Last Friday was a great and pleasing surprise record release wise for me, in allowing me to chance upon any number of really great albums from bands or artists I was barely aware of. High on this list was Hasten the third album from New Zealand band Marlin's Dreaming which seems to herald some kind of new Dunedin sound.
It's almost forty years now since then those first glorious releases from the Flying Nun label. the advent of a truly wonderful sensibility and set of records. Hasten doesn't necessarily sound like The Chills, The Clean, Look Blue Go Purple, The Verlaines or The Bats, though there are the vaguest reminders occasionally. What they share is a mindset of introversion and quiet wonder that draws you in despite yourself as the record spins and you find yourselves quite won over.
Its an album of understated but admirable gifts, one I found myself increasingly absorbed by in the couple of times I listened to it over the couple of plays I gave it. This strikes me as a record with genuine commercial potential as on a couple of its immediate tracks, such as Showman and Dogfight it seemded to cross the road from that slightly obscurer perspective I've been outlining above to Coldplay and Snow Patrol territory while still maintaining its essential charm.
An altogether lovely guitar driven record for the quieter moments in your day.It's nice to know that such things can still exist and not need to tread the same utterly familiar ground. Hasten has an insinuating but quite winning way about it. Treat yourself.
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