The punk/tech trio Tongue Dissolver has long existed as a force in Naarm’s underground, defined by presence, collaboration and shared momentum.
It feels strange to call Mountain Simulator a debut. The punk/tech trio Tongue Dissolver has long existed as a force in Naarm’s underground, defined by presence, collaboration and shared momentum. That this is their first full-length record says less about readiness and more about refusal - a rejection of conventional pacing, of singles, of hierarchy.
The album opens unmoored. ‘303 on the Floor’ is disembodied and percussive; you don’t know where you’ll land. When its central drive hits, it feels less like arrival than recognition: you were already moving with it. That logic carries straight into ‘Big Battery’, which doesn’t just keep you dancing but erases the memory of having been anywhere else. Punk-distorted, warping guitars and hard techno drums don’t clash here - they sprint side by side, united by endurance and velocity rather than genre allegiance.
Paul Fleckney described Melbourne’s 1990s rave scene as being “like a big playground... you could do what you want, say what you want, be who you want and stay up all night.” Tongue Dissolver translate that ethic into sound: punk’s urgency colliding with rave’s communal release, peer-to-peer and improvisational, channels of repetition, bass, rhythm and fury. Collaboration isn’t garnish, it’s infrastructure. Features equal parts explosive and profound by Teether and Cari Sharl enter and exit the album’s ecosystem as extensions of the collective momentum.
Final track ‘Honeyeater’ closes the record with a slow, menacing pulse. “The future that they’re selling us is dry” cuts through the mix as a rejection of sugar-sweet pop culture and easy solutions. Vocals shout resistance and community from another room while drums, bass and guitar loom beside you, patient and heavy.
Mountain Simulator is procedural, not symbolic. No singles. No hierarchy. Free to circulate. The mountain isn’t a metaphor: you climb it together, simulate it, or wear it down. One way or another, the body moves.
Words by Sabine Lee-Cook