun closer Big News, whilst elsewhere are instrumentals in the form of the batshit Fresh Pots and meltdown-inducing Blurst, and slower moments on Young Swans and Midnight Movie. In fact, although the raucous numbers aim for scoring your next bulb-and-bathroom demolition soiree, it's these tempered numbers that truly impress and create a vacuum necessary to allow the duo's scuzzy aesthetics to explode with all the more fury.

Tiny Spiders is a deceptive album in that it succeeds through its simplistic mission statement, yet the interplay between Tulloch and Smith combined with succinct songwriting and adoration of the volume knob ensures that this is no happy accident. A better pop record that requires earplugs is yet to be made in 2012.