Surf City : Kudos

<img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/surfcitykudos.jpg" alt=" " />Maybe one day, Surf City will grow tired of jamming the similar guitar distortions and off-kilter beats, but for now, the union of disjointed sounds...
7.1 Fire
2010 

Surf City : Kudos If you’re someone who likes to be able to decipher the lyrics, then Surf City will drive you nuts.  If you are a fan of democracy – a musical one – where the vocals become one with the instrumentation – where there is no dictatorship – where everything melds into beautiful chaotic drone – better known as shoegaze, then the New Zealanders will delight you.  But Surf City does not fit within the traditional shoegaze legacy like The Depreciation Guild (QRO live review) or Film School (QRO album review).  While they’ve been filed under surf-gaze along with Surfer Blood (QRO live review), Surf City’s music is an amalgamation of influences from two opposing hemispheres.  Without the knowledge of Surf City being a New Zealand band, anyone familiar with the quintessential Kiwi band, The Clean, can’t deny the influence.  Though you can’t trace the iconic band in other NZ acts like Ladyhawke (QRO live review – who Surf City has opened for on tour) and The Brunettes (QRO album review), if you’re going to be a guitar band, then it’s hard to escape the legacy of The Clean.  The other half is indebted to the British noise poppers, The Jesus and Mary Chain, the source of the Auckland band’s name (previously named after one of their songs, "Kill Surf City" before having to drop the "Kill" due to another band in England by the same name).  While music critics debate on the correct genre Surf City falls into, according to their Facebook profile, they seem to prefer the term "shoewave".    

Maybe one day, Surf City will grow tired of jamming the similar guitar distortions and off-kilter beats, but for now, the union of disjointed sounds suits their youth just fine.  The full-length debut from the antipodean quartet is a bit of an oxymoron – it sounds so refreshing and redundant at the same time.  The racing beat and the clamor of instruments emulate the modern ADD faculty, but the shortage of variance in composition on Kudos would require a prescription for the same disorder that created it to make concrete assessments.

From the clashing jangle of guitars on the opening track, one hopes that Surf City has picked up right where 2008’s Surf City EP (QRO review) left off.  As a song, "Crazy Rulers of the World" doesn’t hold much interest; you accept it as an opener – a prelude – a warm-up to something bigger and better.  Well, things improve slightly for the following track.  "See How the Sun" packs in more energy but is mostly a mere extension of the previous song.  You’d think that you’re in for an epic for the fourth track that clocks in at 7:52, but then anything evoking a saga sounds antithetical for a "surf-gaze shoewave" band.  "Icy Lakes" amazingly keeps up its consistent time signature for almost eight minutes.  Great – if you love what it was doing for the first three minutes, but if your ADD was in remission, "Icy Lakes" gets old pretty quick.  The civil coupling of Davin Stoddard’s lazily caressing vocals, reminiscent of Alec Ounsworth (QRO album review) of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (QRO live review sans the twang), and the sonic resonance of near Panda Bear (QRO album review) altitude, especially in "Yazuka Park", pretty much sums up the flavor of Kudos.  By the half way through the closing track, "Zombies", the buoyant apocalyptic number repeats for the countless times "whoo-ooh-whoo", you realize the anticipation built up by Surf City EP will not be realized on this album.

Surf City’s music is muddy by design, but there was certain clarity – a sense of singularity on their EP that seems to have gotten lost on their debut LP.  Somehow Kudos feels counterintuitive, being released in the fall.  It begs to be heard while your energy has been rejuvenated by a winter long hibernation – at the first sign of foliage, buds, with a promise of summer on the horizon.  Well, at least they got it right for their half of the hemisphere.  For now, Surf City rides steadily on the current music wave.  There is enough texture and pockets of intricacies on Kudos to keep the listener complacent for few rotations and sounds like these songs would be a lot better live.  Just not sure the carefree, youthful jangles will have as positive effect for the next record.

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