Totally UnicornDream Life

For the better part of the last decade, Totally Unicorn has been the weird uncle of the Australian hardcore scene; they seldom seem very busy and some of their outfits are lamentable to the point of being unnerving. Their lack of output has meant we’ve always been left wondering what their amorphous sound and perverse sense of humour would be like if they got their act together long enough to put out a full-length. Now that the band have finally graced us with a debut long player, Dream Life, fans can stop lamenting the potential they might have had and fully embrace a weird brilliance that doesn’t cease when the band steps off a stage.

Fans can stop lamenting the potential they might have had and fully embrace a weird brilliance that doesn’t cease when the band steps off a stage.

On Dream Life, the band has crafted a punk rock rainbow. At times the mood and sound is out-and-out confrontational, like on the grindy Convict Brick which features the immediately recognisable shrieks of High Tension’s Karina Utomo, but then there are also languid, Amphetamine Reptile-esque half-joking croons like Part Time Model. From there the dudes drop into the type of turn-on-a-dime mathy hardcore that hits with the intensity of Converge’s late ‘90s output. There’s so much to take in and, like is the case at the Totally Unicorn live show, some listeners will dismiss Dream Life by simply saying ‘what the fuck’. But that immediate response belies the breadth of influences and musical chops of the band. And how all these weird influences have coalesced into such a fucking rippingly bizarre record.

STANDOUT TRACKS: Magma, Liberation, Low Lands
STICK THIS NEXT TO: Robotosaurus, Dillinger Escape Plan, Cows

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Read our interview with mainman Drew Gardner here!