“Close The Door On Love” by Ersatz Savant

Our Day 22 song for 31 Days of May Madness, attempting to post a New Zealand track every day of the month of May, is “Close The Door on Love” by Ersatz Savant:

“Close The Door On Love” is from a recent 4 song EP from Timaru’s remarkable DIY Glam/Goth/Post-Punk/New Wave trio.

The EP features a re-mix of “Mademoiselle” and three new songs. The EP continues in the decadent/ sinister New Wave/ Goth corruption of Bowie’s “Hunky Dory” era proto-Glam style, the songwriting, sounds, and arrangements capturing the essence of early 70s Glam as well as early 80s Gothic post-punk and New Wave.

A big part of this is vocalist, guitarist Robert Fraser’s extraordinary voice which walks a line between Bowie’s early 70s hammy music-hall poshness, and the also the sinister undertaker purr of Bahaus’ Pete Murphy, or decadent expressiveness of The Only Ones’ Peter Perrett. 

“Mademoiselle” by Ersatz Savant

PopLib’s Day 14 song for New Zealand Music Month 2020 comes from Timaru’s remarkable DIY Glam/Goth/Post-Punk/Folk band Ersatz Savant, returning with a  recent new song “Mademoiselle” to follow an excellent album last year called “II”.

As we noted when we featured a track from “II”, Ersatz Savant is much classier than the self-deprecating name (signifying an inferior substitute for a learned person) may suggest.

Ersatz Savant provides a convincing decadent corruption of Bowie’s “Hunky Dory” era proto-Glam style, vocals this time walking a line between Bowie’s early 70s hammy campness and Brett Anderson in Suede. It’s another great song and on “Mademoiselle” it’s the stellar (twin) guitar solo which captures attention and sets this apart – like Timaru – from the rest of NZ.

“Improvement” by Ersatz Savant

Timaru, a city of 44,000 people, situated midway down the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island, half way between Christchurch and Dunedin, is world famous for absolutely bloody nothing. The last record shop in Timaru closed last century. Even the claim that a member of the Jean Paul Sartre Experience came from Timaru turned out to be a lie, played for laughs. But Timaru has news for you: Ersatz Savant. Have a listen to “Improvement” from Ersatz Savant’s second album, ambitiously named “II”:

In a world of fakes and imitations, the name chosen for this musical project is self-deprecating, signifying an inferior substitute for a learned person. But this is actually a pretty classy, and ultimately original album. There’s nothing inferior about “II” at all. It is quite wonderful.

The album sounds like a sometimes sinister New Wave/ Goth corruption of Bowie’s “Hunky Dory” era proto-Glam style. What the self-recorded album lacks in studio sheen it more than makes up for in strong songwriting as well as sounds and arrangements capturing the essence of early 70s Glam as well as early 80s Gothic post-punk.

But the crowning jewel is Ersatz Savant’s extraordinary voice which walks a line between Bowie’s early 70s hammy music-hall poshness and Pete Murphy’s sinister undertaker purr.  Added all together “II” is an intriguing and hugely enjoyable album. Who would have guessed it, Timaru?