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Music

Premiere: The Rangoons ‘The Bath of Rangoon Island’

The Sydney three piece featuring members of Holy Balm and Songs will take you on an exotic pop vacation.

Compared to the rest of the song, the four drumstick taps that count in “The Bath of Rangoon Island” verge on the banal. From there it’s just under seven-minutes of flute, Polynesian-like guitar strum, and a jam/tale involving phone eating sharks and exotic lagoons.

Taken from the Rangoons’ debut cassette Postcards from Rangoon Island, the track, and Jay Cruikshank’s almost spoken word delivery brings to mind early Tall Dwarfs' material where Chris Knox would brew the fantastical with the mundane.

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On other parts of the four song cassette, the Sydney trio of Cruikshank, Emma Ramsey and Ela Stiles, bring some lackadaisical pop “Lunatic/Shadow” and fall into wilder and buzzier sounds on “Crime Wave” a tribute to the late Paul Charles Dozsa, Australia’s greatest and most eloquent restaurant ‘runner’.

We had a quick chat with Jay to find out more about the band.

Noisey: On “Lunatic/Shadow” did Ela really promise you a dog when you were sick? Or am I totally mishearing the song lyric!
Jay Cruikshank: I have a particular relationship with dogs. Unfortunately there isn’t space here to tell you of the terrifying paranormal forces, which were unleashed at an isolated farmhouse one dreadful night during my stint as an animal psychiatrist.

“Lunatic/Shadow” is actually one song. Is there some kind of concept behind it?
The two songs are complementary I guess. The internal/external psychosis. This wasn’t a conscious decision though.

Charles Dozsa was an interesting if tragic figure. “Are you ready to receive my limp penis?” has to be one of the best disses of all time.
Who made that video? It raises many questions. Charles Dozsa once made an appearance on Crimewave Creatures but the episode is missing! He played a man under the influence of a brain transplant who works in a carpet showroom and holds his customers hostage.

Rangoon was the name for Yangon. Have any of you been to Burma?
We are named after Rangoon Island, which I think, is in the Pacific. See also the song “Noon Balloon to Rangoon” by Nervous Norvous. I love words ending in oon. Festoon, monsoon, spittoon.

"A Postcard From Rangoon Island" is available from Paradise Daily.

Catch The Rangoons at these shows:
Aug 7 – Melbourne at the John Curtain with Nun, Drug Sweat and Teuton
Aug 9 – Melbourne at Minimum Wage with Tommy T and the Mishaps and School Damage