Recensione - Public House - Future (English version)

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Not long ago, I came across some videos from the Binic Folk Blues Festival, which takes place in the small French town of Binic-Étables-sur-Mer, in Brittany. My attention was caught by a video of an Australian band with an unfamiliar name: Public House. The hypnotic bass lines and powerful drumming—even before a single guitar riff kicked in—immediately grabbed my attention, and when the close-up of the singer’s face appeared, everything instantly felt familiar. It was Wolfgang Buckley of Stiff Richards, one of the most powerful bands to emerge recently on the Aussie rock scene.

To find out more, I immediately headed over to their Bandcamp page, and it was love at first listen. The PUBLIC HOUSE project was born in 2024, also in the town of Rye, from an idea by Wolfgang Buckley and guitarist James McClurg, who—along with Brett Middleton (bass) and Eric Johnston (drums)—began recording homemade demos that were soon taken to stages in Melbourne and the surrounding area, eventually making their way to Europe and winning over the most passionate listeners.

After releasing their first track, “Rich Cunt Party” (recorded at home like the others), in early 2024, it took nearly a year to see the subsequent singles—“Death Van,” “Twist The Knife,” “Garbage Bag Balaclava,” and “Read The Meter”—which were later compiled into their self-titled debut EP released by the French label Beast Records, with the exception of “Death Van.”

Stylistically, Public House moves between raw punk and straight-ahead rock; incisive guitar riffs, concise drum patterns, and intense vocal delivery define their sound. The lyrics reflect observations on alienation and everyday frustrations, expressed in very direct, sometimes provocative language. The moments of tension created during live performances find their equivalent on the album in tight arrangements.

Compared to Stiff Richards, Public House are decidedly more aggressive, particularly in their lyrics, which are delivered with catchy choruses and the brutality necessary to capture the listener’s attention. Their debut album “Future” (Beast Records) features ten songs centered on the many ills of modern society as it faces increasingly bleak times—

The album opens with “Police State”, which could not more clearly illustrate the repressive control exercised even by the most democratic states. “Self Indulgent, Self Improvement” tackles the theme of competition that modern society instills in the workplace and beyond, and how to try to “be better than yourself.”


But no matter how hard one tries to fight the bleak times ahead, they are brutally imposed on those who do not conform and risk falling victim to “Natural Selection”: “And power returns with popular resentment… another special election, another defeated man, a state-imposed injection.”

The hypnotic bass, combined with the metronomic drumming that opens “Kali Yuga”, provides the backdrop for one of the album’s most powerful tracks. Drawing on Hindu sacred texts, which hold that the Kali Yuga is the current age: it is a dark era, characterized by numerous conflicts and widespread spiritual ignorance, leading people to believe only in the most superficial and material aspects of reality. A fierce critique of politicians—all the same—who “ride the Kali Yuga, leaving nothing in their wake, while ruining your future.”

The heavy riffs of “Bad Dog” serve as a watershed between the first and second halves of the album, which opens with the blisteringly fast “5 Hours”, a song about excess and the brief respite before being swept back into the vortex.

“Stalker” is ostensibly the album’s ballad and speaks of an obsessive, unrequited love that risks becoming toxic: “I feel like a stalker, I stare at you through the window, I hope you never get to know me, I’ll kill you if you leave me.” Punk roars back in “Society Says”, which vehemently addresses the price society imposes on all of us if we aspire to things like wealth and well-being in exchange for the debt we must pay. Society is a devil that wants our soul.

The title track closes the album in a catastrophic and claustrophobic manner, offering no plausible way out other than resorting to dangerous substances.

This debut album by Public House embodies not only the glorious past of Aussie Rock but also its more recent history, following in the footsteps of many bands that combine the energy of punk with a desire to rebel and, above all, to denounce the most absurd moment in human history—one in which technocrats reign supreme, while artificial intelligence rakes in billions and nations destroy one another with the utmost prejudice—just as their contemporary bands such as Pist Idiots, C.O.F.F.I.N., Last Quokka, Split System, and ARSE are doing so well.

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