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Highly recommended.

THE TOADS ask the question and already know the answer. "Are we having fun yet? Living in the grey zone"? There's many a wry smile, often packed with gallows humour, shared on the Melbourne groups' debut album. Navigating the dross of modern life, whilst keeping one foot in a dream is the key to their nervy post-punk scuffle.

Featuring members of The Shifters, The Living Eyes and Parsnip you'd be forgiven for guessing what The Toads sound like, but their mordant step and minor-key enchantment makes for an intriguing parry.

The Toads hatched after a short period of domestic readjustment mid-2021. Billy Gardner (guitar) found himself in need of a roof after his home was consumed by fire, and was kindly hosted by friend Stella Rennex (bass). Elsie Retter (drums) was a regular visitor to the house and after seeing Miles Jansen (vocals) tear it up with his other band at the local bowls club, they invited him along to sprinkle his deadpan musings across their fledgling sound. Pretty quickly they hit on their direction; a savvy, snappy lo-fi pop as openhearted as it is brooding.

'In The Wilderness' is a beguiling record, full of twists and turns. It's arch, resilient, thoughtful and straight-at-your-head catchy to boot.

"What a great, random discovery. Never heard of you until today and had to buy a record straight away as it took me back to Richard Davies/The Moles at their best. But with stingier guitars and more of a nonchalant vocal delivery." - random Bandcamp comment