HAMILTON UNDERGROUND PRESS
  • News
  • Features
  • Features Index
  • UPCOMING SHOWS
  • Past Shows
  • HUPCASTS
  • HUPZINE
  • FUTURE CITY FESTIVAL
  • About
  • Photos
  • HAMILTON BANDS / VENUES
  • SHOP
  • DONATE
  • Search
  • News
  • Features
  • Features Index
  • UPCOMING SHOWS
  • Past Shows
  • HUPCASTS
  • HUPZINE
  • FUTURE CITY FESTIVAL
  • About
  • Photos
  • HAMILTON BANDS / VENUES
  • SHOP
  • DONATE
  • Search

HAMILTON
UNDERGROUND
PRESS

* INDIE/ALT MUSIC * AOTEAROA NZ *

Review: Polyphon by Southern Tribe

26/11/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
I first encountered Andrew Newth back in the early 1990s, when he played keyboards in the synth-pop-cum-industrial outfit Love and Violence. There, Andrew played, while brother Scott screamed blue murder about God watching us sin and begging for Eros to be his goddess. Well, the boys have mellowed. Both went off for an extended period to Rumpus Room, without a synth in sight. Andrew did carry on with the synths, in a limited fashion, releasing a few tracks here-and-there from the late 1990s – though with a far more downtempo sound than in Love and Violence – under the name Southern Tribe.
​
So, it has taken a number of years for Southern Tribe’s debut album, ‘Polyphon’, to come to fruition. Comprising 11 tracks spread over a 78 minute album, it follows on nicely from his ‘Retrospective’ compilation released earlier this year. That was a clearing of the decks, collecting together his older work in a single place, and thus, he feels, did not really constitute his debut album proper. This, instead, is it. ​

​The first thing I noticed before pressing play was the album art. Is that some kind of scientific mudflat exclusion experiment on the cover? As an aquatic ecologist, this was enough to raise my stress levels ever so slightly… But fear not, as the music held within will ease all anxieties. I’ll do the lazy reviewer thing here for a description of the music, as it is summed up much better by Southern Tribe’s own biography that I ever could:

“Floating in and out of the trip-hop and downbeat music genres, Southern Tribe’s lush instrumental recordings transport the listener into immersive, textural soundscapes”.

For the most part, it is instrumental, not letting any pesky vocals get in the way of the overall vibe. Well, except on ‘Mouth Breather’. There are a few vocal samples on this track that I can’t place, even after Googling, or indeed can’t entirely understand. One says, ironically considering the largely instrumental nature of the album, “I could spend the rest of my life listening to you sing". What is it trying to say? Why the use of what might be seen as a pejorative term for the title? These are probably all the things you can contemplate while allowing Southern Tribe’s music to wash over you. Ultimately, ‘Mouth Breather’ is one of my favourite tracks on the album, though it is also one of the more up-tempo songs; the subtle rhythmic breathing running through the background is somewhat reminiscent of that in Kraftwerk’s Tour de France, and the beat a happier Trans-Europe Express. While, at the same time, it’s really not similar to these at all. There are other great, more downtempo tracks, also. ‘Will We Make it This Time’ features some wonderful glockenspiel-like chiming sounds – given the atmosphere, I imagine that the “will we make it?” in the title is more an allusion to the survival of humanity than the fear of missing the bus.

​In a contemplative mood? Give Polyphon a listen on 
Bandcamp, and likely lots of other outlets besides. ​
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    July 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • News
  • Features
  • Features Index
  • UPCOMING SHOWS
  • Past Shows
  • HUPCASTS
  • HUPZINE
  • FUTURE CITY FESTIVAL
  • About
  • Photos
  • HAMILTON BANDS / VENUES
  • SHOP
  • DONATE
  • Search