It’s tempting to credit media puzzle’s glow-up on New Racehorse to a simple but effective swap: trading out the drum machine for a real drum kit. After all, what is egg-punk if not Devo worship and a strict adherence to the hurtling tempos of a battery-operated machine? But Tom Peter, the mastermind behind the Lismore, Australia five-piece, is restless enough to have churned out three full-length records in just over a year, generally adopting the stance that demos and final takes are one in the same.
Following last year’s Intermission EP, he paused his habits—minute-long songs, distorted vocals, barrelling rhythms—before they could constitute a formula, and instead pursued new methods wherever possible for media puzzle’s fourth album. The resulting 23 minutes are a burst of nonstop creativity and a joyful lack of self-imposed obligations—the type of fun that harkens back to the unpretentious, unfiltered, anxiety-free days of playing with art supplies as a kid.
Although the pace of New Racehorse never quite slows, it still feels like media puzzle took a deep breath and exhaled. “Knowledge,” the album’s most immediate single, shows how they pull it off. Wrapped around a rubbery bassline that Peter ran through a guitar amp and played straight into a laptop, the song is confident and brassy, sauntering around as Kellie Eden’s trumpet cascades from above and the band’s co-vocalists provide pop harmonies. Like Beck’s “The New Pollution” or the Flaming Lips’ “The W.A.N.D.,” the New Racehorse opener puts a retro spin on fuzzy indie rock that goes down easy. It’s so snappy and polished that it even sounds good played live in an elevator.
media puzzle consider their instruments like they’re rethinking the format and pacing of their songs, but never in lieu of a sugary hook. They still scoop out choruses like they unlocked the coin-operated candy dispensers at a laundromat: the guitars bisecting in “New Pet,” the layers of echo in “Dead Dog!” and how the vocal melody, lead guitar, and bass move in unison on “Out of the Rain.” When media puzzle do indulge in the scrappy egg-punk of their past on “I Don’t Care!” it’s only for 59 seconds, as if the song’s refrain is encouraging them not to overthink the impulse as long as it feels good—a guiding principle, to which New Racehorse holds true.
Even when media puzzle experiment with song structure, like on the standout “Equine End of Life,” they can’t help but uncover pockets of absurdist soundbites and groovy, almost kraut-rock riffs. The band’s willingness to push beyond familiar territory allows them to slip into modes of art-rock or experimental synth-punk with an audible excitement for the minor differences. Peter may be singing about experiencing a flood during Cyclone Alfred or reeling over a pet’s euthanasia, but when the barking of a plastic toy dog, the sterile beeps of Morse code, or crackling public domain footage are spliced into frame, media puzzle balance out the tone to match the inherently giddy mood of their music.
That’s what media puzzle can’t help but display across New Racehorse: the sheer fun they have coming up with songs and figuring out how to curl each ribbon dangling off their edges. Peter recounts a dream in which a red robot stalks him across a lake in “Tea Time,” and right when he reframes the tale as a thriller, his bandmates pick up the pace with chase scene-worthy motifs. The same is true of their creative impulses when using jolting rhythms in “My Age, in Minutes and Seconds” and the slow-motion harmonics in “Outro.” No matter what’s rattling around in Peter’s brain, his bandmates are ready to play around with its cinematic potential by whipping up a DIY batter of post-punk and no-wave idiosyncrasies. That’s where media puzzle discover this bolder side of themselves: in the art of play. The only thing better than coming up with new ways to have fun is being invited to join in.
