★★★★
Short, sweet and scruffy,Hi!, the debut EP from Bleach Girls, embodies all the popped-collar, bubblegum-snapping ’tude of your 16-year-old self, when all you wanted to do was skip school, hit the beach and jam in your parents’ garage.
For Byron Bay musicians Fi Fi and Mickey Bleach, that dream became reality. The brother-sister duo wrote more than 20 songs in a converted old storage shed before taking their best on a tour of Bali and perfecting five in a Gold Coast studio. The result: a garage/surf rock fusion that’s lo-fi and high-energy, like the bratty love child of Best Coast and Bikini Kill.
‘No Fun’ kicks off with a stomping backbeat, crunchy power chords and a damn catchy chorus. ‘Hell No’ and ‘I Suck You Suck’ nail a boisterous beach sing-along vibe, while ‘16’ and the single ‘Like You’ strike a balance between cute and chaotic with call and response, crashing cymbals, distorted delay and hand claps aplenty. At only two minutes a pop, the tracks are over before you can accuse them of being repetitive.
Like a Calippo dropped on the sand, Hi! is a summery sugar rush – sweet, vibrant and surprisingly gritty.
Bleach Girls’Hi!is independently released and available on iTunes.
