Graham Reid | | 2 min read
It's hard to catch up let alone keep up so we here offer potted acknowledgements of four local releases.
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Terrible Sons: The Raft is Not the Shore
Ignore the band name which seems out of punk London in 1977 but take the poetic, philosophical album title as your steer for this collection by the husband and wife duo of Matthew and Lauren Barus (previous Silver Scroll nominees) who have an intelligent line of crafted folk with strings and subtle electric guitar which nudge it towards baroque-folk, and all produced and enhanced by Tom Healy (Tiny Ruins).
Some smart pop manoeuvres (the catchy You Can Choose and Tomorrow Always Comes) and some weightless dream-folk (Yelling in the Wilderness) lift this up a further notch on a collection where their lyrics show some thoughtful consideration of life (Hold Your Light High), love and family but never erring towards the twee. Lovely album.
Yelling in the Wilderness
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Dictaphone Blues: Greetings from Glen Eden
Those who've enjoyed Edward Castelow's previous indie.pop singer-songwriter releases (in 2014 we said of him "one of the most talented, smartest and best pop-rock songwriter/singers at work in this country right now ") may be somewhat taken aback by this noisy guitar-rock outing which suggests at least one household in Auckland's Glen Eden is enjoying a grunge-era revival.
Straight-ahead rock (with gristle guitars and drums to the fore) which also has just enough suggestion of power pop (Soothe the Muse) and tightly wired guitar (the chunky psyche-pop of Exist to Insist) to give added appeal.
Somewhere inside Blow at the end there's a mainstream radio pop song with thumping glam possibilities happy not to be struggling to get out (although the coda is surplus to requirements).
Fun for its makers and much of that rubs off.
They say it's released but no sign of it yet on digital platforms.
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Ravenhall: Live at Breb's Bar
Joe Ravenhall and Chris Brebner from Auckland have been long-distance runners so there's strength and sinew in their songs which here have all the power of the younger Jimmy Barnes in an acoustic setting.
They are also story-tellers (as was Cold Chisel songwriter Don Walker) and they sensibly dial things back during the nine songs here (live without an audience at a guess) so House of Cards and Young Love leaven the attack and allow breathing space. An unexpected – and unexpectedly good – cover of Roxette's It Must Have Been Love too.
A couple of guys to see live on the evidence here.
This album doesn't appear to have been put on digital platforms yet but you can hear their earlier releases at Spotify here
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Somebody Do Something: As Rome Burns
Actually this debut album by a Christchurch band slipped out a fortnight ago but we draw attention to its mix of upbeat New Wave pop-rock, slippery jazz, hard rock (they have a guitarist who likes to play), a touch of r'n'b and funk
Their songs might lack distinction at times but with their diversity, violin and sax in their ranks behind singer Marlee Fay, this is sound calling card for booking agents and bar managers. But a band which doesn't seem to have decided what it wants to be.
You can hear and buy this album at bandcamp here
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