Sunshine Coast's alt rock geeks, Muules unveil their debut album 'if', and accompanying remix album

Three years in the making, Sunshine Coast’s alt rock drum’n’bass outfit, Muules have released their debut album ‘if’, along with accompanying remix album full of reworked versions of Muules’ previous and current releases.

Their knack for creating fuzz-heavy landscapes, loaded with pop sensibilities, and pushing the boundaries of what a bass, synth and drums can do is all over ‘if’. Opening with the title-track, which serves as a prelude to a re-worked earlier single, ‘We Could Do Better’, the centring theme of Muules’ debut album is that of choice.

The frenetic, punk-grunge of ‘We Could Do Better’, complete with rolling drums, and abrasive bass attack, adopts techno elements before blending into a heaving breakdown. Tracks like ‘The Way You Think’, ‘Against Your Own Kind’ and ‘Drain’ all display a band that is defiant in being pigeon-holed into set genres, moving through dance rock, to 90s experimental heavy alt, and into Aussie-tinged punk.

Album centrepiece and the slower of the nine tracks, ‘Divide The Divided’ blends Incubus-like melodies with a Collective Soul familiarity, the blues rock flavours of ‘Livelaughlove’ give a homage to Royal Blood, hard-hitting single, ‘Deeper’ gives off Soundgarden meets Filter vibes, and album closer, ‘Disillusioned’ gives shades of Nine Inch Nails, proving that Muules have never shied away from wearing their influences proudly.

They then flip the switch and reinvent a selection of the tracks (as well as an older single), turning them into funk-laden house and DnB bangers, having fun turning the seriousness of the tracks into lighter iterations.

Produced by bassist/songwriter Rhys Fox (under thefoxiam), the album was pieced together in his home studio, with the exclusion of the drum tracks, starting during the time of Covid Lockdowns, with mixing completed by Ty Bain, and mastering by Paul Blakey, with the exception of ‘Deeper’, which was mixed and mastered by Clint Vincent.

For a band known for ignoring the rules and doing what suits them, Muules can rest assured that ‘if’ satisfies the needs of any 90s alt music fan, as long as they’re not craving guitar solos.

‘if’ and the remix album are both out now on all streaming services.