Bedroom Tapes and Broken Signals: Royal Commission’s "Motel Surveillance"

Royal Commission is the bedroom recording project of Dean Robb, formerly of Disapora and Guys Doing Stuff, as seen on ABC TV’s Rage. Motel Surveillance is the latest single, and it carries that familiar sense of something made without interference from anyone else.

It sits in the space between alternative rock and post-punk, with bits of DIY noise and the occasional melodic line that sticks longer than you expect it to. There are moments where it almost breaks into something catchy, even a bit sing-along, before slipping back into rougher edges again.

Everything is recorded at home on a TASCAM DP-006. Guitars and pedals come from op shops, the microphone is a $13.95 Jaycar purchase, and a drum machine keeps time in a fairly unglamorous way. After recording, the tracks are run through Audacity for a basic mix and master, then exported. That is pretty much the whole process.

It is straightforward, almost old school in its approach. Proper 4-track recording energy, closer to how things were done before studios became the default expectation. Nothing is overworked or overly polished, and that is part of the appeal.

Motel Surveillance does not try to be tidy or particularly refined. It feels like a snapshot of ideas captured quickly and left more or less as they are. Rough in places, melodic in others, and held together by instinct more than anything else.