With Tubular Swells entering the world right in time for the first month of summer, you can predict the four-piece are raring to capitalise on the industry’s return to safe, sweaty gigs. It’s tempting to go for a low-hanging meme here between their name and ‘hot girl summer’ but those don’t always come across too well. In any case, if you ever needed a track to launch yourself out of gig nostalgia and into a ‘summer of music’ ready status, the Naarm group’s first release since 2019 is an easy win.

You don’t get much of a warning of the coming four minutes of frenzy - just a few full-band thunderous swells. It’s like the last readying breaths before a race. ‘Anonymous Zone’ launches knowingly into a rhythm firmly in the aerobic zone for the remainder of the track. Perhaps this is why, despite being one of the first tracks the group ever played live, ‘Anonymous Zone’ has taken so long to release. They’ve needed this time to build up their endurance.

And not just pace-wise, the track demands focus from each of the members. Guitar hooks and rhythms pierce through the mix in an echoey staccato that doesn’t leave any room to fall out of time. Frequent surf-pop harmonies are perfectly woven, patched, and pitched to lead vocals. Rolling drum licks, signature to many of Hobsons Bay’s previous releases, masterfully fill any sonic gaps. But there really are few. A lot is going on throughout ‘Anonymous Zone’. It strays quickly from what could have been a pleasantly predictable verse/chorus/verse/chorus staple to a B-side bridge of sorts. Again, you only get a few beats of warning that things are changing. Vocalist and guitarist Chris Loftis drops in nostalgia-dripping lyrics before introducing what’s likely to be the most memorable hook of the track - “are you really watching?”. It’s a little guilt-inducing.

Fortunately, Hobsons Bay Coast Guard let you make up for not watching, or listening, properly. We’re two minutes in and ready to reprise ‘Anonymous Zone’s first gasping beats before launching into another frenetic guitar solo. The group uses much of the first half’s structure to build and layer enthusiastically, swelling towards the end in a final blast of their signature surf-pop sound. Really, ‘Anonymous Zone’ feels like a culmination of their previous album Hobsons Bay Coast Guard. It evolves the instrumentation and wails like that of ‘Surf 1’, their Beach-Boys-on-crack energy of ‘Dolphin Racer’, even the A/B, day/night structure like many of their other works and those adjacent in the genre. It’s truly an excellent first release after a fair hiatus and bears no sign of a sophomore slump in the upcoming Tubular Swells.

As anyone can expect, two years of roadblocks and stuttering in the gig calendar is going to make the eventual return a euphoric, manic stampede. Hobsons Bay Coast Guard are one of many vibrating in the wings and ‘Anonymous Zone’ might just be the reason they’re going to swim, not sink. It’s obvious the group are thrilled to tow you on their musical exploration but aren’t going to wait around for anyone to catch up. Luckily it takes only four beats to get on board this one.