EP Review: Taste For Stout

Every so often a band comes along that makes you truly sit up and notice. Whether that’s on the air, on stream, or in a club, they turn heads, ears focus, eyes stare, and a murmur starts: “They’re brilliant. Who are they?”

Well, folks, in this case they are Debt Club: River Hann-Ellen (vocals, guitar), Flinn Bellam (guitar), Elina Chester (keyboards), Alex Vujanic (saxophone), Darcy Monteath (bass) and Maxime Zephyr (drums). A six-piece indie/alt-rock outfit based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. And, if you needed to put your finger on their sound, I’d say it’s a heady mix of rich arrangements blending sweet, grungy guitars; throaty sax; thoughtful songwriting and mid-90’s indie pop sensibilities – think Big Thief, Pinegrove, Wilco, or The National.

The band is still relatively fresh, starting off in 2023, originally as a four-piece with just guitars, bass, drums, and vocals and now spreading out to include sax and keys. Growing in skills and confidence, they have dropped a handful of singles, including some of the material now available on their newest offering Taste For Stout as well as sharing the stage with local indie heroes Phoebe Rings and Australia’s Floodlights. And later this month they’ll support local legends Wiri Donna.

The whole EP was recorded over a week in mid-2024 at Massey University and mixed and mastered by lead vocalist River Hann-Ellen. He also co-produced and co-engineered the project alongside Arran Cargill-Brown. River’s voice is sweet, sometimes shrill and cutting, always intense and compelling. It works in well with the arrangements. Because this is a whole band experience, not just clever accompaniments for the singer. Every component works well together. And that matters.

The EP’s title track has a wonderfully catchy guitar-led groove and throbbing bass/drum kick. It sprints along with vibrant, blazing energy, building into a tsunami of swelling dry, throaty sax, and a landslide of power chords before coming back down from the stratosphere in a rainbow of tinkling dreaminess. Listen closely and you can make out River’s high octave vocals reflecting on the regrets of past mistakes, life choices, and poor decisions. It’s a very mature position. “Now,” says the liner notes, “their primary focus is on guiding their child, hoping to give them a better future and help them grow into a person stronger and wiser than they ever were.” Deep, indeed.

Incidentally, the track title, Taste For Stout, River tells me, is in reference to the type of beer and comes directly from a line in the song: “I told her she could wake up in the drunk tank / If she ever got a taste for stout”. He says, “it’s kind of about the narrator regretting a drinking habit and wishing better for a loved one.”

River’s a massive fan of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. So, you get plenty more of Alex’s sax (who plays a little bit like Clarence Clemons) on the next number, Windows. This was one of the band’s earliest songs, played live for a couple of years before finally making it to tape. The song name, River said in a recent interview, was inspired by the start-up tune from Windows XP, played on keyboards by a former member of the band – not that the tune actually features in any form on the song. Still, the lyrics and title conjure up speculations about inner visions. What it’s actually about remains a mystery to me, at least.

Little Lines is, quite frankly, epic. It is a huge anthem, solid, driving, intense. My mind went to Arcade Fire and The National. The lyrics “And you want nothing to do with me” as well as “And I always pick the wrong fight” suggest layers of angst in a relationship gone southward. From the needle drop to the last fading chords, the song is a roadster on a collision course, driven by double time percussion and bass from Maxime and Darcy. You better get out of the way. You might just get run over by its power chords!

I am a little obsessed with the back story to the melancholic song A Friend I’ve Never Met. What’s going on? There are so many hints and threads to pull at. A reference to a discarded clarinet on a mantelpiece that a brother no longer plays. We have one voice (River’s) reading an old letter, hoping for more. “But the postman just walks by / And I sit and watch the mailbox / Guess I’m kinda hoping that your letter’s just been lost.”

There are lines about kids and colds, domestic issues, and newspaper controversy. And a quest for help answered by an anonymous source. Maybe it’s an agony aunt, a political commentator, or an influencer? Whatever the case, the line goes; “the best advice I got was from a friend I never met.”

Then a second voice kicks in: Rose Lubransky (the band’s former bass player). Replying in reluctance: “I got your letter. I drafted a paragraph / But you got drafted first.” What does that mean? There is a nod to the fake news claim, a bone of contention perhaps. But apart from that, there is precious little else to give away why she’s not coming back. It is all veiled in the poetry of the lyrics. So many questions: is this a long-distance breakup, a runaway partner, A family dispute, wartime interference – or something else?

After much pondering, I asked River about the song. He said A Friend I’ve Never Met “is meant to be a sort of Pogues-ish wartime love story. There’s no real backstory, though. It was just inspired by the imagery of that era.”

Curiouser and curiouser! I love songs like this. The deeper you dig, the more there is to overlay your own interpretations.

Lost & Found (Voice Memo) is another delicate acoustic duo between River and Rose Lubransky. Recorded on a phone or something similar, it is raw and poignant. Lyrics are ponderous snippets commenting on the human condition in modern times. A comment, perhaps, on the worlds of post millennials, relationships managed through social media, feelings managed and curated and discarded like items in a lost property box. That came through to me “To think we couldn’t see how it all compounds / The pathetic generation in the Lost & Found”, or “Late nights and drinking won’t save you from the decline / I’d say I’d love you / but I can’t put my phone down.”

This EP is full of angst, energy, drama, and mystery. The music is fantastic, like 90’s rock classics. If that is your thing, you will love this. A strong recommendation. Seek it out. And they are great live, too. I saw them totally rule the stage at this year’s Cuba Dupa. If they go the distance, I predict this band will become as firm favourites as acts like The Beths. And, psst, this just in – there are solid rumours that Debt Club are currently working on their debut album, due out next year. If that’s true, then based on this EP, nominees for future music awards better watch their backs!