Controlled chaos is very much a calling card of The Drones, thanks in large part to singer/guitarist Gareth Liddiard. After forming in Perth and relocating to Melbourne, the band made a powerful statement—and won the inaugural Australian Music Prize—with its second album, 2005’s Wait Long by the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By. The record showcased Liddiard’s impressive range, between the compact and garage-y rocker “Baby” and the slower and more mournful “Shark Fin Blues,” a heart-thumping feat of catharsis that Liddiard penned after his mother died. The latter was voted the best-ever Australian song in a 2009 triple j poll of some of the country’s most acclaimed songwriters, and by then Liddiard had sharpened his craft all the more with tunes like 2008’s bitterly mocking “The Minotaur.” As his vocal delivery became more animated and vitriolic, his bandmates followed suit with sloshing, unpredictable shifts. Yet, they could also stretch right out for moody marathons like the sprawling title track of their 2013 opus I See Seaweed. By the time The Drones announced a hiatus in late 2016, their already intense sound had grown gleefully grotesque. Observe the uneasy lurch and buzz—and Liddiard’s right-wing-taunting lyrics—on that year’s “Taman Shud,” which strongly presaged his follow-up band with his partner and Drones bassist/singer Fiona Kitschin. That would be Tropical Fuck Storm, who further developed the pair’s penchant for angular contortions and jarring left turns.