Media Puzzle opened their sophomore album, 2023’s A Brief History of Planets, Space and Shit, by acknowledging and then immediately embodying their celebrity namesake. With the rattling cadence of an auctioneer, a 2002 Melbourne Cup announcer shouts in jubilation as that year’s rising star—an Irish racehorse named Media Puzzle—breaks away from the equine horde to take the lead. “I think he’s got the cup won!” the announcer yells. “It’s Media Puzzle! Media Puzzle!” The crowd goes wild. That’s when Tom Peter, the lead singer and guitarist of Lismore, Australia-based egg-punk band Media Puzzle, swoops in like he’s speaking on behalf of the award-winning steed: “Suck it.”

Although that decorated horse passed away long ago, the band races through its songs like all five members are hell bent on getting first place in his honor. On their latest EP, Intermission, Media Puzzle settle into their own distinct gallop. The tinny, unstoppable sprint of programmed drums and danceable guitar riffs that populate songs like “The Scene” and the mile-a-minute “Hypotension” mirror the rush of hooves thundering across the dirt track—a rhythmic motion so hypnotic that it birthed the first moving image. Listening to these five songs hurtle by is like leaning onto the fence at the racetrack, watching the aspiring champions chase a photo finish.

Intermission’s songs are connected by a thick, rubbery bassline, moving from track to track in one fluid motion; consider it the healthy heartbeat that pumps Media Puzzle’s blood and establishes a winning tempo. Plastic whistles and radio feedback scuff the edges of EP opener “Ignorant,” but the track remains polished as it rides that aerobic bass. And when it transitions into “Bundy Vision,” the evolution of that bass melody is so clean that it sounds like the two songs were recorded as one track in the studio.

That single—the best of Media Puzzle’s career—is a case study in how rhythm and restraint can build tension. While the drum machine loops, “Bundy Vision” lets its addicting bassline take the spotlight and the rest of Media Puzzle’s members fling breadcrumbs over the measures: feminine vocal coos that get cut short in the chorus, a single guitar note melted by the whammy bar, barks to “get fucked!” echoing like a villain’s threat. Media Puzzle use guitar for extra texture—employing quick strums here or a zippy upwards slide there—making the moments where it’s withheld even more powerful. So when Peter pleads, “Put me on a mission,” it’s the bass groove that confirms his band has the stamina to pull it off.