“Waves” by Beastwars

Another day in May, another gentle New Zealand song to share… Well, the song “Waves” was kinda deathly gentle in it’s original form when performed by Superette. But in the hands of Wellington sludge-metal masters Beastwars it’s rendered apocalyptic by virtue of the Beastwars sonic attack.

Beastwars’ reconceptualisation of Superette’s “Waves” is one of the tracks on their album of imaginative covers of New Zealand music called “Tyranny of Distance” which is an essential addition to every NZ rock fan’s collection, regardless of whether your sound detector is set to metal or gentler musical forms.

The attentive Superette fans will have noticed that the riff here also nods to Superette’s “Saskatchewan” which in a way managed to pre-empt Beastwars ‘Obey-the-Riff’ approach to metal back in 1996 when Superette released their album “Tiger” on which these songs appear.

Beastwars photo credit: David James

“Venturi Effect” by Hex waves

Chairman Jim, the same enigmatic cultural commentator of Garage fanzine fame some decades ago, grumbled in the background of a long distance phone call today about there being too much American stuff on PopLib recently and to get back to NZ stuff. So here’s “Venturi Effect” from his favourite Christchurch sludge monsters Hex Wave:

“Venturi Effect” is from a 2018 cassette from Hex Waves called “Canine Rising” on Melted Ice Cream (of course). I can see why Chairman Jim likes this. It’s from the same dark corner of Christchurch as past favourites like The Gordons, Max Block and The Terminals, but with volume and effects turned up way past 11.

“Venturi Effect” sounds like the Gordons or Bailter Space recorded live in a huge concrete basement with the volume of everything cranked way beyond the capacity of the recording machine to cope with the sound pressure levels.

As they explain on their Bandcamp page: “Recorded (very) live in 2016 at The Hex Waves bandroom in Waltham, Chch. Recorded straight to 1/4-inch tape on a TEAC A-3340S found in a pile of rubbish outside the Psychology Department at the University of Canterbury.”

The Hex Waves are/were/ have been/ may still be drummer Nadine Luscombe (that squelchy splat sound), guitarist/ vocalist Luke Wood (those distorted melodic sounds), and bassist Jamie Stratton (that distorted bassy sound). It’s kind of lo-fi surf rock (hints of The Cramps) and primitive sludge metal riffing, a combination that works surprisingly well. The effect-overloaded guitar freak-outs in the songs are very psychedelic. This would be amazing to hear live but the next best thing would be playing this very loud and losing your mind and your hearing.

“Damn The Sky – Live at San Fran” by BEASTWARS

Our day 28 song for New Zealand Music Month 2020 comes from NZs sludge-metal riff-monsters BEASTWARS who released a live album recorded at their Friday 13th July 2018 reunion show at San Fran in their home city Wellington. Here’s the opening song “Damn The Sky” –

BEASTWARS say: “This album is a live recording from our reunion show in 2018. It was special to us as it was our first gig in over 2 years after the band broke up and got back together again and our first show since Matt slayed the Cancer dragon. It’s pay what you want…”

I saw BEASTWARS play at a Camp A Low Hum festival in 2012. For a thrill I thought I’d hang out up the front against the stage and take photos. It was loud and intense and vocalist Matt Hyde is one of the world’s great rock vocalists, with commanding and terrifying possessed-by-demons stage presence. It was only a few minutes into the first song that the crowd themselves became possessed and a seething mosh pit enveloped me. Time to squirm out and watch in awe from safety out the side as Matt toppled, arms spread, into the crowd to be carried around on raised hands before being deposited back on stage in time for the next verse. He did that over and over again and the crowd made sure he got back safely to the stage to complete each song. This is a great live album of a first rate sludge-metal band at their best. It’s almost as thrilling as being there, and a lot safer.

Matt Hyde of BEASTWARS at Camp A Low Hum 2012.