00_ (pronounced “double oh nothing”) bring grit and emotion to the table with their experimental rock sound.

Based in Naarm, the group describes themselves as “dissonant, ever-changing, overwhelming and unpredictable”. Driven by wandering guitars and urgent vocals, 00_ are creating music to soundtrack the impending apocalypse.

00_ count fellow Australian artists The Drones, No Sister and The Dirty Three amongst their influences, but it’s likely they’ll be influencing local noise bands in their own right with their debut album ‘Ca\yptra’. The album muses on stagnation brought about by widespread lockdowns, along with a deeper inaction across society. It’s a collection of tracks that pushes to the brink of chaos, before returning to its meandering path. Highlights include ‘astro boy’, where angry vocals are layered over desperate instrumentals, and ‘spectator sport’, a slower track that tackles news fatigue and “insincere media entities”. These two tracks demonstrate the range 00_ have, moving from overt anger to a quieter but more pointed rage.

Certain tracks on ‘Ca\yptra’ see the group dipping their toes into an even more experimental realm, such as ‘am i best gon’church drunk’, a string-heavy song that melds wandering vocals with melancholy noise. In all, the album is a promising first offering from 00_, encapsulating the unsteadiness and turbulence of the global situation with ease.

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