These masked men have been around the Australian music scene for as long as anyone can remember yet there is still little known about them. Here is a collection of their controversial and dark humored brand of music that they’ve been making over the past 17 years.
Given TISM’s long life span and number of obscure releases this compilation manages to be more than just a collection of songs you’ve already heard. There are the hits such as ‘He’ll never be an) Ol’ Man River’, ‘Whatarya’ and ‘All homeboys are dickheads.’ However there’s also the more obscure stuff such as ‘Get thee to a Nunnery’ from their “Beasts of Suburban” EP and ‘I’ll ‘ave ya’ from their “Hot Dogma” CD. The CD also includes three new songs in ‘Syd Viscous’; ‘The Phillip Ruddock Blues’ and a great remix of their debut single ‘Defecate on my face’ courtesy of MGF.
The compilation also features a bonus disc of “bedroom recordings” that were made as early as 1982. While the sound quality isn’t that great it is a very curious listen as these tracks are perhaps the weirdest TISM have ever released, some also show elements of what was to become on their album tracks.
This is a good collection of tracks. With only 5 songs from their last five albums TISM have left a lot of room for their older tracks making it a good introduction to their early work. Furthermore for those who have been following TISM since they begun the bonus CD makes this a worthy addition to the collection.