Welcome to Suitable Alternative for 2017. Across the next 12 months, I’ll do my best to share my enthusiasm and passion for all things New Zealand music, guiding you through the varied sonic splendour emanating from right here in (not so) sunny Dunedin, alongside the wealth of high calibre national and international touring acts (Frankie Cosmos! The Veils!) set to grace the city with their presence this year.
To get things started, here’s a quick New Year’s list: five Kiwi acts, all but one from Dunedin, with new material out in the next few months that you can file under "hotly anticipated".
Songwriter Claire Duncan, aka i.e Crazy, has new music due out in March.
1. NADIA REID — PRESERVATION
Dunedin new folk artist Nadia Reid is first up with her sophomore follow-up to the internationally critically acclaimed Listen to Formation, Look for the Signs, due out on March 3.
"The guy who is doing my press said it sounds like there’s been a production shift, but I think that’s us, me and my band, developing and growing as individuals and artists," Reid told me last November.
"The themes on the album are quite similar but hopefully people hear it as a different kind of stage in life."
First single The Arrow & the Aim is a mesmerising rumination, coursing with an electrified energy as consistent and life affirming as a heartbeat.
2. I.E CRAZY — NON COMPOS MENTIS
Long-time readers might recognise this one from a piece I wrote last year called ‘‘Five records I’m REALLY looking forward to in 2016’’, so you can only imagine my expectations for its new slated arrival date of March through the New Zealand-London label Muzai Records.
As i.e Crazy, songwriter Claire Duncan pens feel-sad anthems. As songs go, hers are a barrage of emotional dysfunction and honest feeling, setting fire to both the past and the future, leaving the listener stewing in her headspace.The sonic climate here is raw and visceral, the mood at once depressive and courageous.
No-one does crazy like i.e Crazy.
3. ÉLAN VITAL
Dark and danceable, stylish synth pop, Dunedin’s Élan Vital looks set to release their debut album in 2017. The trio of Renee Barrance (keyboards, effects, vocals), Danny Brady (synths, drum machines, electronics, live mixing) and Nikolai Sim (bass) put out the sweaty gothtronica of single Janina mid last year, and the forthcoming album will probably be drawn from the same dense and cold darkwave environs.
4. SPACE BATS, ATTACK!
With their new material currently being recorded in The Attic by local engineer and human metronome Samdrub Dawa, early indications point towards post-apocalyptic doom boys Space Bats, Attack! moving slightly away from the more playful elements of their sound and instead pulling on the rough, dissonant and unconventionally melodic threads of math and noise rock outfits such as ’90s indie heroes Polvo. It’s a vibe that still suits the group perfectly, guitarists Richard Ley-Hamilton and Lee Nicolson, and drummer Josh Nicholls talented enough to take on anything.
5. TRIUMPHS
Heavy-psych power duo Triumphs round out my early picks for 2017. The pair’s second album sessions finished up back in November, again completed with local heaviness expert Dale Cotton (Beastwars, H.D.U).
No word yet if Triumphs II will follow its predecessor and revolve around some wonderfully absurd theme, such as paying tribute to New Zealand’s forgotten history of psychedelic mountaineering and tracing Sir Edmund Hilary’s transformation from humble beekeeper to world-striding bastardknocker, for instance. We can but only hope.
