Emerging from Melbourne in Australia, Tropical Fuck Storm summon a dark and ominous atmosphere echoing Nick Cave while also reflecting the earlier work of frontman Gareth Liddiard in the Drones. Swift artistic growth followed through steady concert activity and a sequence of albums that included Braindrops in 2019 and Deep States in 2021. After Deep States arrived a run of EPs, among them a 2022 joint project with King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard and 2023’s Submersive Behavior, which gathers interpretations of songs by admired acts such as Jimi Hendrix, the Stooges, and several lesser-known artists.
The group originated with Gareth Liddiard and Fiona Kitschin, both formerly of the Drones, plus Lauren Hammel from High Tension and Erica Dunn of Mod Con. Liddiard and Kitschin assembled the lineup in 2017 while seeking additional players for their previous outfit. Only months afterward, TFS staged their debut concert and immediately produced a substantial body of new material. Working at the Nagambie, Victoria studio belonging to Liddiard and Kitschin, the quartet completed their first album, A Laughing Death in Meatspace, which appeared in May 2018 and prompted a nationwide tour that same month. Fresh momentum carried them back into recording for the second album, 2019’s Braindrops, whose arrangements incorporated unusual instruments such as a Soviet space organ. The COVID-19 pandemic briefly slowed their pace, yet the downtime allowed them to compose and track the third album, 2021’s Deep States. The following year brought a three-song EP titled Satanic Slumber Party recorded with King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, as well as their own Moonburn EP that introduced one new original alongside covers of tunes by the Stooges, Jimi Hendrix, and Talking Heads. In January 2023 TFS announced that Kitschin had received a stage three breast cancer diagnosis, resulting in the cancellation of all shows outside Australia. February then saw the release of the five-song EP Submersive Behavior, which collected the earlier Hendrix and Stooges renditions and supplemented them with additional covers of more obscure artists.
