Crannk Reviews The Exports "Stalled" EP -

The Exports are a 4 piece punk/rock band that originated in the Frankston/Cranbourne area of Melbourne. Starting in high school, the group has been together for a bit over a year. I’ve been aware of the band for a little while now as I’d seen them post about some of their shows in so.e of the punk groups on Facebook.
The band’s debut EP ‘Stalled‘ was released on the 11th of March 2020. It has 5 tracks in total and a run time of a little over 12 minutes. One of the band members posted a Spotify link to the EP in the Punktoria group on the day it was released and I quickly gave it a listen.
The first track I heard was “T.V.” which is the shortest song on the EP, clocking in at just under 2 minutes. I really like the guitar intro and the way the drums join in. This song has a basic chord progression that sounds similar to the rest of the four-chord punk songs I listen to, with some extra dimension added via a fast/slow pattern marking the differences between chorus and verse parts. In the verse parts of the song the guitar plays a distorted power chord and lets it ring out until the next chord change. During the chorus parts, the guitar is strumming a fast progression of distorted power chords. Lyrically it’s about the rubbish on TV and wasting your life watching it.

All photos were taken by Rashawn Kassen.

“Divorce” (2:48) has a guitar intro but the guitar parts in the verse are more developed with a repetitive picking part and a chord pattern part. The chorus features shouty gang-style vocals adding a new element to the mix. After the familiar verse/chorus pattern is played through twice there is a guitar solo that sounds a little grunge-inspired, its got a dirty, wailing quality but leaves room for the other music rather than just pushing it into the background. It’s even got a familiar stop and almost ring out ending. Lyrically this song is what you’d expect from the title.

“No Durries” is the longest song on the release clocking in at almost 3 and a half minutes. It has a guitar intro but the music feels more developed and the whole song feels like it packs more of a punch than the others. The lyrics feel a bit uninspired being a song about smokes but it does reference certain locations giving it an Australian edge and the ending is better developed. Keeping with the Australian themes is the song “Frankston Line” it’s a typical 2-minute punk song with a great intro but not just the guitar, its all in from the start. The drumming on this track is great. The song has a familiar soft/heavy pattern and gang-style shouty vocals in the chorus parts. I really like the vocal flow in the verse. There is a great little melodic solo in this song that doesn’t bring the energy down. The song has a strike and fade ending. Finally, the song “Melbourne Weather” (2:13) starts with a guitar part before a pause before a nice drum roll leads everything back in. It’s a basic chord progression. I didn’t think there was much to this song but the lyrical flow is so good that I keep listening.
This debut EP has all the signs of a young band starting out with some really well-written parts to hook a listener, I’ll be following this band to see where they go from here.
This is a small doco put together as a school project by some year 10 students last year.