“Portable Shrine” by Earth Tongue

Our Day 28 song for 31 Days of May Madness, attempting to post a New Zealand track every day of the month of May, is “Portable Shrine” by Earth Tongue:

Heavy doom-rock duo Earth Tongue’s music is built around thick gooey low-frequency fuzzy riffs, and doomy sci-fi inter-planetary travel theme lyrics.  

It’s a bit too weird – in an agreeably H E A V Y psych-rock/ prog-rock/ space-rock kind of way – to be doom-metal, but it certainly shares some of the ominous frequencies of that genre at the same time as being a convoluted and interesting feast of restless rhythms, riffs and melodies.

Earth Tongue are guitarist/ vocalist Gussie Larkin and drummer/ vocalist Ezra Simons. Larkins is also one third of Mermaidens. 

“The Four Seasons” by Tidal Rave

Our Day 24 song for 31 Days of May Madness, attempting to post a New Zealand track every day of the month of May, is “The Four Seasons” by Tidal Rave:

“The Four Seasons” is a new song from the Wellington band, released in March this year, and following their first album “Heart Screams” released last year just as the pandemic lockdown commenced in NZ. That album demonstrated Tidal Rave do the dark garage guitar and keyboard thing that New Zealand is world famous for really well.

Anyone into those peculiarly dark and brooding Christchurch bands that were on Flying Nun Records in the 1980s (Pin Group, The Terminals, Max Block, Scorched Earth Policy, and their later post-FNR offspring Dadamah) would have recognised the uneasy listening claustrophobia lurking in Tidal Rave’s music on last year’s album. 

“The Four Seasons” seems a step up in the short disrupted year since the album, and the band here sound less like those NZ antecedents, and more like Vivian Girls with urgent its urgent pulsebeat drumming, three-guitar+keyboard density, those vocal harmonies, and a killer chorus.

“Dust To Dust” by WOMB

Our Day 13 song for 31 Days of May Madness, attempting to post a New Zealand track every day of the month of May, is “Dust to Dust” by WOMB

Wellington based trio WOMB is siblings Charlotte Forrester and Haz Forrester, along with Georgette Brown.

“Dust To Dust” continues on from the beautiful mix of unusual folk, psychedelia, and dream-pop explored on the first album.

“Chord Work II” by Ludus

Ludus, April 2021 – photo by Stella Gardiner

Our Day 8 song for 31 Days of May Madness, attempting to post a New Zealand track every day of the month of May, is “Chord Work II” from the recent album “Two of the Same” by Ludus:

Pōneke/ Wellington based electronic composer-producer Emma Bernard has been making music for 5 years under the name Ludus and with “Two of the Same”, released in March of this year, delivered one of the best electronic albums of recent times, pulsing with lush, atmospheric music. The album blends more familiar minimal techno and electronic music styles with its creator’s own exploration of sounds, field recordings, tones, moods and subtle rhythms.

The album has “a strong connection between composition and live performance” which helps explain the more spontaneous feel of human-operated-technology over programming which is often evident in the compositions and performances captured on the album, particularly in the two gorgeous downbeat electric piano compositions “Chord Work” and “Chord Work II” here.

“Moving Places” by Ludus

• 

Pōneke/ Wellington based electronic composer-producer Emma Bernard has been making music for 5 years under the name Ludus and has now quietly delivered one of the best electronic albums of recent times, full of lush, atmospheric music. Here’s the dreamy synth+guitar world of “Moving Places”

What’s immediately impressive from this Ludus album “Two of the Same” is the effortless and mostly low-key way it blends more familiar minimal techno and electronic music styles with its creator’s own exploration of sounds, field recordings, tones, moods and subtle rhythms. It may not be as idiosyncratic as the thrilling Vanessa Worm album “Vanessa 77” last year, but “Two of the Same” is just as individual and assured.

The notes mention the album having “a strong connection between composition and live performance” and that may explain the more spontaneous than programmed feel of human-operated-technology often evident in the compositions and performances captured on the album, particularly in the two gorgeous downbeat electric piano compositions Chord Work and Chord Work II.

“Tongue” by Prison Choir

Prison Choir are a seven member band from Wellington combining a diverse range of musical backgrounds into something intriguing. “Tongue” is their first single, ahead of an EP in 2021.

Prison choir’s “Tongue” starts off sparse, breathy whispered vocals over electric guitar arpeggios, like waking up from a particularly good dream and, in that initial moment of groggy recalibration, trying to make sense of the connection between the dream world and the real world. Wellington/ Pōneke does have a strong ‘neo-folk’ scene creating odd but dreamy transcendent but unusual music (thinking WOMB in particular and the general Sonorous Circles roster), so expectations may be set in those initial moments of the song.

But by the time that trumpet blast kicks in you get a sense this is no longer going to follow the path of Wellington’s neo-folk scene. Instead the song transforms into something more akin to the the fabulous hyper-melodic multi-dimensional world of The Polyphonic Spree. It shifts gear to euphoric bustling chamber pop with instruments swirling in the clouds. It’s a little bit psychedelic – the dream spell is not entirely broken – and there is a lot going on within the song’s 2 minutes 26 seconds.

Prison Choir are Xanthe Brookes (bass, vocals, guitar), Carla Camilleri (synth, vocals), Christian Dimick (guitar, vocals), Josh Finegan (drums), Sam Curtiss (guitar), Tharushi Bowatte (trumpet), and Olivia Wilding (cello). The mercurial craft and brevity of “Tongue” serves as a very effective introduction and a tempter for the upcoming EP.

“Mirrors” by Earth To Zena

Wellington 4 piece shoegaze/ psych rock band Earth To Zena return with a new single “Mirrors” ahead of their third EP following “Transmundane” (2018) and its semi-unplugged/ part-ambient companion EP “Transmutations” (2019):

“Mirror” doesn’t stray far from the ambitious blend of shoegaze-inspired dreamy guitar+synth pop along with heavier sonic space-rock blast and psychedelic rock overtones the band introduced on the “Transmundane” EP.

However the song adds even more hard crunch to the loudest parts of their quiet-loud-even-louder dynamics, flexing rhythmic and time-change muscle. The added complexity comes without loss of any of the emotional intensity of Earth To Zena’s epic transmissions from the deep space of the heart.

“Love By Proxy” by Ingrid and the Ministers

Our day 31 song to conclude our New Zealand Music Month 2020 parade of music worthy of your Bandcamp purchase consideration comes from Wellington’s Ingrid and the Ministers with “Love By Proxy” –

Ingrid and the Ministers’ music is succinctly described as “Psychedelic “frock”-n-roll from down-under” and  it’s a kind of Australasian not-quite-country-psych, with a dark undercurrent, likely to appeal on both sides of the Tasman sea. Songwriter, guitarist and vocalist Ingrid Saker is joined by her Ministers, Tony Paine (guitar), Peter Scriven (bass) and Kim Andrews (drums).  Saker’s accomplished set of songs is brought to life by the performance of the band who can keep it tastefully restrained and then let rip when required (check “Pepper’n’Sand” for a bit of that dynamic range). But the magic ingredient here which gives the music its distinctive heart is Saker’s vocal performance.

Listening to the whole album “Kill the Sights” from which the featured song today “Love By Proxy” comes, I was immediately reminded of an old favourite, and largely unheralded, Connecticut, US band called The Mountain Movers who started out with a style of ambitious not-quite-Americana-rock and not-quite psychedelic rock, but straddling the traditional and the contemporary in interesting and adventurous ways, as do Ingrid and the Ministers.

 

“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.

 

 

 

“Speed of Sound” by Tidal Rave

Our day 19 song for New Zealand Music Month 2020 is a song from the recent album “Heart Screams” by Wellington six-piece Tidal Rave. Let’s go with the “Speed of Sound” –

Tidal Rave do the dark garage guitar and keyboard thing that New Zealand is world famous for really well. With three guitarists, and also as many alternating vocalists their music is full of melody as well as the busy churn and lyrical themes fuelled by anxiety and resentment.

Anyone into those peculiarly dark and brooding Christchurch bands that were on Flying Nun Records in the 1980s (Pin Group, The Terminals, Max Block, Scorched Earth Policy, and their later post-FNR offspring Dadamah) will recognise the uneasy listening claustrophobia lurking in Tidal Rave’s music.  Which is odd, because the band is from Wellington with at least half its members originally from Dunedin.