Kerretta

Vilayer

Written by: DR on 18/10/2010 22:39:44

One of the things I love about instrumental music is how bands from all over the world try their hand at it, which has resulted in some of the biggest names hailing from places that aren't neccessarily North America or the UK. Take this band Kerretta: they are all the way from Auckland, New Zealand, and have been generating a lot of buzz with their debut LP "Vilayer", which was also nominated for the Taite Music Prize - the NZ equivalent of the Mercury Prize.

It doesn't take long to see, or hear, why. It's a combination of post-rock, instrumental rock, post-metal; yes, those genres can be hard to get into because of how long-winded, and some may claim pretentious, they can often seem. However, Kerretta have avoided this by keeping their songs relatively short, for the most part, aiming to not over-stay their welcome. Instead of playing with intricate build ups and crescendos they stay interested in creating instrumental pile-drivers.

There's a freedom about how they write songs - each instrument sounds independent in its individual efforts. You'll be astonished to learn that there are only three members, yet the songs still sound thick and tight. In opener "Sleepers" the bass is assigned a role that doesn't just mean shadowing the guitar, because everything revolves around it and bounces off it. "The Secret Is Momentum" shows they are capable of exploring soundscapes, and balance them with crunching riffage to maintain a quiet/loud dynamic. They keep a similar and highly impressive sound throughout, until you get to "White Lie", which is an odd but absorbing Southern America-inspired fusion of acoustics. Towards the end of that song it whittles into a hum, picked up in final track "Bone Amber Reigns"; once it gets going it results in an epic of a post-metal closer.

"Vilayer" is one of those rare instrumental releases that can be appreciated by those who would not normally consider themselves to be fans of the genre(s), such is the magnitude of the intensity and, suprisingly, the accessibilty of it. It won't be long before they are generating buzz outside of their homeland.

8

Download: Sleepers, The Secret Is Momentum
For The Fans of: 65daysofstatic, And So I Watch You From Afar, Russian Circles
Listen: Myspace

Release Date 11.06.2010
Golden Antenna

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