Tame Impala are Kevin Parker, Dom Simper and Jay Watson. Kevin and Dom have been musical companions for a good 9 years, having met at music class in high school at age 13, sometime after Kevin had began honing his primitive self recording skills as a way of putting tune to his newly learned drum beats. They found Jay sometime last year in rural Western Australia and admired his groovebrain and corresponding wrist movement. By stroke of luck he was moving to Perth with another band and this allowed them to jam.
The Tame Impala sound is one equally informed by The Beatles as it is beat poetry, by Turkish prog as it is by Turkish delight, and by English folk as much as homeless folk, and it’s a breathe of fresh air that reeks of all of these at times and none at others.
Anyway, the band still enjoy recording music at home and getting up on the roof when weather permits. With the songs-vat (the apparatus used for storing songs) showing weakness and beginning to split at the seams, it’s lucky they have secured a recording deal. An EP of home recordings is due out sometime soon.
The EP is 5 tracks of untamed enthusiasm and unexpected delight. Beginning with Desire Be, Desire Go’s endlessly looping, loose groove verses, to Slide Through My Fingers rollicking desert trip of a journey, Half Full Glass Of Wine’s half-speed double-awesome riffing, 41 Mosquitoes Flying In Formation’s unstoppable shake and Skeleton Tiger’s marching band drums and haunting lead guitar, the Tame Impala EP is a beautiful snapshot into what lies within this beast.