polaroids of androids

Die! Die! Die! / High Dependency Unit - Split 7 Inch

As much as I love Die! Die! Die! and their frantic, chaotic approach to music making, it often seems all a little bit rushed. Although this is a key part of the group's charm (their debut album was only 22 minutes long) I have often pondered whether or not the lengthening of their songs, as they often do as part of their live shows, would add a whole new dimension to their music.

Blue Skies, their contribution to this shared 7 inch release, has long been a live favorite. It runs in just under five minutes and is by far the longest song I own by the Auckland trio and is built for live performing. After a blistering start the track dies right down to nothing more than a series of drawn out guitar chords. The listener, assuming they are familar with the band's style of neo-punk-whatever is assuming the whole thing is over. That is, until the feedback starts up and an exhilirating, albeit slightly cliched, 'GO!' kicks the song into second gear, moving into a fantastic rhythmic loop. When played live this is point where the vocalist converges into the crowd, the bassist jumps onto the drums and all the while the catchy, bass-heavy hook continues as the soundtrack. Things either completely fall apart into a beautiful chaotic mess at this point or the singer crawls back to the stage and knocks out the last few notes on his guitar and accompanying trailing vocals. Either way, it works. This song comes closest to capturing the fury of the band's amazing live show and anyone who has ever seen them perform will be able to visualise the chaotic combination of limbs and audience members.

High Dependency Unit have been creating their awesome, angled take on indie rock music since 1995. Their track on this double A-side release is called Stupormodel and, much like Blue Skies is a confronting piece of music. The vocals sound desperate and the melody is theatrical, yet hectic and sporadic. It's a fantastic song, building in emotion and serving as the perfect preview for the bands' forthcoming album, Metamathics, due later this year.

More than anything this split release showcases not just how continually fantastic the New Zealand music scene is at producing entertaining and unpredictable artists, but also that there is still exciting and uncontrived music out there. You just sometimes need to hunt it down and buy a record player to be able to listen to it.