New Album Out Now
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Brisbane alt-rock four-piece Tape/Off return with Fort Sensible, their highly anticipated third album, a passionate dose of opinionated, heart-on-sleeve rock’n’roll. The record captures not just a place but a moment in time, with meticulously crafted guitars, robust rhythms, and socially conscious lyrics that delve into both the personal and the political.

While musically they veer seamlessly between intricacy and intensity, their words cut straight to the quick- caustic and catchy in equal measure, making Fort Sensible by far the most ambitious and accessible album in the band’s storied decade-plus history.

Featuring ten tracks, including the critically praised singles “Paris, Texas, Queensland” and “Flat Earthers”, Fort Sensible takes the tried-and-tested Tape/Off aesthetic to a whole new level, as the band seeks to both share the creative load and fully harness their innate collective chemistry.

With their first two albums, Chipper (2014) and Broadcast Park (2018), both long-listed for the Australian Music Prize, Tape/Off gained traction, particularly with Broadcast Park – a ferocious indictment of modern-day living that struck a chord with thinking rock’n’roll lovers everywhere.

“As we started singing about stuff closer to home and closer to our own place, we actually felt like we’ve been making music that’s a bit truer to ourselves and it really seems to be resonating,” frontman Nathan Pickels smiles. “We’ve never had so many people sing along to our songs before, and it’s when we’re singing about quite personal or local references – that’s been a weird but wonderful phenomenon.”

Fresh from supporting Jeff Rosenstock (USA) and The D4 (NZ), Tape/Off will take Fort Sensible on the road with a national tour hitting Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sydney, Wollongong, Melbourne, and Adelaide.

At a time when our leaders seem lacking and the world needs the redemptive powers of art and music more than ever, Tape/Off announce themselves to the world as a serious force to be reckoned with the uncompromising power and beauty of Fort Sensible!

Limited edition 12″ translucent blue vinyl CD and digital available worldwide out now via Redeye (USA/Europe) and Bandcamp.

Tape/Off are:
Drum and backing vocals by Branko Cosic
Guitars and vocals by Ben Green
Guitars and vocals by Nathan Pickels
Bass, vocals, keys and acoustic guitars by Cameron Smith
Backing vocals by Madeleine Keinonen
Horns by Luke McCallum
Keys by Ben Revi

Recorded and Mixed by Cameron Smith at Incremental Records
Mastered by John Ruberto at Mastersound

What critics said about Tape/Off’s latest singles

Paris, Texas, Queensland: “Half love letter, half furious screed, the track does for the band’s home of Meeanjin/Brisbane what Last Quokka’s Red Dirt did for Kimberley, caught between the nostalgic fondness for the familiar and a simmering anger at its many downfalls.” Various Small Flames (UK)

Paris, Texas, Queensland: “As the song begins, you can soak up that sort of lackadaisical brand of ramshackle pop, the sort the Aussie region holds in high regards. That part was kicking ass, but then they throw in a plot twist, taking more of a post-hardcore lean into the latter half, even giving just the faintest vocal growl to build the momentary angst.” Austin Town Hall (US)

Paris, Texas, Queensland: “Just when we thought that the dolewave sound of acts such as Go Get Mum, Twerps, Dick Diver had died a natural death, the first half of this Paris, Texas, Queensland single by Brisbane foursome Tape/Off shows that there is still life in the aesthetic yet before it is dragged through a Eddy Current Suppression Ring style jangle-punk in the latter half of the track.” Janglepophub (SA)

Flat Earthers “It’s a whole lot of fun and whets appetites for the record very nicely” Various Small Flames (UK)

Flat Earthers: “Tape/Off juxtapose the dolewave energies of the Dick Diver aesthetic and rub huge swathes of The Stooges style garage rock salt into their slacker wounds to provide an irresistible musical antithesis.” Janglepophub (SA)

“Tape/Off once again blend aggressive fuzz-heavy guitars, off-kilter melodies and restless energy to stunning effect.”

The Sunday Mail

Brimming with Tape/Off’s trademark fuzzed-out catchiness, the aggressively chiming guitars and driving rhythms of Day In, Day Out mirror the track’s urgent narrative of social breakdown amidst a backdrop of class division and social apathy.

It’s a snapshot of a world where empathy for one’s fellow man is firmly a relic of the past – “Get a job mate, get a f**king job! Get a haircut!” – and ends with frontman Nathan Pickels spitting “Ritual disgust” in a totemic display of societal despair, seeming to sense that perhaps there is no solution to this modern malaise.

Day In, Day Out – the first taste of their long-awaited second album Broadcast Park.

Tape/Off’s acclaimed debut Chipper (Sonic Masala) came out to much fanfare back in 2014, making the longlist for that year’s AMP award and spawning the singles Pedestal Fan and Different Order as it loudly announced the foursome as an act to be reckoned with.

A standalone single Let’s Have A Baby followed in 2015, but Broadcast Park – is their first substantial body of work in four years.

Stalwarts of the Brisbane scene Tape/Off have played alongside a swag of international acts such as Royal Blood, Kurt Vile, Pity Sex, Earthless and Future Of The Left as well as homegrown bands including Violent Soho, DZ Deathrays, Screamfeeder, The Peep Tempel, Batpiss and Harmony.

What critics said about Tape/Off’s new album Broadcast Park:

“…gritty, raw and thick, full of misleading lulls presented here as potholes on a dirt road… malaise meets rage at its most percussive and poignant…the sound of someone who has finally had enough and is ready to speak up”  The Music

“On their follow-up to acclaimed 2014 debut album Chipper, Brisbane indie rockers Tape/Off once again blend aggressive fuzz-heavy guitars, off-kilter melodies and restless energy to stunning effect.” Sunday Mail

“Delving into universal questions such as existentialism, the male psyche, societal conventions and restrictions, familial bonds, and the myth of life on the road, the band uses their indie rock ‘n’ roll style to create compelling music that makes you both think and feel.” Music Is My Muse

“Marking the first new music in four years from the Brissie quartet, Broadcast Park was certainly worth the wait; it’s a tough and tenacious outing that seamlessly balances its scruffy, frayed edges with restless rumination – come for the fuzz, stay for the feels.” The Soundcheck

What critics said about Tape/Off’s debut Chipper:

“Sometimes brutal, sometimes dreamily beautiful, sometimes both at once: that’s Brisbane four-piece Tape/Off, who sacrifice guitar speakers in pursuit of glorious release from the mundane concerns of the day-to-day with a debut album that will appeal to fans of avant-noiseniks from Wire to Slint to Sonic Youth.” Courier Mail

“As well as excelling in the kind of spitfire riffs that’ll have fans reaching for the ‘fuzzed out’ tags, Tape/Off also scratch the nostalgia itch, recalling the glory days of ‘90s guitar rock.” Tone Deaf

“Tape/Off have achieved something that barely ever happens anymore, and hasn’t been done well since the Sebadoh glory days-subversively fusing pop tactics with a messy tangle of noise, until the two become indistinguishable in the maelstrom… Chipper is a time capsule, a love story and a brutal head-pounder all rolled into one.” Soundly Sounds “It’s this fantastic mix of aggression and restraint that make you want to grab the band by the lapels and – in true school bully fashion – tell them not to leave it so damn long next time.” Beat Magazine

Broadcast Park out now through Coolin’ by Sound.

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