In the
early to mid 1990's, Rob Mayes' Failsafe Records
released the best music coming out of
Christchurch, including Love's Ugly Children,
Pumpkinhead, 147 Swordfish and Cinematic.
Following a hiatus overseas, Mayes has again
been releasing the garden city's melodic guitar
music for the last few years, including Degrees
K's first album before they moved to Australia.
Now we have
Hooster's debut album Rotate. This
three-piece has been around since 1998,
releasing just one EP over that period. Their
driving melodic rock is less subdued than
standard Failsafe material, while retaining a
distinctive Christchurch sound. It's something
to do with the pacing of the songs, which hark
back to late 80's English indie pop, though in
Hooster's case the distortion has been turned up
a notch, but not quite to 11. The length of time
they've been doing it shines through, as the
song writing is pretty damn polished. Overdriven
pop gems abound here, including 'Floatin',
'Pullover' and the title track. This deals with
New Zealand band's efforts to get attention,
something that Hooster are very familiar with.
Although they don't have too much to complain
about, having won a number of radio and internet
competitions. One of these, an internet fan
poll, saw the band win the chance to open this
year's Big Day Out. With that kind of support
and these kinds of songs it surely won't be too
long before further successes come Hooster's
way.
Gavin
Bertram
