ARUGULA – Roquette Music (2025, LP, Impressed Recordings) 

RELEASE INFO:

Label: Impressed Recordings

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, Salad Green Vinyl, 100 copies

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, Tomato Red Vinyl, 50 copies

Release Date: 15 May 2025

From the humid garages of Meanjin/Gubbi Gubbi area comes “Roquette Music”, the fuzz-drenched debut full-length from Arugula — a quintet that plants its roots deep in 60s garage and psych punk soil, only to let them sprawl wildly into new territory. Self-recorded and proudly rough around the edges, this 10-track trip feels like flipping through a box of lost 45s under flickering basement lights — warped, raw, and strangely timeless. With a sound that draws from proto-punk snarls, jangle-pop hooks, and lo-fi psychedelia, Arugula deliver a love letter to vintage rebellion and kaleidoscopic disorientation. There’s sitar, spring reverb, and sweaty basement energy throughout, but it’s their unmistakable grit and weird charm that holds the whole thing together. Forget digital polish, “Roquette Music” is all cracked mirrors and fuzz, and that’s exactly why it works.

Here’s a closer “look” at the album. “Love Love Love” is a deceptively mellow opener that invites rather than shocks, a stoned-out, psych-swirled ballad with sleepy, layered vocals that may or may not be run through effects. It gently drones into existence with violin and sitar flourishes, building a dreamlike haze. The sitar-laden ending adds a swirling, meditative twist that sets the tone in a beautifully crooked way. “12 Bar Altered State” is Garage straight into the void. Hypnotic and looping like a heatwave fever dream, this one feels like Canned Heat getting caught in a Wooden Shjips wormhole. Raw Farfisa lines snake over a locked-in rhythm section, building a trancey tension that’s part dancefloor exorcism, part self-help mantra. Pure garage-psych elevation! The next one, “Like That (I’m Not Going To Be Spoken To)” is a swaggering, sneering track… full of Jagger juice! It’s a blast of Stones-worship gone full Nuggets—angry and ecstatic in equal measure. Pure 60s garage venom here, delivering it with a punk’s snarl and a tambourine in flames. Short, sharp, and impossible not to shake something to… “Our Love Is Back Again” is a groovy, fuzzed-out nod to ? and The Mysterians with a communal vocal vibe, all five members throw their voices in the ring here. There’s a reggae-ish dub echo creeping through the outro that somehow works… Rough, weird, and heartfelt. Side A, closes with “Dirty Water”, a garage classic reimagined through a Brisbane haze. Arugula twist The Standells’ ode to Boston into a humid, local-love fuzz anthem. Less snarling, more swooning — a reinterpretation that manages to keep the original’s strut while sounding sincerely personal. Side B opens with a monster called “Vanilla Bean”. Freakbeat pulse, garage-punk filth, and a psych middle section that melts your face then rearranges it backwards, the band sounds possessed, fully locked in a demonic groove. A highlight and a live-set killer, guaranteed… With the next one “Bask In The Sun”, Arugula go widescreen… Farfisa bleeds all over a heavy beat, vocals sound like they’re trying to claw their way out of the speakers, and the whole thing ends in a glorious psych-punk crescendo. It’s probably the cleanest-sounding track on the album, but don’t mistake that for polished – it still burns. “The Wringer” is Country-twanged psych with spaghetti-western keys and fuzzed-out guitar tones. The violin returns, adding a mournful sway that contrasts the upbeat tempo. Think dusty highways, bleached braincells, and desert hallucinations. It’s different, but still unmistakably Arugula… “The Orange Door” sound like a feral, fuzzed, and full-throttle offspring of an unknown band from the mid-60’s that cut only one Single that finally managed to enter the “Nuggets” compilation pantheon! Inspired by We Five’s “My Brother The Man” but presented here like is run through a cyclone of distortion and desperation. The Farfisa freakout towards the end is pure chaos. Lyrically heavy — a meditation on addiction — wrapped in blistering garage energy… The album closes with “Moving Too Fast”, a finale that spirals outward, dizzy and relentless. This is Arugula at their most Seeds-like, wild-eyed, half-drunk, and vibrating with nervous energy. Clocking in the longest, it stretches out into a psych jam that feels unhinged and vital. You can practically hear Sky Saxon grinning somewhere. A perfect closer! In conclusion, “Roquette Music” is a debut that doesn’t just introduce Arugula outside Australia – it plants them firmly in the dirt and lets the fuzz grow wild. It’s a record steeped in love for 60s garage-psych, but never content to just replicate; instead, Arugula warp those influences through their own cracked lens of punk spirit, stoned humor, and honest local storytelling. This is the sound of a band who knows exactly where they come from and aren’t afraid to make a mess getting where they’re going. Strange, sweaty, full of soul, AND completely alive… Desperately waiting for their next move… TimeLord Michalis

Tracklist

Listen / Buy through ARUGULA Bandcamp

Alternatively, get it via IMPRESSED RECORDINGS Web Shop

Check ARUGULA Link Tree

Visit ARUGULA Facebook