​The self-titled album from Hamilton’s Datemonthyear has been long in the oven. Head chef/band founder Trevor Faville has been working on this material for the last five years and the results show a true dedication to the craft, both in musical arrangement and aesthetics. This is an album that, despite being created by “independent music bohemians”, is professionally astute. It is paired with quirky lyrics and memorable hooks that will no doubt ensure its popularity. 

Opening number, entitled, ahem, ‘Numbers’, is a great example of this. The vocals of Emma Koretz float breezily over the instrumental but spike surprisingly in the ear.  Lines like, “dancing with Machiavelli’s Ghost” followed quickly with “Supermarket queue on a Saturday” give the elaborate and the mundane so succinctly.  The song gives way to the punchy ‘Flowers’. Here, the instrumental prowess of Brooke Baker (guitar, keyboards), Tyler Leet (guitar) and Hayley Schwass (bass) come to the fore to support Koretz’ smooth vocal delivery. 

‘July’ must have been written with northern hemisphere whanau in mind (“July/making hay while the sun shine’s down”). It is the lead single and sees squelchy guitar and soaring singing keeping fans of everyone from early Neil Young to Fur Patrol hanging onto every note. It would be easy for these songs to be lumped into something quintessentially “Kiwi”, with some similar sounds to other local heroes like the basslines of Lucid Three or the understated but complex drumming of someone like Ross Burge of The Mutton Birds, but there is something more here. 

That may well be picked up by listeners as far flung as Essex, Argentina and Germany (where Datemonthyear are already getting airtime), and it may be that artists in general are not being hemmed in by geographical constraints the way that may have been true of the Dunedin Sound for example. The smaller the world becomes, the bigger a band like Datemonthyear will be able to be. It feels like that Datemonthyear are “making faces to the scenery” and taking a journey that is just as emotionally varied as it is not grounded in solely being a “kiwi” band and that makes it a mighty fine record.
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​More recent New Zealand band postcard releases have included those produced for the ‘Volume: Making Music in Aotearoa’ exhibition, which ran at Auckland Museum from October 2016 to May 2017. Included among the postcards sold were images of Suburban Reptiles and The Enemy, as well as a series of historic ‘Rip it Up’ covers; among these was the magazine’s 2014 cover featuring Jennie Skulander of local band Devilskin. 

​Perhaps the favourite postcard in my collection, however, is one advertising Patea Maori Club’s ‘Poi E’, likely originating from around the time of its original release in 1984; it features the art associated with the release, ‘Kahui rere – Ngarauru’, created by Joe Wylie, with its moa riders, its half-man/half-tuatara creatures and flying people.

R E V I E W
Fly My Pretties at Hamilton Gardens Arts Festival
By K.D. [with additions and critical counterpoints in parentheses by I.D.]
 
After a few afternoon showers on the penultimate day of the Hamilton Gardens Arts Festival, the evening sky was open and clear, and the families were out when Fly My Pretties took the stage; their first visit to Hamilton in seven years.

​The well-known ‘Bag of Money’ followed, which was perfect for the audience. This was accompanied by lots of loud cheers. While I also really enjoyed it, it was about this point that I really realised how much I was enjoying my introduction to the “new” (to me) material, rather than the old-school, well known reggae beats. Troy Kingi later fronted ‘Ethiopia’ – some more enjoyable but fairly typical reggae – although the high keys sounded an enjoyably interesting counterpoint. The musicians possibly had the most fun of the night with ‘Hit the Hay’, led by Ryan Prebble. Kind of grungy, kind of electronica, kind of voodoo rock reggae. Whatever the genre, it was funky and enjoyable.

[For me, the reggae strums and beats were wearing a bit thin though this section. Nevertheless, overall, the performance spanned a range of other genres, including laid back funk, smooth jazz, gospel and pop, with precise musicianship and vocal harmonies. All of this was highly inoffensive and unchallenging – you didn’t need to know the songs to enjoy them, which made this performance perfect for the broad-aged festival crowd].

Mutunga: The whole ensemble was back on stage to finish with some funky reggae, and with a much fuller sound than that which opened the show. They went off, returned, and when they finally sidled off again, we were left with some excellent synchronised drumming to finish. Impressive stuff.

Those who didn’t take centre stage but were still impressive on their instruments included: Nigel Patterson (keyboard), Jarney Murphy (drums), Mike Fabulous (bass), Iraia Whakamoe (drums), and James Coyle (keyboard).

[‘What kind of flower would Fly My Pretties’ be?, I asked myself following the show. They were certainly showy, like an orchid, but they were also as accessible to pollinators as a buttercup – having the ability to be appreciated by a wide range of visitors who came to sample their nectar].