by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Gut Health aren’t here for subtlety. The Melbourne/Naarm based sextet’s music is a passionate embrace of queer and femme culture that’s structured equally on uproarious fun and righteous indignation. They don’t intend for it to be subtle because they want you to enter their world, to understand where they are coming from. Their music is engaging, creating boisterous dance punk with a taut dexterity. Their debut EP, Electric Party Chrome Girl, released last year, was easily one of the best debuts we heard, a collection overloaded with energy and character, highlighted by the animated groove and sonic assault of songs like “Inner Norm” and “Lethargic”. It’s an infectious release and we’ve had in constant rotation since its November release, eagerly awaiting more from the band. Which brings us to “The Recipe,” a new single out today via Marthouse Records (Dr Sure’s Unusual Practice, Bench Press, Heir Traffic).
“The Recipe” expands upon their brand of dance-floor chaos with funky bass and psychedelic-tinged punk guitar lines, darting between a no wave attack and post-punk disco. Gut Health remain in astounding form, as they open the song with a relative simplicity and end it tangled in abrasive knots, the entire structure threatening to collapse. Their music sounds like a amalgamation of The B-52s, early Yeah Yeah Yeahs and maybe a touch of Wire, but it’s an energy all their own that draws you in. With the rhythm, guitars, and synths in such tight unity, the rest is up to the magnetic Athena Uh Oh, a dynamic vocalist who bends her melodies together with the wonky progressions, howling one moment and hitting syrupy hooks the next. Her presence looms large no matter how things twist and unravel, and with “The Recipe,” she’s exploring the nature between what’s real and what’s performative and how the lines tend to blur. With a focus toward “the high femmes; drag queens, artists, sex workers, and all the others who throw sparkles as a way to freely express themselves and/or make a living,” Gut Health are here to support the femme community, and the masks many choose to wear.