Decoder Ring: Spook Up.

Decoder Ring play The Zoo on Thursday.

Sydney ensemble Decoder Ring are as much a head trip as a musical experience. Their instrumental set takes you on a trip like no other, hopping merilly between genres combining meaty slabs of overdriven rock with delicate keyboards, electronic loops and simple meanderings to create a soundscape something kind of like Kraftwerk or Neu! dancing around naked with Mogwai. Then you get the visual element, a series of abstract films and images projected onto the band and a screen behind them during their performance. You won’t need mind altering substances to have a good time, Decoder Ring provide enough stimuli.

“You’re interrupting my daytime viewing here,” laughs guitarist Pete Kelly, the only member of the band not to get a synth credit in their liner notes. “I can still watch Days Of Our Lives out of the corner of my eye.”

The band quickly followed up their acclaimed Spooky Action At A Distance EP with their outstanding self titled debut.

“We recorded back in July or August I think. We recorded for about two weeks with JonBoyRock and then just left it with him to do what he does. He did some post production stuff. He’s all set up at his house. He gets up in the morning and starts working. One track we did like 65 tracks or something. You try mixing 65 tracks…”

What’s the history of the band? How did you first get together?

“We’ve been playing live here in Sydney for about a year. The first time we played was, they used to have these back yard gigs down here called under the clothes line. They were so much fun, but no one has put one on for a while. The thing is, there’s a lot more venues here in Sydney and things aren’t as bad as they were before. A lot of those shows were put on for bands from interstate, just so they could get an extra gig while they were in Sydney.”

Did you expect things to progress as quickly as they have with Decoder Ring?

“It was always just kind of get together every couple of months and jam. Write one or two songs and then not see each other for another six weeks or something. At that stage we were just a four piece until Kenny came in, and things became more of a sound.”