Australian Grit-Pop Duo Kino Motel Debut “Fingerprints”

Let’s take a weird little sojourn to suburban Australia, at some undisclosed time in the past. The houses are falling down, the gear is well cooked, and vocalist Ed Fraser has gravel in his deadpan voice as Australian “Grit-Pop” duo Kino Motel discharges their dissonant, distorted slow-burner third single, Fingerprints.

Rife with pub rock guitar hooks and the heat of the Great Southern Land, the song reflects a time when crime rates rise and people go mad. Fingerprints is a fabulously strange song, verging on sleazy, with sleepy guitar and trippy, psychedelic percussion. The duet sounds like a Lee Hazlewood/Nancy Sinatra track run through a Velvet Underground wringer.

Kino Motel is the brand new project from Ed Fraser and Rosa Mercedes. After meeting in a commune in Berlin, the duo deserted together and hit the road. Following a grimy and particularly sweaty basement karaoke session somewhere in Vietnam in 2019, Fraser and Mercedes realized they needed to form a band. Named for the bar in which it was conceived, Kino Motel listeners can expect dusty, gritty pop.

The production unfurls a labyrinthine soundscape that swirls, twists, and turns. Sitting above the post-punk soundscape hovers ghosts of Rosa Mercedes’ smooth alto creeping into the mix, adding conversational tone of the track. Part Courtney Barnett, part Rowland S. Howard, the track (recorded in Berlin and Melbourne) features drums from Josefin Runsteen (Damien Rice, Jens Lekman), and percussion from Sebastian Maschat (The Whitest Boy Alive).

Listen below:

Surrounding the single, the Melbourne-based duo have announced a mini tour. More details here and below.

KINO MOTEL – OUR CARLSON

• Fingerprints Tour 2021 – Dates
• July 7th – Melbourne – Gasometer
• July 8th – Beechworth – Tanswell’s
• July 9th – Ballarat – The Eastern
• July 10th – Kyneton – Major Tom’s
• July 11th – Castlemaine – Theater Royal

Follow Kino Motel:
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