Makeout Videotape
Heat Wave! (Unfamiliar)

Between the biblical-size showers and ever-dropping temperatures outside, it’s shaping up to be a pretty miserable winter. Fortunately, Makeout Videotape’s ultra-fuzzed-out lo-fi will keep you toasty if a change of socks and a hot bath haven’t already done the trick.

Warm layers of distortion and reverb envelop Mac DeMarco’s six-string throughout the thumping blues swagger of opener “Slush Puppy Love”, a song which should have the Black Keys re-evaluating its own thickfreakness.

Despite its bluesier moments—check out the choice licks on goofy interlude “Stevie Ray Vaughan”—the local duo knows its way around a pop hook. Centrepiece “Heat Wave” is the closest thing to a ballad on the record, despite Natalie Gitt attacking the tom-toms. DeMarco’s guitar sweetly sprinkles a jangly chord progression on the track before he tenderly coos out a series of “oohs” on its chorus.

Adding to the album’s ghetto-blaster aesthetic are the tape-deterioration hisses and warbles on rave-up number “I Guess the Lord Is in New York” and jazzy mope-fest “Basketball Kids”. These aren’t flaws, though. All the imperfections add to the astonishingly humble home recording.

While most bands move on to bigger recording studios when they grow out of the demo stage, Makeout Videotape really needs to stay true to its boom-box roots.

Download This: "Basketball Kids"