Rat & Co took to the Toff in Town stage for the hometown launch of their debut album One (壱) Uno (壹) Ein
Originally the solo work of bandleader Josh Delaney, the musician enlisted the help of Kaia McCarty-Smith, John Waller, and Nick Park to record and tour the album.
Delaney also curated the lineup for the event, asking some of his favourite local acts to join in the celebration; and what a lineup it was!
Kicking off proceedings was two-piece IO who busily layered vocals, guitar and saxophone over pre-recorded beats to create soulful electronic gems.
The few who were early enough to catch the duo were treated to a short-but-sweet set as well as a taste of the sublime visuals (provided by VJs Krystal Schultheiss and Jamie Dale) that were an impressive feature of the entire night.
Andras Fox played to a building crowd and although he had to battle the chatter that inevitably faces all support acts, his super smooth house beats cut through and dragged most punters onto the dance floor.
In thanking Fox at the end of the night Rat & Co’s Kaia McCarty-Smith implored him to “please release those tracks,” a sentiment which would have been shared by all present.
The final support slot was filled by producer Leigh Hannah’s misleadingly titled solo project, The Townhouses. Playing mostly tracks from the Diaspora LP (released last November) The Townhouses’ dreamy and drifting electro-indie tunes were warmly received by the eager audience.
Having put together such an amazing lineup of support acts, Rat & Co may have been in some danger of being overshadowed by their predecessors. However, any thoughts of this were dispelled by their intro jam, around 20 seconds of ‘8 Bit Death’, the standout track from One (壱) Uno (壹) Ein.
After this highly energetic and effective warm-up, Rat & Co scaled things back, playing the ethereal first track off the album; ‘The Letter’. As the next few numbers built in intensity and depth, drummer Nick Park began to impose himself on the soundscape being created.
The crowd then couldn’t help but move along with Rat & Co’s irresistible atmospheric jams.
Any punters considering sneaking out for a mid-set ciggie break were dissuaded by Delaney’s announcement that only two songs remained for the evening, which came as a surprise only 30-odd minutes into the performance.
The short set may have been a deliberate attempt to combat the difficulties non-vocal acts can often face in holding a crowd’s attention, or perhaps Rat & Co had simply run through all the material they had ready for performance.
Whatever the reason, there was a distinct sense that the evening had ended prematurely, and that a longer performance would have been appreciated by most in attendance.
Regardless, Rat & Co finished in fine form, playing ‘Vision’ as their penultimate tune before multi-instrumentalist Dealney took up his bass guitar and drove the band through a stellar rendition of ‘8 Bit Death’ (in its entirety this time).
As the 45-minute set came to an end, the rapt gig-goers were thanked and promised more releases in the near future.
These forthcoming releases will be highly anticipated by those present, as will the next gig Rat & Co are to play in Melbourne, especially if there’s a repetition of a support lineup of such high quality.
