I’m a living god
In the same way as all human flesh
A pretty song can pose a problem when your band has spent a decade cultivating less agreeable habits. Melbourne quartet Bitumen found themselves facing precisely that predicament with “Perffect Dress,” a handful of chords that had begun behaving suspiciously well. Their response was to introduce a little trouble: vocal distortion, an outlaw-country inflection, and a bouzouki. Beauty survived the intervention, though its manners became considerably less predictable.
The single offers an unexpected turn ahead of Reality Red, the band’s third album, due November 6 via It Records. Acoustic instruments and live drums open up fresh possibilities for a group whose post-punk has long accommodated goth, metal, and electronic abrasion. Here, that expansion takes the form of something loose-limbed and oddly pastoral, with a threat tucked into its Sunday best.
A slow drum crash and twanging acoustic guitar set the pace, with further strings gathering around the opening figure. There is a country-folk lilt to the arrangement, carried by the easy movement of Andrew Huhtanen McEwan’s drums and Bryce Maher’s bouzouki. As the layers accumulate, a deep bass hum draws the music toward alternative rock and post-punk, while a high electric-guitar line swims through the spaces overhead. The song seems happy to wander, even as its low end keeps track of where everyone is going.
Kate Binning’s voice gives that wandering its peculiar charm. Her vocal suggests Marianne Faithfull meets Thom Yorke’s languid reverie. The distortion adds texture without making the performance abrasive; there is an almost whimsical quality to the delivery, a daydream being sung aloud before anyone has checked its contents. Simon Maisch’s murmured backing vocals move beneath her, introducing a second, less easily deciphered train of thought.
The words supply ample reason to inspect that daydream. Revenge, freeway exposure, pursuit, and the vulnerability of flesh run through lyrics that keep shifting between smallness and grandiosity. The speaker can be a little sound one moment and a living god the next, claiming divinity on the same terms as every other mortal body. Rearranging a perfect dress becomes a wonderfully incongruous gesture amid all this damage: a small adjustment to one’s appearance while existence itself appears to be coming apart. The overlapping vocal lines complicate the picture further, slipping bodily images and cryptic instructions beneath the lead.
The accompanying video places the band around an open fire against corrugated metal, their faces and instruments catching its orange light. Rectangular close-ups overlap the wider performance, bringing hands on strings and Binning’s singing face into the foreground while the gathering continues behind them. As those frames change size and position, the clip moves between collective intimacy and private concentration. It suits the song’s peculiar hospitality: pull up a chair, enjoy the acoustic guitars, and try to overlook the revenge being discussed beside the flames.
Watch the video for Perffect Dress below:
Formed in Melbourne in 2016, Bitumen brings together Kate Binning, Sam Varney, Bryce Maher, and Simon Maisch. Working with a drum machine has been a deliberate part of their approach, allowing guitars, synthesizers, samples, and programmed rhythms to change the terms of each song. On Reality Red, Tongue Dissolver’s McEwan adds live drums to that existing setup, while acoustic instrumentation and a greater openness to melody give the four-piece further room to experiment. Perffect Dress was recorded by Maisch at Lily Street Studios in Coburg North, with McEwan assisting, and produced by the band.
Reality Red is available to pre-order here on digital and limited-edition transparent red vinyl through It Records.
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