“Thunk” is a garage rock record that takes its cues from a sound unique to Sydney’s Northern Beaches. It’s rooted in Tamam Shud’s “Evolution” album of 1968, the early Oils, and of course the gentler side of the Celibate Rifles.

“Thunk” is also a guitar album. It’s raw and recorded mostly live in first takes, warts and with lots of spill, put down at Jim’s Oceanic Studio on 16 track two-inch tape. That was the classic medium for all those mid-‘70s hard rock albums. You can almost feel the heat of the valves on the outboard gear and imagine you’re watching needles on meters going into the red.

“Thunk” opens with “Sunny Boy”, a bustling, melodic rock song that sounds like lots of Sydney guitar music from the mid ‘80s . The guitars are up front with the vocal buried in the mix - like a band in a tiny venue with a limited vocal PA. Jim’s fighting to be heard above the Marshall stacks. I like it and felt like I was watching a band at the Strawberry Hills Hotel in 1985. Kent Steedman’s guitar weaves around with some terrific lines.

“I’ve Got Things To Say” has a massive riff that could have been lifted off “Head Injuries”. Jim’s vocal takes it  in a opposite direction to the opener.  But unlike the late ‘70s Oils where they nodded to hard rock and metal, the influences are ‘60s garage rock like the Elevators and The Seeds, although Jim works his guitar with the sort of effects that drove the early Pink Floyd of Syd Barrett.  

Jim declares his phobia of the modern world  on “5G”. Kent’s guitar weaves around Jim’s Dystopian lyrics. “My Advice To You” follows and shows a similar disdain for the world in which we live and a sense of isolation with dark imagery. It’s the guitars that stand out and there’s a virtuosity in the use of phasing and the interplay as an organ comes in.  

“Satan And The Chosen People” is a thunderous prog song powered by a massive riff that strips back the guitar right back. The vocal has a  Neil Young frailty to it, set against a wall of power.

“The First Amendment” opens the second side with more killer guitar lines with Jim’s voice sounding the best it ever has. The bass playing of Tim Kevin is solid and locks in with Paul Larsen’s always powerful and straight-to-the-point drumming that gave the Celibate Rifles their most solid powerful back beat. “Foreseeable Ruin” has a swampy JJ Cale groove to it but played by a blistering rock band.

The stand-out track on the final Midnight Oil album was the Moginie-penned “We Are Not Afraid”. “This Is Modern War” begins with the same eerie simplicity that builds. It certainly could had fitted on “Resist”. Its long lyrical journey looks at the Ukraine War and takes some musical detours as the guitars shift through a sea of feedback and phasing.

“One Day“ closes the album and again goes to territory that I have not heard Jim enter before. It’s essentially a wall of sound instrumental that evolves into bleak, post-punk industrial sounds. It’s like Joy Division’s “Unknown Pleasures” but they sound like wimps in comparison to this blistering guitar assault. It’s fresh, has an edge and features more forbidding guitar interplay between Moginie and Steedman.

“Thunk” is a raw  album that draws on a variety of stylings,  Post-punk, ‘60s garage, prog, psych and raw pub rock are all in the mix.  The obvious reference points and single-minded approach approach made this album walk a tightrope and helped create an urgency that gores with mostly first takes being put down live to tape.

Jim Moginie wanted to capture a real rock band at its blistering best, and was successful.  

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