by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Melbourne based Heir Traffic make brooding post-punk reminiscent of their hometown legends The Birthday Party and The Drones, combing a sinister sense of gothic folk into the well-crafted dissonance. They’ve shared a pair of singles since forming back in 2019, but this year marks their full length debut, No Hearth, due out August 26th via Marthouse Records (It Thing, Dr Sure’s Unusual Practice, Hideous Sun Demon). The quintet have created a dynamic record, drawing upon the grit and shadows of their influences while incorporating their own take with guitars that meander and rhythms that often serve as accents rather than framework.
“FORTH!” is the record’s second single (following “Smoke Taint”), a muscular drift that pairs vast atmosphere with plenty of distortion and tension. Like being lost in the desert with no direction in sight, Heir Traffic embrace the open air, letting their music sprawl and expand, with guitar noise that bends and shakes in favor of the harsh melody. There song builds in a precise way, never really pulling back from the opening moments, but casually layering on top of them until the cacophony of it all is readily apparent and the sustain inescapable.