Royal Trux – Radio Video EP (Reissue)

The knockout punch of 1998’s Accelerator saw Royal Trux combine skronked-out groove with their rootsier instincts, only for follow-up Veterans Of Disorder to pick the pieces apart again, reinvigorated and vital. When they rocked up again with this fascinating EP, they confounded expectations one more time: Radio Video is scarcely anything like its predecessors.

Dubbed-out psych pulses strip The Inside Game down to frazzled nerve endings, whilst retaining the narcotic headache that envelopes their druggy oeuvre. This is taken to new extremes on Dirty Headlines, where mysterious guest Reeta Young coos prettily underneath Jennifer Herrema and Neil Haggerty’s caustic snarls of “You’re so rank / You’d probably try to lick your own skank.”

It’s a mess, but often enthrallingly so, and while there will undoubtedly be more sought-after reissues from the wider world of 90s indie rock, it’s difficult not to wonder whether the ill-fated Trux were pointing to a more fascinating future than the one we got.