By now, we all know what isolation feels like. We’ve had more than enough time to sit and ponder that one. But what does isolation sound like? Thanks to Melbourne’s DIY start-up and ‘isolation punk’ pioneers B!tch, we needn’t wonder any more.
While we don’t know too much about the band, if their new single ‘Nice’ is anything to go by, they’re an appropriate level of pissed off considering the state of things, which is a groove that we can all get down to.
‘Nice’ is about as rough and tumble as it gets. Ditching the notion of structure and civility – no doubt within the legal 5km radius – ‘Nice’ is the kind of cathartic screaming fest we could all bloody well use; the perfect soundtrack to illicit rich visuals of kicking and breaking shit. And while many of us may not be in a position to physically do that without some sort of legal recourse, visualisation is the next best thing.
While B!tch may appear to be be a chaotic explosion of distortion and drums, their level of production is a strong indicator this isn’t just another slacker rock lo-fi endeavour, but something with considerable forethought.
‘Bury Yourself’, the groups erstwhile single, exhumes the same pissed off/fed up energy, also cramming in much of the rage felt by most of Victoria all within a minute and a half. Indeed, you can peruse through B!tch’s entire catalogue at this point in around 3 minutes – they really aren’t here to fuck spiders.
~Now, more than ever~ the term ‘isolation project” is being used to smuggle across the line content of a quality that wouldn’t have, nay, shouldn’t have, seen the light of day in a pre-pandemic world. B!tch, however uses the descriptor with far more authenticity, given this was a project forged in the hypothetical fires of Melbourne’s Stage 4 Lockdown II. It knows of nothing else. As Bane, the Patron Saint of Mask Wearing would put it, you and I simply adopted isolation, B!tch was born in it.
