Mermaidens
by Mermaidens
When Mermaiden singers Gussie Larkin (guitar) and Lily West (bass) talked to me independently about this fourth album, they spoke with one voice: they wanted an album that was bold, clear and distinct from much of their previous work.
That approach had worked well enough: their 2017 album Perfect Body was a Taite Prize nominee and they were up for Best Alternative Artist at the 2020 Aotearoa Music Awards following their Look Me in the Eye album.
Now independent after those two albums for Flying Nun, their new songs have sharper definition, mostly worked up from demos in Larkin and West’s home studios, recorded with Phoenix Foundation’s Sam Flynn Scott co-producing.
The new album’s first single, I Like To Be Alone, could slip onto mainstream radio playlists. The jam-psychedelic end of their spectrum, evident from their origins in Wellington a decade ago, are hinted at (Foolish, the subtle Push It and Tear It Down) but constrained to favour a distillation of Pixies-like indie rock (Sister), spiky post-punk rock (Sour Lips, Dress For Success), the appropriately titled Siren Song and an excursion into 80s electro-pop (the lulling mood of Greedy Mouth).
The confident clarity of Mermaidens delivers their typically inventive but accessible diverse rock under a title consciously announcing a new beginning. Mission accomplished.
Holding Patterns
by Grayson Gilmour
Gilmour’s album title could suggest a pause in proceedings, but not so. His restless career has run from So So Modern’s electro-rock into a decade of solo work embracing award-winning film and television soundtracks, as well as provocative electronica, art-rock, glorious melodies and dream-pop across acclaimed albums – 2014′s Infinite Life! was nominated for a NZ Music Award and the Taite Prize.
This fourth album for Flying Nun – his first in six years – explores a rich sonic palette (Our Perfect Storm’s washes of strings, harp and percussion) with impressive collaborators, Lontalius (backing vocals) and Yumi Zouma’s Olivia Campion (percussion) among them.
The breathy ballad Lessons as Landfill leans into balmy yacht-rock and goes out with multi-tracked solos by jazz saxophonist Eilish Wilson, who reappears on the following piece, the equally breeze-blown Did You Make It? which closes the album with a coda of sustained electronica notes.
There’s pop (Here We Are, the percussion-driven angularity of Day Moon), the immediately appealing Maat Mons that lands between experimental baroque pop and dancefloor electrofunk, and behind Forget Yr Future’s deliberately lazy atmospherics some darker purpose is suggested. The lengthy, spacey electronica instrumental title track, however, seems more like a misplaced soundtrack piece.
Grayson Gilmour’s albums don’t reveal themselves easily. They tend to be carefully sculpted repeat-play experiences. Holding Patterns is no exception and is often exceptional.
Mermaidens and Holding Patterns are available digitally, on vinyl and CD.
Mermaidens tour dates:
Dive, Dunedin, November 25; Space Academy, Christchurch, November 26; Hollywood Avondale, Auckland, December 8 (all ages); San Fran, Wellington, December 9
Grayson Gilmour tour dates:
Loons, Christchurch, December 1; Dive, Dunedin, December 2; Meow, Wellington, December 8; Wine Cellar, Auckland, December 9
