“Forests” by Pesk

“Forests” is the opening track from an 8-song mini-album called “Ground” by Port Chalmers-based dark and doomy shoegaze duo Pesk.

There’s an atmosphere of dark magic throughout the whole album, and this opening track is a sublime starting point for your journey into Pesk’s world.

The trademark Pesk fuzzed out reverb sludge-guitar fills this dark forest like a dense fog, while those crunching syn-drums are like a giant’s foot-steps. The shimmering keyboards, Nico-esque vocal and then that unexpectedly exultant chorus melody provide the transcendent touches to a spellbinding song.

The rest of the album continues with a similar strong and uncompromising tone.  They refer to their sound as combination of shoegaze, industrial and cold wave but there’s also a fair chunk of stentorian doom-laden metal about the rumbling density of their sound.

“City To Port” by Kolya

The road from the City of Dunedin to Port Chalmers follows the western shore of Otago Harbour. “City to Port” is a 20 minute car trip or a 4 minute 44 second head-trip while you listen to this:

Kolya is the work of Dunedin musician Nikolai Sim, one-time bassist for Scattered Brains of The Lovely Union, and now bassist for Gothronica trio Elan Vital. He describes the ambient-techno soundtrack of “City To Port” as an “old demo” while he works on new sounds, but it’s new to me and the rest of the world beyond Kolya.

The one-take live-mixed video with the song is from Lady Lazer Light (Erica Sklenars -creator of the fabulous 2 x one-take video for Death And The Maiden’s “Dear ___ “)

‘Buy Something New’ by Bad Sav

Bad Sav are a three piece band from Dunedin. More correctly they are from Port Chalmers, a small decrepit port town on the harbour 15 minutes drive north of Dunedin City.

It’s a place that always reminds me of ‘Twin Peaks’ for some reason. Maybe it’s the people. Maybe it’s the laid back weirdness vibe going on. Lots of bars, maroon velvet curtains, odd people eyeing you up strange, familiar faces & good friends & that oversized container crane machinery at the port towering incongruously over the 19th century main street stone buildings like some mechanical praying mantis family. Oh & damn fine coffee too at The Port Royale Café on the main street.

Bad Sav have a laid back weirdness vibe of their own going on. So Port Chalmers is a perfect place for Bad Sav to call home. Port Chalmers also has my ‘home-away-from-home’ – Chick’s Hotel – where all three members of Bad Sav either reside or work these days.

Bad Sav has been around as a band for a few years now, but always seemed a bit half-hearted, jokey & unfocused until the last 6 months. Last year they morphed from a kind of noisy grunge-scuzz outfit into a noisy post-punk/ shoegaze doom pop trio. And they are very good indeed.

“Buy Something New” may only be three chords but those chords carry the weight of society & its consumerist mantras upon their shoulders: “Buy something new/ To replace something new”. Sometimes simple repetition is all you need. This builds and twists and sighs and rages beautifully over 3 and a half minutes. If you buy something new today it should be this:

Their set is full of big churning masterpieces built on a weighty foundation of propulsive New Order-esque bass lines from Lucinda King (also in electronica goth-pop trio Death & The Maiden) and layered with cathedral-sized guitar sound walls from Hope Robertson (Birdation, Kilmore Girls & Snapper drummer, formerly guitarist of The Doyleys & Zan Batman Circus) and pushed along by Mike McLeod’s drumming (The Shifting Sands). They played a thrilling set at ReFuel last week. Their closing song, which I think is called ‘Pets’ and sung in extraordinary fashion by Hope, was beautifully chaotic and epic.

Bad Sav at the Crown Hotel, Dunedin 2012