DZ Deathrays today reveal their “game-changing” (NME) sixth studio album R.I.F.F. out via DZ Worldwide. With the release, they excitedly announce their national album tour for July – September, presented by triple j, with a series of major city and regional performances supported by Press Club and dust. Catch the latest chapter of DZ’s legacy as one of the country’s most essential live acts tonight, at their free album launch party at Sydney’s Crowbar.
R.I.F.F. AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES
+ special guests Press Club and dust
Fri 28 Jul – Finnians – Guruk / Port Macquarie
Sat 29 Jul – Newcastle Hotel – Awabakal Land / Newcastle
Thu 3 Aug – Lions Art Factory – tarndanya / Adelaide
Fri 4 Aug – The River – Wooditup / Margaret River
Sat 5 Aug – Rosemount Hotel – Boorloo / Perth
Fri 11 Aug – Vinnies Dive – Ngarang-wal Land / Gold Coast
Sat 12 Aug – Princess Theatre – Meanjin / Brisbane
Sun 13 Aug – Solbar – Murukutchi-dha / Maroochydore
Thu 17 Aug – Sooki Lounge – Wurundjeri Land / Belgrave
Fri 18 Aug – Torquay Hotel – Wadawurrung Land / Torquay
Sat 19 Aug – Pelly Bar – Bunurong Land / Frankston
Thu 24 Aug – Seabreeze Hotel – Yuwibara Land / Mackay
Fri 25 Aug – The Warehouse – Bindal and Wulgurukaba Land / Townsville
Sat 26 Aug – Edge Hill Tavern – Gimuy / Cairns
Thu 31 Aug – Volta – Wadawurrung and Dja Dja Wurrung Land / Ballarat
Fri 1 Sep – Corner Hotel – Naarm / Melbourne
Sat 2 Sep – Haba – Boonwurrung and Bunurong Land / Rye
Thu 14 Sep – The Basement – Ngunnawal Land / Canberra
Fri 15 Sep – Unibar – Dharawal Land / Wollongong
Sat 16 Sep – Factory Theatre – Eora / Sydney
R.I.F.F. is DZ Deathrays’ most experimental, enhanced and immediately resonant record yet, boasting a consistent finesse that stands by their roots with a modern, high definition sheen. From every house party that took them to 1000+ capacity venues and beyond, Shane Parsons, Simon Ridley and Lachlan Ewbank, have never let go of their core objective in doing it because they can. It’s this ethos, far from the perspective of egoism or fame-driven motivation, but rather their core value to ‘do’, ‘make’, ‘challenge’ and ‘enjoy’ that has stuck with DZ Deathrays at every step.
A creative integrity and ambition that maintains their place at the forefront of the national punk frontier with a hungry, enduring and rampant fanbase all these years later. This prevails on R.I.F.F., sparking that same playful joy and anarchy of the rock that doting parents vouch to instill in their children’s musical vernacular: ACDC, INXS, Silverchair, Tame Impala and more. Wholly collaborative between Shane, Simon, Lachlan, and producer Nathan Sheehy, R.I.F.F. covers a gamut of influences and life-stories the four feverishly passed back as demos and mixes while separated across three states. Canvassing layer after layer in constant communication.
Their biggest sonic departure yet includes album highlights ‘Paranoid’ (most recently Q Music Award winning in the ‘Heavy’ category), and ‘King B’ speak to DZ’s consistent finesse in R.I.F.F.’s genesis; a radically experimental epic on the latter that balances their carnage-inducing instincts with blazing synths, acoustic guitars and sparse piano; to ‘Paranoid’s forthright display of the group’s indispensable anthemability. ‘Tuff Luck’ scratches the periphery of the records unchartered territory, with crashing drums, gruff growling synths bound by oscillating percussion that usher Mordor into a contemporary doomsday hymn.
The Orwellian ‘My Mind Is Eating Me Alive’ swings with a sweet-sour lilt in its assessment of surveillance and the media, bearing a similar deceptive simplicity as two-piece Royal Blood, twisting consistently evolving melodies, glitchy triplets and video game like riffage. ‘Hope For The Best’ boasts the album’s most optimistic chorus – “I’m just talking about my life… years playing music, feeling sore and at times worn out but still loving it and I can’t think of doing anything else,” Shane reflects – balancing waves of euphoria with the closest lean DZ Deathrays have made into garage and surf rock, only to disintegrate a moment too soon in R.I.F.F.’s prismatic voyage.
Excavate further and you find post-punk revivalist tendencies in ‘Grounded Or Dead’, based in an Arctic Monkeys like alt-indie rhythm. Elsewhere existentialism and imposter syndrome find homes in the Britpop-led ‘Eat You Up’ and ‘Love & Destruction’ met with the spirited kick of Bloc Party and Blur. ‘Shadow Walk’, for “anyone who’s ever felt like there’s something that’s always hanging over their head or follows them no matter what they do in their life,” and ‘No Talk’, inspired by watching the Black Lives Matter movement reach a fever pitch (“there’s no walking on the sidewalk“), sit amongst spooling interludes enhanced by the angst and child-like spirit of Turnstile and FIDLAR.
R.I.F.F. as a whole reflects DZ’s place as a conduit for the aspirational next generation and their place in the zeitgeist, capturing the applause of their award-winning albums Bloodstreams and Positive Rising Parts 1 and 2 and their ability to continue to endure across a varied following – their music and merch found a place side by side with the recent Heartbreak High reboot. On their latest record, DZ promise a place to return to whenever, wherever; a forever home just like the classics do, be it a Dead Head collection or the formative nostalgia of The Killers and The Dandy Warhols in The O.C. Soundtrack.
Speaking to the Freaks and Geeks and the Dewey Finn’s in us all, R.I.F.F. sustains DZ’s long-cemented space in contemporary Australian music as a necessity. Their mainstay status includes fans in critically acclaimed producer Mark Ronson to rising popstar MAY-A and collaborators in cult-underground rapper NERVE, award-winning vocalists like Ecca Vandal, even a Wiggle. Conceived under the band’s mantra of why they do it, with R.I.F.F. DZ Deathrays inspire listeners to ignite a passion in themselves to continue to challenge and strive, making sure to always Remember It’s For Fun.