After the indefinite hiatus of Gareth Liddiard and Fiona Kitschin's former band, the Drones, the pair began concocting their next musical adventure, choosing to sidestep any rules they picked up along the way. After conceiving the idea for Tropical Fuck Storm -- along with the recruitment of Erica Dunn (Palm Springs) and Lauren Hammel (High Tension) -- the group ran straight over the cliff of conventional rock to explore the stranger side of psych.
Everything on A Laughing Death in Meatspace is loose; it's chaos, but not in an overbearing noise-related sense. There are elements of blues, psychedelic rock, and art-punk, but TFS actively resist any concrete genre tags, which gives them the freedom to walk a familiar path before sharply turning into something else. Tracks are unpredictable, writhing underneath Liddiard's vocals as he drawls and strains his delivery and complimented by Kitschin's harmonious backing vocals when the occasion requires. Lyrically there's a lot to filter through, with layers of allegory and a dense poetic delivery. A scholarly approach reveals much deeper meaning in the lyrics, as they take stabs at online culture, politics, and the mess we're in as a species, yet they can be enjoyed on a surface level for their disorienting nature alone.
For all that talk of unpredictability, there are similar patterns that emerge. Often the pace creeps along only to give way to cacophonous relief, as shown on the opener, "You Let My Tyres Down," yet it persists throughout the track list, including the following song, "Antimatter Animals." TFS take a funkier turn on "The Future of History" before settling into a dread-soaked atmosphere, which seems fitting for the despair buried in Liddiard's lyrics. As the album closes, they reveal a string of fresh twists, including their most anomalous song, "Shellfish Toxin," which gradually deteriorates like an acid trip at the beach gone wrong. They choose to bow out in rapturous style on "Rubber Bullies," a sermon to escapism and vapid travelers. Throughout the record, Tropical Fuck Storm intentionally eschew formulaic song structure, relying on unconventional songwriting rather than mining pseudo-psych-rock. As a result, the sense of apocalyptic adventure is palpable; luckily, it's a joy to go along for the ride.