Sydney audiences know Kevin Purdy as an occasional DJ, southern guitarist extraordinaire, sometimes solo artist (his latest 12" "Tyranical" is out now on Soft/Inertia featuring the very funky "Kooky Kids"), and as all round nice guy. Sir Robbo is one third of the team behind the cultish Frigid and Cryogenesis events, and "eclectic DJ" is the only way to describe him. Newer member John Maddox, who joined Tooth after the release of "No Strings", is responsible for the "mad bass" on "Sirens" and sometimes goes under the name Homologous: Fent. Together, they have crafted an album that is unlike anything else in Australia - a collage of cowboy swagger, 60s and 70s swamp rock, various electronic styles and a definite sense of a journey.
Released just a year and a half after "No Strings", Tooth say "Sirens From Here To Titan" was put out relatively quickly because they had fragments of ideas unused by the first album, which in turn spawned other ideas.
Explains Sir Robbo: "We realised when we were doing "No Strings" that there were tunes that went really well together. We had things that we could've put on it, but it was like 'nah, this is enough.'"
But this is a much more focussed album than "No Strings". "There was more of a breakbeat element to the first album," says Purdy, explaining the differences. "We are on the same tangent, but with this one we've let ourselves have our own sound - found out what that is and developed it. We feel a lot more comfortable with experimenting, and going on tangents that maybe we shied away from before."
Many people's favourite tune is the exotic opener "Tel Aviv", which lushly takes you to a 70s nightspot and prepares you for the journey ahead. I ask Tooth whether they've actually been to Israel.
"I've travelled a bit, never been to the East!" laughs Purdy. "It's all imagined!"
Sir Robbo says: "I've played that tune to a couple of people who have been there and they say 'It sounds like Tel Aviv to me!' I think shared between the two of us, Kevin's seen a million movies you've never heard of, and I'm basically pumping the television for good chunks of the day, as well as reading magazines and books and listening to all sorts of music. I think if you've got a fertile imagination, you don't have to have necessarily been to any of these places."
"Sirens from Here to Titan" is out now through Inertia.
(dannyc@dazedandconfused.com)