A generic, university biology textbook isn’t most artists’ choice for thematic guidance, but the briefest exposure to Wollongong synthpunk Tombeau‘s rubbery lo-fi makes clear that topics of agamic lifeforms and aggregate fruits provide the perfect subject matter for his wiry minimalism and nervous, leftfield pop. Originally recorded in 2019, Scab Baby singer and guitarist Tom Jones jumped from the bug anxieties of that year’s Insect Perspective to the dry, academic teachings of Down Under’s unique biosphere in latest EP Holy Biology, a four track offering with lyrics credited solely to Biology 2nd Edition by Knox, Ladiges, Evans & Saint.

Following Throbbing Gristle’s ‘Hamburger Lady’ and The Pop Group’s ‘Amnesty International Report on British Army Torture of Irish Prisoners’ example in the verbatim lifting of texts and documents, Tombeau wields the cumbersome heft of scholarly passages to create intriguing unconventional song structures and lyrical delivery. EP opener ‘Viruses: Subcellular Parasites’ illustrates the jagged results of songs shaped and moulded around educational resources perfectly, a sinewy skulk of gurgling bass and whiney guitars shuffles underneath Jones’ dispassionate recitations on viral examinations, it’s atonal disquiet evoking scientific archive of rapidly multiplying bacteria and general fear of the microscopic, given particular pertinence in the covid age. Second track ‘Simple Fruits’ continues the brittle programmed punk but barbed with jaunty synth leads that remind us of the EP’s tongue in cheek exercise, Jones’ byway into faux-croon as he details flowering ovaries reiterating the mirth.

Tombeau manages to extract an impressive hook from the topic of nervous tissue in the synapse fizz of ‘Neurons Conduct Electrical Signals’, infectiously buoyant basslines and giddy guitar licks recall Scab Baby’s surf touches and the sunny vocal delivery begin to forge conceptual harmony with the theme of electrically excited cells, before the final exploration of Australia’s unique climate and the flora and fauna which populate it is set to jovial bedroom garage-rock that would sit effortlessly among any of Billiam’s cassingles on the sprightly keyboard pop of ‘Changing Landscapes’.

Allegedly, Charles Darwin had remarked on Australia’s unique natural megadiversity that the continent “must be a separate creation from the rest of the world”. As scientists marvel at the anomalous make-up of Australia’s natural world, Sydney, Melbourne, and “The Gong” have become sites of feverish study for misfits, musos, and creatively curious punks all paying close attention to the New Wave of Weird that’s been seizing the New South Wales and Victoria states. Holy Biology is another discovery that has a life all of its own, an evolutionary aberration of mutant synthpunk and drum-machine activity that could only have crawled out of Down Under’s special and singular eco-system.