Recognisable as the leader of Adelaide garage-rock champions Bad//Dreems, Ben Marwe’s solo endeavour manages to twist his band’s familiar sound while avoiding the temptation to fully reinvent himself. Debut single ‘Part Timer’ unravelled around Ben’s usual nervous ramblings, his signature ocker vocals reliably distinct, yet in favour of rollicking drums and searing guitars were simmering drum machine grooves and an unsettling combo of minimalist guitar and synthesiser. The track plays as a creative sidestep that highlights the anxious energy that always underpinned Bad//Dreems’ music, while simultaneously revealing the enigmatic scope of Ben’s songwriting.

With his debut EP Childhood Beach out officially tomorrow, today we’ve been treated to his next single ‘R.S.L’, another moment of shapeshifting indie-rock that truly exposes what Ben means when he describes the project’s sound as “eerie-sad-disco with dystopian-folk motifs”. This time a stack of keyboards dominate the track over a jittering programmed beat, and against this backdrop, Ben’s vocals feel starker and more acerbic than ever - evoking frustrations of modern Australia over sunburnt imagery while the instrumentation ebbs and flows behind him.

The rest of Childhood Beach continues on in a similarly evocative fashion. ‘District Meltdown’ is a moment of dystopian post-punk that leaves plenty of space for Ben’s incisive wordplay, and tracks like ‘Kings Cross’ and ‘Heart Control’ reveal the unstoppable pop-smarts that hide beneath all of the music that Ben creates. Sounding equally wired and wide-eyed, the closing title track is perhaps the most compelling way to round up the EP; with its warm guitar strums, woozy keys and unhurried drum machine lilt, 'Childhood Beach' summarises Wedding Motel’s sound as it cleverly flitters between restless and fatigued, yet ends the listen on a welcome uplifting note.