Eddy Current Suppression Ring - All In Good Time (2019)

It’s been almost ten years since we last heard from Melbourne, Australia garage punk greats Eddy Current Suppression Ring. In 2010 they released the fantastic Rush to Relax, toured it (including some pretty crazy NYC shows) and then went dark. The dolewave diaspora that spread from the members’ other projects included Total Control, Boomgates, Ooga Boogas and many, many more. What groups guitarist Mikey Young wasn’t in, he mastered their albums.

ECSR did play a few shows in 2016, and when asked about the status of the band last year, black-gloved frontman Brendan “Suppression” Huntley told ABC (that’s the Australian Broadcasting Corporation) they hadn’t broken up, but just do things at their own pace. “We have been jamming,” Huntley revealed. “I don’t know what will ever come of this. But I love making music with those guys, so we still jam. And it’s sounding pretty good.” Still, it was a big surprise when a new Eddy Current Suppression Ring song showed up on Castle Face’s YouTube channel, with a note saying it was from a new album, appropriately titled All in Good Time, that would be out in three weeks.

And here we are with a new ECSR album, sounding no worse for wear, as if a decade hadn’t passed. At least musically. “Oh how the times have changed, the world’s been rearranged,” Brendan sings on “Medieval Wall” that may look to places beyond Melbourne. “Paranoia and the fear is growing each and every year.” It’s a spare motorik groove till the chorus, when Mikey Young’s guitar explodes in a fury as Brendan shouts “They yank the leash, our freedom out of reach!”

The rest of the record follows suit; minimal, tense protest punk that sounds like it was recorded live, probably in a basement, with spirit and passion taking precedence over fidelity. All in Good Time doesn’t quite have the snap of Rush to Relax, but it still hits you in the right place, especially on the album’s most urgent tracks, “Vicariously Living,” first single “Our Quiet Whisper” and manic, paranoid post-punk closer “Modern Man.” The album’s best song, though, is “Like a Comet” with its nagging descending main guitar riff that then rips open like Love’s version of “7 and 7 Is” when it’s too late to brace for impact. Like that space snowball crashing into our atmosphere, Eddy Current Suppression Ring are back, right when we need them most.