The Decline are back with a collection of 17 punchy tracks ranging in length between just 5 seconds and 4 minutes on their new album ‘Flash Gordon Ramsay Street’. The album takes inspiration from subjects ranging from recipe’s for vegan buffalo wings, the property market vs. smashed avocado and Zelda gaming tips all the way to philosophical Marxist understandings of false consciousness. Pat Decline pins the main album themes down to “loss, moving on and letting go, identity, mortality and friendship. There’s a lot of references to a bunch of our favourite things like The Legend of Zelda, food, the ocean, and the fun times we have had getting in a van and playing skate punk.” facebook.com/thedeclinemusic
Pressing:
500 x Digisleeve CDs
100 x Opaque “Black Swan”
150 x Opaque “Pink Galah” – SOLD OUT
150 x Frosted Clear “Corella White” – SOLD OUT
200 x Transparent “Kingfisher Blue” (European Variant)
REVIEWS:
Full Disclosure Zine
THE DECLINE – Flash Gordon Ramsay Street
Hailing from Perth, Australia, The Decline are back with their fourth studio album; Flash Gordon Ramsay Street. This album is a return to the fast, loud punk rock that underpinned their first 2 albums but went missing somewhat on their previous release “Resistor”. You could be forgiven for thinking that this album is a 90’s or early 2000’s punk band signed to Fat Wreck Chords, it has definitely got that Southern California punk feel about it.
The album artwork is uniquely Australian with a Kookaburra sitting on a street sign that reads the album title “Flash Gordon Ramsay Street” in front of a court bowl bearing resemblance to that of Ramsay Street. For non-Australian (or British) readers; Ramsay Street is iconic for being the setting of terrible Australian soap opera “Neighbours”. The process of nonsensically joining pairs of words that Yow into one another, the way a rapper – or schizophrenic – may, is continued from the album title to the 6th song ‘Summerbucht’ and the 13th song ’Bahia De Verano’. These songs, each 5 seconds long, include the same 15 words “Yash Gordon Ramsay street Fghter pilot light sabre tooth fairy dust Pan PaciFc rim job” as the former ramps up in intensity and the latter winds down with the album.
The album reaches a value-for-money 17 songs but only checks in at 30min in length, ensuring the listener doesn’t lose interest or get bored throughout the album. Kicking off with the very solid “Bullet With Buffalo Wings”, the album really comes into its own on the second -and arguably the best- song “Brovine”. Without having any context, it is hard to tell whether this song is about sexual harassment and domestic abuse, or factory farms and meat- eating – most likely it is about both. The songs’ verses are tied together with a chorus-chant of “fuck off with your macho shit” sung with such passion that I can’t help but join in every time it is sung, I can only imagine this would be amazing in a live show. The albums intensity continues to rise through the fourth song “War” which features guest singer Nuno Pereira of A Wilhelm Scream taking control of the song for a single verse that completely changes from The Decline’s usual sound to that AWS.
The guest vocals don’t end there, the very next song, “A Verge Collection”, features Stacy Dee of Bad Cop Bad Cop as the girlfriend that the protagonist is running from. As the album approaches the end, the mood is lifted slightly by the song “Get Hyrule, Save Zelda” which features slightly more poppy music over a more relaxed set of lyrics about playing Zelda. For Australian music fans, it is worth identifying this song as another – “Get, See” song, starting with The Smith Street Band’s “Get High, See Mice”, Lincoln Le Fevre’s “Get Drunk, See Bands” and Luca Brasi’s “Get Sad, See No One”.
The raised mood is only temporary before the album ends on a particularly sad pair of songs, “Your Funeral” and “Josh”. “Your Funeral” is the only slow song on the album and is sung with serious emotion; the lyrics express concern for an old friend, the lyrics “feels like we wrote the whole of Eat That in your background over beers” identifies the friend in trouble as a past band member and quite likely former vocalist Dan Cribb. The song focuses on the friends mental health issues, not being in contact with the friend and the associated feeling of not being able to do anything to make a difference. This leads into the louder “Josh” a tribute to a friend who has died and how different things are now that he is gone. This doesn’t have the raw sadness of “Your Funeral” and feels more like a celebration of the life and good times that were shared before the passing of Josh.
The album has really put The Decline back in the drivers seat of Australian punk rock and demonstrates that they should be far more famous than they are. A little more touring to get their music out there and this album would be taking out the top spot on a lot of reviewers end of year lists.
9/10 Matt Power
PunkRockTheory.com [Belgium]
THE DECLINE – Flash Gordon Ramsay Street
The Decline is not just the longest NOFX song known to man, it is also the name of one of Australia’s finest skate punk bands. Never heard of them before? Well, your loss. They have been cranking out face-melting releases since 2008 and are now back with album number four. ‘Flash Gordon Ramsay Street’ comes with a whopping’ 17 new tracks that range in length between 5 seconds and an all out epic 4 minutes and take cues from fellow Australians Frenzal Rhomb, NOFX, Lagwagon and all the other 90ies Epi/Fat bands we fell in love with back in the day. And the best thing about The Decline? Rather than making it all sound like a throwback or a retread, they take all of the genre’s staples and manage to make it sound fresh. Lyrically, they are all over the place. A recipe for vegan buffalo wings, the property market, The Legend Of Zelda and Marxist theories. It’s all here. It would be easy to dismiss The Decline as a fun band that likes to goof off. And well, you’d be partially right. But you would also be selling them short because they actually have a lot of valid points to get across. If you are like me and like your melodic punk rock snotty, urgent, fast, fun and melodic, then ‘Flash Gordon Ramsay Street’ is just the album for you. The Decline have got all of the above in spades. And then some.
8/10 Review by: Tom Dumarey
Noise Pollution
THE DECLINE – Flash Gordon Ramsay Street
So you seek an old-school misadventure? With the panting of percussions and race of guitars? Well, The Decline is your escapade. As the 4th album of the punk-rock, Flash Gordon Ramsay Street, this 17-piece collection will be out on August 30. A dynamic work, ranging from 5-second songs to connotational titles, this will remind you of the foolish teenage years in your life. The first track was Bullet With Buffalo Wings. A weird title. But the unannounced tumbling of drums stampeded all the way and set the roads aflame. It was street punk. A lyrical foreword which used bold and shadowed colours. The guitar needed no introductory remarks, it was capable of presenting itself without effort. Brovine was guitar scales. A poetic violence. This was a different sort of rebellion. It’s impulsive. An urgent demand for freedom. Which was followed by It Was Always You. Another fast-paced emotion we sense here. It was like a race to the nearest skatepark. It reminded me of clumsy 13-15 year-olds, being sincere with their selves but awkward. There was a bipolar melody in War. It contained the personality of a lovestruck goner. Scattered among the lines were curses and pleas. It was an emotion-laden, somewhat self-centered cry. Verge Collection spoke of anxiety. The guitar, although momentary had its own argument. It was like running away from someone. The escape plan B. The out-of-breath mockery you shout to your enemies. Summerbucht was the first five-second piece. It was like a quick break. A simple sentence to the next song, Changing My Shoes. This reminded me of The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. Or somewhere like My Chemical Romance. Your heartbeat attempts to sync with the rock elements. And the guitarwork were little phrases of a slipshod living. Although it ended with a sad tone. Smashed Avo was another weird title. Lasting for about 40-seconds. It was like half a thought. Postponed for sometime else. However, Real Again came next. This was, in my opinion, a straightforward and personal transformation. Some details sang of self-growth. It was dynamic. The inconsistent increase and decrease of a young lad towards maturity. High Extinction had a simple message. To profess the errors of life. This track was continuous. The entwining of guitar and vocals were just. Further in the album was I’m Not Alright. There were mini riffs all over the place. It was the kind of song which attacks without thinking through an act. It was how you painfully seek for something. A dosage of peace? An ounce of freedom, perhaps? Don’t Jump A Giftshark In The Mouth had defeated all the weirder titles so far. Nevertheless, the guitarring blended into a darker version. Again came the profanities, although it seemed to present a valid point. Another short-lived track was Baha De Verano. Simple lines. Simple five seconds. Then we got Get Hyrule Save Zelda, in reference to a Japanese Nintendo game. It struck me as a cool yet arrogant, boastful yet vulnerable type of character. It sounded like a crowd of complains. An unpredictability. With a cannot-be-reasoned-with attitude. Perhaps it was about saving the Princess Zelda after all. The More You Know could be more than a 35-second track. I would have sorely preferred it by the longer version. It was just this happy, frolic-like guitar with piano touches. Within this limited amount of time, it takes you by the hand and runs short on breath but smiling. Your Funeral was a grim-faced private talk. The plucking attempts to comfort you. But no, this is dead serious. And for the seventeenth track, Josh. The guitar this time rips through the wavelengths of the air. It was nostalgic. There was a sense of the past in this final song. Like a childhood promise kept with a little sadness. There was a presence of a piano. In simple terms, a beautiful sorrow that tugs at the recesses of your chest. The Decline after all this, was a graffiti. I see simply this colourful and reckless patch of wall which to others may seem a poor vandalism and to others an example of art. It was a manic race on sneakers through the suburb at sundown. I found it satisfying that although they come from the same theme, they do not sound exactly alike. This album is the troublesome adolescence you will never forget. This is the temporary state of being free.
7/10 Review by Estefan Malgret.
RELEASE DATE:
30 August 2019
Also Available From:
CREDITS:
CAT #: PCD077 / PV025
Produced by: Brody Simpson, Mark McEwen & The Decline
Recorded, Edited & Mixed by: Brody Simpson & Mark McEwen @ Underground Studios in Booragoon, WA
Mastered by: Simon Strothers @ Forensic Audio
Atrwork by: Annie Walter
