A Deeper Life
by Chaos in The CBD
Given how often newsreaders here resort to “chaos” (describing otherwise non-events on roads, sales at shopping malls and so on), London-based Kiwi brothers Louis and Ben Helliker-Hale – who are Chaos in The CBD – clearly have an ironic eye on things back home. Down By the Cove, the opening instrumental of A Deeper Life, establishes a pastoral ambience with bird song and restful repetition.
The equally mellow Mountain Mover that follows with South London guitarist Alex Cosmo Blake, sits between smooth urban jazz and liquid atmospherics. And the slightly more racing tempos of Love Language, featuring the polished saxophone of Nathan Haines, and the moody title track (with Bangkok-based producer/trumpeter Isaac Aesili) also evoke a very chilled-out night by the hotel pool, where twinkling lights are wound around the palm trees and party-goers have mostly moved on. Even the percussion-prominent Brain Gymnasium doesn’t sound too far from a beach.
Although Chaos command a global platform, the tasteful and quietly transporting A Deeper Life is steeped in the musical and cultural sensibilities of Aotearoa, made obvious in the titles Tongariro Crossing (with Haines on flute) and Ōtaki with Australian vibes player Finn Rees.
But that connection also runs deeper in the relaxed moods. Even on the more straight-ahead house tracks and Maintaining My Peace, with darkly declamatory London rapper MC Novelist and soul chanteuse Stephanie Cooke, the overall atmosphere is laidback, crafted, subtle, sophisticated and chill.
A seductive keeper where chaos has rarely sounded so warmly welcoming.
We’re Not Known For Anything
by Neither Do I
With an album title deliberately downplaying expectation, and a performance name which suggests ambivalence or diffidence, Auckland singer-songwriter Danny Ebdale – three previous albums and a series of singles as Hospital Sports since 2015 – doesn’t exactly make a strenuous bid for attention.
But where the Hospital Sports trio – Ebdale with various players over the years – erred into emo-folk-pop territory, as Neither Do I the admirably tenacious Ebdale heads into more mainstream, melodic jangle pop (Ghost Machine), Chills-like atmospheres (Running in Clay) and aggressively distorted art-pop (Fresh New Hell, with a snapping spoken word narrative that isn’t without black humour).
Ebdale sounds bedevilled by life’s misfortunes (Go Away), relationships (the title track) and personal issues (the surging energy of Recollection).
But often enough he writes lyrically refined angst in poetic imagery while pulling everything into a more positive space through upbeat songs (Cover Your Tracks, which also has some of Martin Phillipps’ emotional tension).
Ebdale has built an interesting body of work, largely out of earshot of a wider audience. But, as someone with a few touchstones in the Flying Nun ethos and some of Britain’s observant Northern singer-songwriters, he’s also conspicuously on his own course.
Danny Ebdale is someone worth hearing and this album with numerous musicians (cello, violin, clarinet and vocals) is an assured step towards the greater attention he deserves. Nom de disque and album title notwithstanding.
A Deeper Life is available on digitally, on CD and vinyl; We’re Not Known for Anything is available digitally and on vinyl.
