The Bats Daddy's Highway Mammoth, 1987 amazon

Okay, so it actually happened this week ... Monday morning i sit down in front of my computer, returning to writing copious amounts of background information for a grant. I fire up iTunes, add the music i picked up over the weekend, and play one at random ... really based more on the cover than anything else (anyone else seen the 1945 horror film Dead Of Night? This dummy freaks me out!). And within the first ten seconds of "Treason" i knew i'd found my new album of the ~week. Yet another genre of which i'm only just scratching the surface ... New Zealand rock. The Bats bear a lot of similarities to Aussies the Go-Betweens, particularly in how they can snare you with a jangly hook in the first few notes of a song. What really grabs me about this style of music is the complex progressions you can generate with such simple arrangements of rhythm and melody. This is beautifully demonstrated on the lovely "Miss These Things", which segues wonderfully into the more driving but equally profound "Mid City Team". The big difference between the Bats and the Go-Betweens is the absence of the latter's darker nuances and themes. But then you need a spot of sunshine every now and then.

login to submit comments