Diving the Wreck ~ Grant Smithies

Involve

ack over here, Wellington band Marineville once shared Mercury Rev’s love for epic song structures, endlessly layered guitar effects and somewhat overblown lyrical romanticism. It didn’t do them any favours. The bands 2001 debut Ready for the Dance was so self-consciously atmospheric that many fine songs got lost in the fog.New album Diving the Wreck is more abrasive and direct and benefits greatly from this. Songs are now packed with wit and meaty metaphors rather than merely relying on texture and volume to create the mood.

“Let’s Build a House” and "Children of the UFO” snarl and spit where before they may have merely tickled and stroked, the guitars chanelling the amped up, anxious sound of late ‘70’s New York pioneers the Voidoids and Television. Elsewhere the chords get clipped and brittle enough to conjure The Fall or fuzzed-out Sonic Youth and dissolve like sugar into the warmth of David Hall’s percolating basslines. Frontman Mark Williams’ unconventional half-spoken, half-sung vocal style recalls that of Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus, the shakiness of his delivery adding another layer of welcome unpredictability to a record already rich in surprises.

This is the sound of a band discovering the delicious tension possible when fundamentally delicate songs meet ferociously dissonant guitars. If they keep on travelling in this direction album number three may well be extraordinary.

POSTED BY Mark ON 03 March 2005