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Review: There’s No One New Around You – The Dense Invercargill three-piece, The Dense, display youthful enthusiasm mixed with mature musicality on their latest release, “There’s no one new around you”.
Described in the media as “alternative rock” when they took out the Southland Heats at the SmokeFree RockQuest last year, a closer listen to this release reveals a musical diversity that belies that description. Certainly, there’s an overall rock feel to the tracks, but there’s also a great ‘70s punk sneer with a subtle Celtic lilt, overdriven Delta Blues riffs and rhythms merging effortlessly into surfing soul, and all tied in with a respectful nod to local legends like Pretty Wicked Head & The Desperate Men.
The opening track, “The Moment”, is a live favourite and sounds great on record too. Here Liam Fairbarin’s sparse jangly chords transport the listener back in time to Dunedin ca.1984, while Nepia Ruwhiu’s smoky bass line builds up a great jazz dynamic.
The tension builds expertly and then it is kicked into Sunday by a perfectly executed Jack Shaw drum fill. Great lyrics and an exceptionally well-crafted song. Next up is “Salty Sam and the Orange Stain”, a grand ol’ bluesy guitar swagger with reverb-soaked almost surf-rock atmospherics.
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That catchy riff is destined to get stuck in your head for days. The third song on the E.P. “Mature Tradie”, is a lighthearted ode to growing up and entering the real world. Here the lads jam out a cheeky riff over a super-groove (indicating another influence perhaps?), while special guest vocalist Max Dawson gets stuck in expounding the joys of starting his new apprenticeship.
Nice harmonies in the chorus and solid rock out at the end. Rounding out the E.P. is “Russian at the door”. This short but sweet arrangement evolves from a chilled out Rolling Stones feel into a cracker punk tune with a Buzzcocks, or even Split Enz feel to it. All in all, “There’s no one new around you” is a superb listen from a band destined to go on to big things. Go on, be a hipster and like them on Spotify, Instagram and Facebook before they get filthy rich, famous, and start talking in American accents.