Coolies’ Master is lots of fun, perfect for next week’s houseparty.
Local label Chapter Music (Fabulous Diamonds, Bum Creek, The Crayon Fields..) have collected four years of music from New Zealand lo-fi pop trio Coolies and produced Master; a ten track bomb of distorted, garagey pop.
The utterly discordant nature of Master could indeed be its undoing if it weren’t handled so well. Part Sonic Youth and Sleater Kinney, part Sebadoh and part Dirtbag-style skuzzy post-punk, Master is a really attractive train wreck of recordings, all of them loose, held together by chop-change explosions and rumbling resonant wailings of guitar.
The weirdness of Ghost Baby is intense and yet compelling, offset by the angular and increasingly irregular gyrations of Searching with its cardboard rhythms and playful choral chants. Coolies’ Master is lots of fun, perfect for next week’s houseparty.
