Parcels

Australian band Parcels hail from 2017, but they would have fit right in in 1977. Not the punk version of ’77 – they would have been the absolute antithesis of punk’s amateurish principles and raw-power aesthetic. No, the slick musicianship, the rapturously rhythmic, Nile Rodgers-worshipping guitar, and the way the five of them lock into a groove, recall early Chic. And the polished production nods to those twin monuments of ’77 studio immaculacy: Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours and Steely Dan’s Aja. The opening track on their new Hideout EP, Myenemy, has the pristine throb, the sheen, the swing of the Dan in dance mode. Another track, Gamesofluck, has a breakdown worthy of Nile’N’Nard. Actually, now that we think of it, by eschewing punk’s values so radically, they would have been Very Punk Indeed. (The Guardian)