Lismore-based media puzzle share their latest album New Racehorse, a 12-track collection that is a surreal commentary on modern existence: technology, love, death, responsibility, and ego, out today via Impressed Records. LISTEN ON SPOTIFY + APPLE + MORE.
Marking their fourth album, New Racehorse signifies a rebirth for the band. Since first emerging in 2023, they quickly made name for themselves for their drum machine-riddled, scuzzy post-punk sound, with Pitchfork firmly praising their last project Intermission as “uncanny creativity that egg-punk weirdos love to tout, residing somewhere between Suicide’s dark melodies and Uranium Club’s remote eccentricities”. Now with New Racehorse, they have ushered in a new phase, with a focus on experimentation and building outwards from their trademark sonically distorted sound, bringing eccentric samples and dynamic pace.
In a succession of releases, the record brings together singles ‘Knowledge’ and ‘More Horse, Less Code’, and welcomes ten new tracks, all written and recorded independently over the past year in a place of creative growth with emphasis on collaboration – “Instinct over Algorithm. Feeling over System. Body over Machine. Equine Finality.”
Drawing the album’s title from the track ‘Equine End of Life’ with the lyric “Drug me up, and put me down. There’s a New Racehorse in town” representing the death of the old media puzzle, lead vocalist and guitarist Tom Peters paints the picture of the record’s production process – one that steps back, takes the opportunity to experiment and makes an intentional shift.
Across the album, we hear moments like ‘New Pet’, ‘Out Of the Rain’, ‘I Don’t Care’, ‘Tea Time’ capture a sense of disorientation and hypnosis where larger forces dominate, before moving motions in the second half of the record, with tracks including ‘See You There’, ‘My Age, In Minutes And Seconds’, ‘Don’t Know You’, ‘Equine End Of Life’, ‘Robotic Love’ and ‘Outro’ offering up a reflective palette cleanser.
New Racehorse is an album grounded in reinvention and driven by curiosity. Taking their name from a 2002 Melbourne Cup-winning Irish racehorse, media puzzle is a Lismore-based band fronted by Tom Peter (lead vocals/guitar) with support from Kellie Eden (synth/trumpet), Eden Yeigh (guitar), Oliver Clarke (drums) and Solomon Jones (bass), who after a year of recording and touring with showcases at SXSW Sydney to stages with Ty Segall, Regurgitator and more, have stepped fully into their sound.
Focused and refined, New Racehorse is a bold departure from media puzzle‘s previous catalogue, once a model of fuzzy scuzz-pop, to now an otherworldly post-punk entity.
New Racehorse is out now via Impressed Records, buy/stream here.
TRACKLIST
Knowledge
New Pet
Out Of The Rain
I Don’t Care!
More Horse, Less Code
Tea Time
My Age, In Minutes And Seconds
Don’t Know You
See You There
Equine End of Life
Dead Dog!
Outro
TOUR DATES
Fri 24 Apr – The Tivoli – Meanjin/Brisbane*
Sat 24 Apr – Princess Theatre – Meanjin/Brisbane*
Fri May 1 – Liberty Hall – Gadigal/Sydney*
Sat May 2 – Keystone 1889 – Wiradjuri/Bathurst*
*supporting Regurgitator
Stay connected with media puzzle:
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