“Suns” by Space Bats, Attack!

We can’t travel far in Dunedin right now, but we can explore outer space with Space Bats, Attack! thanks to a brand new release of timeless 5 year old recordings called “Oort”. Here’s “Suns”:

“Suns” is a relentlessly heavy psychedelic monster of a track, melting together hot sparking guitars with an old analogue mono synth to stretch the fabric of space and time. It’s in the same kind of league as those fabulously heavy psych jams created by the combination of Kandodo McBain.

The whole album – recorded 2016 but unreleased for 5 years – is a deep well of psychedelic space-rock, futuristic astral surf rock, and, well, just joyfully inventive noise. There’s so much to explore here, and so much exploratory wigged out energy, insane riffing, and pulverising bass and drums, it will give your stereo (or heaphones) a good workout.

To recap briefly – Space Bats, Attack! are also a discovery point for a swathe of other noisy Dunedin guitar bands. As well as guitarist Lee Nicholson (Thundercub, and Lightning Wave effect pedal guru) you have guitarist Richard Ley-Hamilton (formerly of Males, now Asta Rangu), and the Nicholls brothers – Josh (drums) and Zac (bass). Zac is also a brilliant guitarist and along with Josh is in  Koizilla. Various members are also present in current noisy Dunedin bands Bathysphere and Dale Kerrigan.

“South of Denim” by TRIUMPHS

Dunedin’s heavy viscosity sludge rockers TRIUMPHS return with an epic second album called “Computer Man” – available in a few months as a double 12″ LP. Here’s the shortest song “South of Denim”

If you like the crushing tones, twisting riffs and pile-driving drums of “South of Denim” you’ll love the whole album.

TRIUMPHS is guitarist John Bollen and drummer Mathew Anderson. “Computer Man” follows their excellent 2015 debut “Beekeeper​/​Bastardknocker” and it seems to have more of everything. As you would expect it’s mostly crushingly heavy, yet the album is also full of moments of sublime transcendent calm – try the start of the title track and the start of the 10 minute epic “Twang of the Void”.

In places the album is as menacingly dark and doom-laden as death-metal, as precise and patterned as math-rock, as adventurous as post-rock, and sometimes even as trippy and atmospheric as psychedelic rock. TRIUMPHS instrumental exploration of these various styles is complex but crafted with personality and always much more than an exercise in technique.  It’s an album that belongs in a wide range of record collections.