Exclusive: Stream Tropical Strength's debut album Zutti with a track-by-track walkthrough

There's a chance you might've come across NSW duo Tropical Strength before, most probably from their psychedelic journey of lo-fi goodness in Pile Of Shit – which came with a selfie-stick-filmed clip back in April. Their debut album Zutti officially arrives on Friday through Farmer & The Owl via Inertia Music and it's a release that seems to defy the bounds of set genres, something which the band's frontman Al Foil says came from experimentation and treating the record as a personal diary. "When I first started recording I had no intention of releasing an album," says Foil on the record – exclusively streaming via yours truly today. "The songs were more like musical diary entries and ambient sound collage experiments than anything else. I guess that’s why the final product is so anomalous and genre-fluid."

The album officially arrives on Friday, but we're stoked to be streaming an early release of the record exclusively on Pilerats. Check it out below along with a track-by-track walkthrough of the record, in which Foil explains the inner-workings of each of the album's singles and how they came about. Also, see them on tour later this year – full deets below. Pre-order Zutti HERE.

Click anywhere on the embed below to get it started:

WAKE IN FRIGHT

Wake In Fright was being constructed by Sir Dinsington and I at a time when I was collecting and surrounding myself with everything Australian - which I still do. I’m trying to find the best sides of this country, from the kitsch Australian to the cheesy larrikinism to the spiritual history. So duly these themes found their own way into the song. This is similar to most of the songs on the album. Deeper themes and meanings are present which I only realised in hindsight. I think it’s always important to surround yourself in the weird and wonderful, especially if you are making art.

STAND BY ME

Stand By Me is one of the many aural collages I have sitting on the shelves. Stand By Me worked as a perfect interlude between Wake In Fright and Let’s Take A Walk. The majority of the soundscapes are aural diary entries, either containing lyrics about getting a parking fine or unfurling tape loops that emulate a spiritual shift within.

LET’S TAKE A WALK

Sir Dinsington, Dane Taylor and I were writing as Shining Bird (the band) when Sir Dinsington came up with the lyrics Let’s Take A Walk. Sir Dinsington and I really liked it, but Dane thought it was a bit too ‘60s for Shining Bird. We gladly took it home and ran it through the T strength filters skewing it into a Baroque ballad.

BRIAN WE KNOW

Brian We Know, the first song I ever finished. Sir Dinsington helped me finish it because one of our friends wanted to use it for their surf film. Songs don’t usually get finished without help from Sir Dinsington. This one also had some additional collaboration from Roland Ellis from Ernest Ellis, a good friend of ours. He helped us tack on an ending so to speak.

PILE OF SHIT

A song from me to me, I guess. Born out of a salty attitude and a good beat from Sir Dinsington. It took a long time though, born in 10 seconds then developed in a month or longer. At first, I thought it was too abrasive so I put it in a cupboard. Then Sir Dinsington said we should finish it; I still find it a bit abrasive though…..

DARLIN’

I wrote Darlin’ after listening to The Beach Boys’ Christmas album. It’s not a love song by any means but it’s probably the closest thing to one on the album.

SIXTLE

I tried to create a beat that was reminiscent of a ‘60s hit but failed and became frustrated. Instead, I turned the beat into something that sounds like a disco run through a vacuum cleaner. I then decided, as an experiment, to improvise every part and record and use only the first take. When I listened back I wasn’t happy with it, so I deleted everything but one master track. Later on, when I came back and revisited the track, I thought it was pretty good. That’s how Sixtle came about.

LET THE SUNBURN

Let The Sunburn is the manifestation of an experimental idea I came up with while I was zoning out in a lecture by a human refrigerator. I used a variety of different denominations of delay times to create a fluid soundscape where a variety of sounds would link up and overlay in infinite, unique ways. It didn’t excite me as much as I’d anticipated, so I changed the song into some breed of pastiche psych.

VERTIGO

Vertigo was a song where I thought I was doing something psychedelic. The lyrics are stolen from “IT” by Stephen King. Also the movie, which is amazing, gave me further faith in the concept.

TROPICAL STRENGTH

This is just one of Sir Dinsington’s mysterious and magical samples.

TOMORROW NEVER SNOWS

Sir Dinsington and I wanted to write a Christmas song. I had an idea that I had been playing around with, so we wrote the lyrics on are porch describing Christmas in Australia. Melancholy, this is the song that was most traditionally written, as in we knew how it would go before we hit record.

ZUTTI

Zutti is another sound collage that the album had to have.

WHERE DOES THE TIME GO?

This song has a lot of meaning contained within it; it probably is the song that accurately shows what Sir Dinsington are trying to do. I think this song 100% analogue, not that it matters.

Tour Dates:

Thu June 14th - Melbourne, VIC
Sun June 24th - Sydney, NSW
Sat June 30th - Austinmer, NSW

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