Tristan Courtney-Prior (Peabody) releases into the wild the raw vibrancy of ‘Irene and I’, ahead of new album. – Backseat Mafia

We are honoured to premiere today the new single ‘Irene and I’ from Peabody alumni Tristan Courtney-Prior. The single comes off Courtney-Pror’s forthcoming solo album ‘Replication’ due out on 13 September 2024.

‘Irene and I’ is a fast paced ride that goes for the jugular with a hint of wild feedback in the ether and slamming, driving percussion which drives the flow like a pulse. It has the raw urgency of fellow antipodeans The Triffids with a dash of Hoodoo Gurus and The Scientists – a paisley-tinged grunge with indelible melodies and a thousand-yard stare. Courtney-Prior describes the track as:

…what would happen if the characters from Bob Dylan’s ‘Tangled Up In Blue’ grew up in the Blue Mountains.

It’s visceral and vibrant, a runaway billy-cart on a downhill slope without brakes:

‘Irene and I’ is out tomorrow on 13 August and available to download and stream via the link above and through all the usual sites.

The single comes off Courtney-Prior’s forthcoming album ‘Replication’,  of which some songs written in a batch a number of years ago, others were written while briefly living in Athens, Greece, with some new compositions also on the album. We premiered the video for the first single ‘Elevator’ off the album back in December 2022.

Courtney-Prior says:

Like many creative pursuits, the songs are trawling the endless question, “what am I/we doing here?”. Some songs zoom in on one or two people, and others are more macro-level interrogations. The common theme across these songs is a sense of repetitive behaviours and decision-making, whether collectively or individually. I guess you could say it’s a structuralist record.

The birth of the album came from exigent circumstances and experimentation:

The idea behind doing something solo was to try something more experimental – I was going for ‘experimental post-punk’ or ‘yobbo art-rock’. After losing my job during lockdown, I found myself with a little more time on my hands so I decided to embrace the unknown and explored recording a project in my home studio, experimenting with recording techniques, effects, instruments I never touch in bands, etc. I’ve always recorded demos both solo and for bands during pre-production, but this was the first time I deliberately set out to record a release. As a result, I’ve largely recorded and played most things on the album.

It’s great to see another fine example of the Marrickville Sound at play.

Courtney-Prior played guitar for the last three Peabody albums – a seminal nineties indie outfit from Sydney that had as members Buddy Glass and connections with Bluebottle Kiss.

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