Wellington dark witch rock trio Mermaidens released their debut album last month, checking off the first of the "five New Zealand records I'm really looking forward to'' and indications of a great year ahead that I previewed here back in January.
Cut as if Sleater-Kinney (which it recently opened for in Auckland) were pagan-worshipping Goths, the album, called Undergrowth, is eerie and naturalistic, the songs getting lost in flora, enveloped by the darkness of the forest and the unease of the sea.
Functioning as both a metaphor for losing what you're about, obstructed passages and relationships, and as an overarching aesthetic anchor, the undergrowth here is dense and thicketed with angst: reverb-washed twinkly guitars lapping against circular all-consuming vocal melodies, which bend and hook like vines entangling your limbs as you crawl through the shrubbery.
As the trio of "heavy feelers'' Lily Paris West, Gussie Larkin and Abe Hollingsworth traverse the mountainous paths of psych, garage and indie, their internal world only deepens, as you succumb to its lethargy and its bewitching charms.
A gorgeous record and a sure candidate for album of the year.
WATERFALLS EP RELEASE
Wellington solo electronic artist Amber Johnson, a.k.a. Waterfalls, is celebrating the release of her debut EP this month with a series of shows around the country.
She opens her national tour in Dunedin joined by Embedded Figures, lan vital and visuals by psychedelic light-witch Lady Lazer Light.
Waterfalls' electronica creates cosmic and emotive song-scapes, delving into the world of analogue synthesizers, digital looping and hypnotic rhythms and vocals, there's a ritualistic bent to her "post-man pop''.
Part medieval, and part post-Animal Collective experimentalism, its deep pulses rise in a glitchy holy chorus.
Sky Strange, of Strange Harvest, in her solo synth guise as Embedded Figures, fresh from the release of her split single and dark disco trio lan vital, will open proceedings.
MACHINA REX ON TOUR
To promote their upcoming split 10-inch release, Dunedin hardcore neocrust punks Machina Rex and Japanese '90s-inspired emo outfit ILiLL is hitting the road this week for dates throughout the country.
Machina Rex have been a leading act in Dunedin's young punk scene for a while now, playing heavy and vitriolic hardcore, fused with some of the more epic elements of metal and screamo and keeping a strict DIY attitude, while it will be ILiLL's first visit to New Zealand.
Machina Rex has also just previewed the first taste of the split, a rare instrumental track for the band called Alles Muss Kaput Sein, which roughly translates to "everything needs to be broken''.
It's a spacious, swaying guitar wave of post-rock melancholia that eventually breaks down into complete destruction.
At the Crown next week they'll be joined by the heavy psych power duo Triumphs, safepunks Yung Nat$, and the lo-fi Modest Mouse noise of Agent Ewok.
The music
• Mermaidens' debut album Undergrowth is available now at mermaidens.bandcamp.com/ and on limited edition cassette tape.
• Waterfalls EP Release Tour with Embedded Figures, lan vital and Lady Lazer Light, Saturday, April 16, Crown Hotel, $10 on the door from 8pm.
• ILiLL (Japan) and Machina Rex NZ Tour with Triumphs, Yung Nat$ and Agent Ewok, Friday, April 8, Crown Hotel, $10 on the door from 9pm.
