In geographical terms, there aren’t too many places further apart than Christchurch and New York; neither would you naturally align the confident, brazen social demeanour of the average New Yorker with the almost institutionally affable Christchurch resident.
Musically, however, it’s a different matter. T54 hail from Christchurch, yet in the band’s music you can hear the art-punk rock of the lofts of 80s and 90s New York. The opening track, Nails Painted, is dark, brooding and mesmerising and Life Is Swell is pop with attitude. Kill Red cuts a swathe through a host of forgotten antecedents and cheap impostors; if you can’t see the spirit of Teenage Riot shining here, you’re not trying.
But that’s not to say T54 is in any way predictable: O Nina is to In Brush Park what Ann was to The Stooges – which is to say surprising, and necessary because of that. Return of the Worm is thick with guitar sludge and freakish melodies and SW Chops is replete with indulgent noise. AC Parade finds comfort in the indie guitar rock of Pavement et al, Return to Action Movies is slacker rock on a diet of pizza and Jolt Cola and Jennifer Hands is tender and melodic, until it breaks with a violent wall of noise.
Finally, there’s the seven-minute opus of Biscuit City Sisters: a collage of noise, rhythms and melody, a squall of sonic intensity and an extended moment of psychedelic force. In the end, it simply stops, and silence fills the void. This is some very good shit.
BY PATRICK EMERY
Best Track: Biscuit City Sisters.
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: ’80s art-punk like SONIC YOUTH and GLENN BRANCA.
In A Word: Art-punk.
