Album Review: A Different Ocean

What Noisy Cats; a great band with an incongruous name. I had imagined, upon first hearing the name, a hippy two-piece ukulele orchestra, but was pleasantly surprised to find behind the strange name an amazing debut from this Wellington quartet of the Folk persuasion with occasional deviations into Noise Rock territory.

True to the genre, What Noisy Cats’ first full length, A Different Ocean, is a laid-back and mellow affair. There is an emotional depth here; moods are created through the inspired lyrics and the practiced restraint of the instrumentation.  There are subtle notes of melancholy and a palate of hope beneath the dusky, dulcet tones.

While you can feel a hint of the musical proficiency of each part, but there is no showboating of techniques, no esoteric tangents. Rather there is a melding of each member’s talents into one harmonious piece of music. It’s a band playing together, not four egos together alone, and that shows.

The result is a collection of slow burners mixed other songs that burn brighter and quicker in a progression that ebbs and flows like the ocean currents. It’s an album to enjoy as a whole, something we’re not used to in the MP3 era, but it’s wholly more satisfying to consume A Different Ocean in that way.

The perfect soundtrack to this cold Spring day, I’m excited to hear more from these guys.

You can find A Different Ocean on Bandcamp (http://whatnoisycats.bandcamp.com/).