Convenience Store redefine DIY on debut LP Tabis
DIY indie rockers Convenience Store have finally released their debut album Tabis.
After a steady stream of singles, EPs and music videos - even a short film soundtrack - the Naarm/Melbourne based band have reached the culmination of their recent efforts with this LP.
@convenience.store Tabis
Pulling from a wide range of sounds including jangle-pop, shoegaze, folk and ambient music, the band wears their influences on their sleeves whilst carving out a clearly defined and original sonic palette.
Consisting of Nick Baker, Jack Phillips, Vincent Barker and Alex Siderov, Convenience Store has been a project in one form or another for half a decade.
Opening with a bang, the record begins with The Ticks. An uptempo indie rocker, the track plays with space and silence - sounding like a lovechild of Sonic Youth and The Smashing Pumpkins - a melancholic potboiler.
Title track Tabis is a groovy little shoegazey favourite. Sounding like a dreamy memory from a past season, equal parts nostalgia and optimism.
Single I Wanna Be Your Dancer is perhaps the catchiest song on the album. A gentle giant of romantic jangle pop, the delicate melodic electric guitar contrasts beautifully with the breathy vocal inflections. Smooth as butter, sweet as honey.
Wake is a minimal acoustic track with a vocal reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine. Ambient noise, reversed guitars and stabs of samples paint a strangely welcoming picture of unconditional love, while follow up To Lie is a grungey rocker stripped to it’s bare essentials in the best of ways.
Lost Dog continues the unconventional arrangements with a pulsing kick drum under soft tape warbled guitars, building another dreamy landscape for the vocals to explore, closely followed by interlude (Moth).
The masterful sound design continues on A Twitch Upon A Thread. A slow march, Twitch highlights the phenomenal production and mixing of the whole record - a really masterful song just on a technical level.
Taking listeners into the tale end of the album, The Smiles rocks a riff between phrases like a classic Pumpkins track. Featuring brilliant moments of full head-voice contrasting beautifully with high basslines, The Smiles takes a page out of classic soft-loud grunge songwriting with a mighty ear for melody.
Second last song Ghost Stories solidifies the Convenience Store sound with a mix of shoegaze and post rock tones on a spacious tune worthy of a concert hall’s acoustics. Heavy guitars build a wall around massively reverbed vocals before transitioning into a coda that takes the listener to alt-rock heaven.
Tabis closes with Money On My Eyes - a short, mainly vocal finale for a stunning debut full length.
Convenience Store have blown away any expectations for a debut record with this album. A bona fide DIY classic, do not miss them when they tour this LP in the coming weeks.