Album Review: Luca Brasi - 'Loose Threads'

So… how fucking good are Tasmania’s Luca Brasi? Last year’s ‘By A Thread’ was a great exposé of the band's catchy and quintessentially Australian punk rock sound. Now, their follow up EP, ‘Loose Threads’ (see what they did there?) is out and while it’s a much shorter listen than their previous outing, that by no means that it’s a no less exciting release. So with these three brand new songs and an acoustic version of ‘Borders And Statelines’, the trio has shown that the less is more approach can lead to some pretty solid results.

’41 Degrees’ is easily the faster, punk rock side of the band; sharp guitar riffs filled out with a slick solo, fast, solid rhythm section, and honest, raw singing kicks off ‘Loose Threads’ on an entertaining note. It’s catchy, yet still raw and short and it embodies the band's sound perfectly. ‘In The Sight’ shows the slower, more melodic and reserved side of Luca Brasi as a slower tempo, dynamic instrumentation, and warm, soulful chords rule the day on this one. Though it does fall a little short when compared with the following number - ‘Quicksand’. Arguably the best song of the four, this sticks to the same style of the predecessor, yet the delivery and song writing has been honed in more and it's well on par with groups like The Smith Street Band.

Some songs work really well as acoustic tracks even if that wasn’t the originally intended idea. A good example of this would be the acoustic versions of Bad Religion’s ‘Sorrow’ or Hawthorne Heights ‘Ohio Is For Lovers’. Sometimes stripping back the instrumentation can help to elevate the song. Thankfully, ‘Borders And Statelines’ is one of these tracks that work when it’s taken out of its original context. That may just be because it was a good song to begin with, or because the band wrote it as acoustic to begin with, so it feels at home now? Who knows, and who cares because it fucking works! (Check out the original here).

Luca Brasi are the musical equivalent of calling MacDonald’s “Maccas” or drinking VB at a BBQ - just quintessentially Australian. The instrumentation, the accent in the vocals; it all odes to the local punk rock scene. While the influences from older local bands like The Nation Blue and A Death In The Family are painfully obvious, those bands kicked ass, and this trio has taken ass-kicking notes from the very best of our local talents.

1. 41 Degrees

2. In The Sight

3. Quicksand

4. Borders And Statelines