Exposed Wires and Open Hearts The Berkeley Hunts' Life Living Impersonator
Strap in, buckle down and brush up on your binary, The Berkley Hunts are back and writing from the perspective of a robot struggling with life. New album Life Living Impersonator is a strangely relatable, furiously frantic and all parts fantastic record well worth your attention.
A cornucopia of noise that thrashes about, fights amongst itself and soars The Berkeley Hunts have carved out a sound that could be attributed to no other artist in the country. Folk, punk and even a bit of gypsy, there’s something undeniably charming in the pure confidence of self and rejection of conformity in this music. Life Living Impersonator gathers everything there is to love about The Berkeley Hunts and superglues it together with the eternal theme of a sentient piece of robotics. Life Living Impersonator asks you to come along for a ridiculously fun ride that feels impossible to regret.
Lead vocalist Andrew Casta is raw, unrefined and passionate in the delivery of every line on the album. Initially aggressive but soon endearing, Casta rides the chaos he is coordinating, soaring and crashing in every song. It’s infectious, sui generis and the absolute stand out feature of a band made up of standout features.
The Berkley Hunts have been that band you’ve always known about purely off the back of a faithful following of friends that spout the good word of their live show at every opportunity. The songs that make up Life Living Impersonator have been a staple of the Melbourne punk scene for the last few years, building, growing and finally finding their home on record.
Despite being written from an inhuman perspective you find moments of reflection and relation laced throughout the album. With themes of self-doubt, alienation, failed relationships and recovery shining through, I found myself akin aplenty to the robotic narrator of Life Living Impersonator. Lead single Yr wires are showing and I can hear your worry is a highlight of the album with opening and closing line “I’m a product” left ringing in your ears long after listening.
Life Living Impersonator is far from a conventional album, but in being so it is brilliant.
Listen to this album.
