Saturday, August 12, 2023

Albums of the Year # 136 Surf Friends - Sonic Waves

 


Auckland, New Zealand buddies Brad Coley, and Peter Westmoreland have a new LP Sonic Waves out now on Flying Nun records that allows the reader to experience the sensation of surfing virtual waves.

Remarkable that this is primarily the sound of a duo as it often feels like a band in full flow. The Clean, Teenage Fanclub, Television Personalities or Ride. Also, occasionally and quite thrillingly Krautrock. The fact that there's a drum machine at work here's a key factor in that illusion.

Really this is as easy, but at the same time whipsmart a formula for independent success and listening pleasure as you could possibly come up with and it couldn't come out on a more appropriate record label. Flying Nun have a track record as good as any record label in music history for this kind of thing.

An album that dragged me into a happy trance. Like I said, a simple but happy recipe but credit to Surf Friends for summoning it up. DIY at its very best and one of the most purely enjoyable records I've heard thus far this year. 

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