“When The Heavies Come” by Pesk

Day 7 of the 31 Days of May New Zealand Music Month madness takes us to a dark echoing railway tunnel beneath Port Chalmers where Pesk are waiting for “When The Heavies Come”

I have no idea if Pesk recorded this in a railway tunnel under Port Chalmers at all. This is called ‘creative licence’. Or, ‘fakes news’ as it’s called now. In simpler times it was just called ‘making things up’.  Anyway, it’s a long way of saying this recording sounds huge and cavernous and also a bit ominous, like the rumble of an oncoming freight train. There’s a sludgy lumbering pulse to the riff which brings to mind some of those earliest Black Sabbath tunes like “Sweet Leaf” too which were all lower-mid frequencies and in no hurry at all.

This lovely fuzzy reverb drenched rumble is the work of the two humans making up Pesk. When they play live drummer Raff plays the synth with one hand and and electronic drumkit with the other three limbs. Guitarist and vocalist Amee provides the low frequency viscous guitar and the solemn vocal. It fills a room. It could so easily fill a railway tunnel too.

“Beekeeper” by Triumphs

Triumphs are a Dunedin duo of Mat Anderson (drums) & John Bollen (guitar) and, as you will hear, this is an equation where the sum is much greater than the individual parts.

Instead of a simple 1 + 1 of drums plus guitar it is more like the formula for mass, multiplying density x volume. The power of The Riff is strong in Triumphs. They summarise this in simple terms for the lay person in their bandcamp page tags: heavy metal instrumental loud sludge stoner rock Dunedin.

“Beekeeper” gets especially interesting at about the 1 minute 30 mark where it evolves from the above ‘loud sludge stoner rock’ into something beautiful, intricate, and almost ‘prog-rock’ – like a slowed down Steve Howe 12-string guitar solo from a Yes album or something.

“Beekeeper” is the first single from a forthcoming LP “Beekeeper/Bastardknocker” on Dunedin’s premier noise rock label Monkey killer Records.

The Monkey Killer Records back catalogue is full of albums, singles and EPs of sonic quality which disturb the air and give your stylus and speakers and ears a decent work out. A particular favourite I recommend is the LP “III” from another apocalyptic Dunedin guitar/ drums two-piece, Operation Rolling Thunder.

Triumphs play a single release show for the next single from the album this coming Friday night at The Crown Hotel in Dunedin with Bad Sav and Evil Kid.