James Duncan - Hello-Fi

Rating:

* * * *

The debut album from Kiwi mad musical scientist and multi-instrumentalist James Duncan is all over the place in both sound and style.

Yet it's not flighty and incohesive, just unique and exciting with all its unexpected twists and turns.

Duncan, who is also the guitarist in Dimmer and the SJD Live Band, which is proof of not only his guitar playing but musical chops in general, released the intriguing and often twisted five-track EP

Mirror Minor

in 2005.

While it's taken a while for the longer version to appear, the 10 tracks on

Hello-Fi

are more honed and sharp. It starts off with the clattery electronic beats and woozy synth of

My New Flumes

(a duet with fellow musical manipulator Bachelorette) and then straight into the cantering

The Cupboard's Bare

, the most normal song here that bears a striking resemblance to The Smiths'

This Charming Man

.

Then there are hypnotic and soothing moments like the slightly coarse but cosy

Get Blanket

; the Church-meets-My Bloody Valentine haziness of ...

Of Everyone Around You

; and with

Colours

he channels Dimmer's smouldering and menacing jaunt, and throws in a mix of beautiful and dizzying star bursts of electronic noise. But you have to physically brace yourself for

A Obvious

, a shrill, percussive and strobing track that - if turned up loud enough - will turn you inside out, shake you around, and leave you with tinnitus in your rattled brain.

On

Hello-Fi

Duncan has come up with some of the most interesting, catchy, and off-the-wall music out of New Zealand at present.

Scott Kara