By the early ’90s the golden days of live Australian music had subsided into a burnt out landscape of corporate pop and encroaching pokies. Yet, on the outskirts, change was signalled by the emergence of grunge, the rise of rave culture, and the first jolts of homegrown hip hop. Skunkhour emerged from this time playing a unique brand of alternative funk, blending elements of new wave and hip hop, with the melodic vocals and freeform rapping of brothers Aya and Del Larkin taking centre stage. Audiences immediately connected with the band and their rise through the Australian music landscape was meteoric. Their storied, self-titled debut was followed by the gold selling Feed in 1994, including the iconic track ‘Up to Our Necks’. Today Skunkhour share their brand new single ‘Blue’, from their forthcoming EP – their first release since The Go in 2001, and announce a national tour in celebration.
Skunkhour have been reunited and playing shows since 2009, with calls from fans to create new material having gone unanswered, until now. The world recently ‘pausing’ lit the fire, and a three-day studio session was booked, in which the band jammed together like the old days to create four new tracks. ‘Blue’ kicks off with drums, hard slapping funk bass by bassist Dean Sutherland and snappy era-appropriate guitar chunks. When MC Del’s verse kicks in, and the track opens up to a spacious four to the floor chorus with Aya’s distinctive vocals, there’s no other band this could be except Skunkhour.
From their early conjuring of alchemic grooves in a Kings Cross nightclub, to blitzing main stages in front of massive festival crowds, Skunkhour’s sound is one that resonates to this day.
See them this Saturday at The Northern, Byron Bay.
