Rat Vs Possum

There are few bands on the planet who can make pop music sound interesting, or who can make experimental music sound like fun. There might well only be one that manages to do both these things simultaneously. Welcome to the world of Rat Vs Possum.

This Melbourne five-piece – self-confessed music nerds Matt Kulesza, Daphne Shum, Andrew Noble, Kieran O’Shea and recent addition Adrian Tregonning – take their cues from genres as disparate as early electronic music, ‘70s German psychedelia and African tribal rhythms. They deploy everything from improvised drum kits to op-shop Casio keyboards and a battalion of effects pedals in throwing these sounds together, fashioning the results into some of the most intricately layered yet infectiously exuberant songs you’ll hear anywhere.

In the two years since Kulesza and O'Shea first began their loop-based experiments in the former’s front room, Rat Vs Possum have become de facto standard bearers for Melbourne’s burgeoning psychedelic pop underground. The band’s roots lie in clandestine warehouse parties and spontaneous jam sessions, and their early live shows quickly became renowned for being places where pretty much anything could happen – like the time they famously bubble-wrapped the entire Workers Club, for instance, or the time they convinced a packed Tote to watch a gig through 3D glasses.

Their music shares a similar sense of adventure – indeed, a joyous exploration of the limitless possibilities of sound permeates every aspect of Rat Vs Possum’s work. It’s the sound of a band celebrating music, life and a good time... and doing so via five-piece percussive freak-outs and songs about jungles, pills and an altruistic gorilla called Binti Jua. Their aesthetic has its origins in DIY noise music, but their work has evolved into something that sounds like absolutely no-one else – it’s experimental without ever being inaccessible, melodic without ever sounding one-dimensional, cerebral without ever losing its sense of fun. It repays repeated listening on your headphones, and can just as easily get you shaking it up on the dancefloor.

The band announced their presence to the world with their debut album Daughter of Sunshine, which was released last year via most excellent Melbourne indie Sensory Projects. The album featured received a slew of positive reviews and plentiful support from community radio. They’ve followed it with a series of sold-out launch shows, support slots for Passion Pit, El Guincho, Ponytail, the Handsome Furs and Midnight Juggernauts, and national tours with Regurgitator and Washington.

A follow-up is in the works, and it finds the band further exploring their ambient, melodic side, armed with an arsenal of keyboards and an ever-expanding sonic palette. It’s due out mid-2011.

Debut release 'Daughter Of Sunshine' out now through Sensory Projects