The Drones
Gala Mill
Shock

The Drones had a lot to live up to after 'Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By' took out the inaugural Australian Music Prize. 'Gala Mill' is far from influenced by that imagined pressure; the album was recorded in Tasmania in March last year, before its predecessor had even been released. In many ways, the location has altered the band's sound - this time around there's nothing that quite lives up to the visceral ferocity of 'Wait Long...''s The Freedom In The Loot, but that's not to say it's a watered-down album.

'Gala Mill' still has plenty of volatile moments, like its opener Jezebel, a swirling eight-minute maelstrom in which singer Gareth Liddiard spits out an almost continuous stream of lyrical fury, but it's tempered by its follower, Dog Eared, a strikingly honest, almost balladic track.

The band dip into country with a reverb-drenched cover of Karen Dalton's 1971 track Are You Leaving For The Country and bassist Fiona Kirschin takes over lead vocals on Work For Me. It's a varied album, but more than anything 'Gala Mill' is a very Australian album, though thankfully not in the John Williamson sense. It's more an extension of what the band accomplished with Locust on 'Wait Long...' - a feeling of grit, death and convicts, which permeates Words From The Executioner To Alexander Pearce, the tale of the death of the 1820s convict and cannibal.

The highlight of the album comes right at the end, with Sixteen Straws, in which Liddiard takes the first verse of Australian traditional song Moreton Bay and adds another 30 of his own. It's a striking achievement, but more than that, it's breathtaking to hear a band draw inspiration from their heritage, rather than trying to hide it. 'Gala Mill' is an effortlessly confident album and a fitting and often exceptional evolution of the brilliance that won them the AMP in the first place.

Alistair Wallis