Hour of the Wolf Album Review

Founded in jazz standards the first song Mute Signals works its way into slow blues melodies with sweet soaring vocals and guitars that pluck at your heartstrings to evaporate any bad mood that the winter weather might have you under. With the dynamic range of Jeff Buckley but retaining the kiwi accent there’s a real bard like feel to Dave Kempton’s vocal delivery. Vibrant and sometimes introspective the poetic lyrics are unpretentious and backed up nicely by a well-versed band of talented musicians.

Hailing from Wellington the three-piece known as Riverblind was initially formed in 2005 and with a line up change to new drummer Stefan Sarten started touring New Zealand in 2008 with material from their first self-released five-track EP entitled Mind Estate, which received favorable reviews. Hour of the Wolf is their first full-length CD and was mastered by Mike Gibson and recorded by Richard Shirley at Joe Callwood’s home studio. There’s no discernible loss of quality by not utilizing a large studio in the production process with the packaging likewise professional.

The jazz influence continues throughout at times breaking into experimental rock and funk like progressions no more apparent than in the second song Cheshire Cat. By the third track I’m ready for something a bit different and that’s exactly what I get with what is essentially a love song entitled Unsettled Scenes. There’s really something special about this song… nice energetic offbeat polyrhythms and David Simpson Becks bass chords at times hold the verses down which gives Dave’s vocals room to implore you to engage in the heartfelt music. Percussion, backing vocals and string accompaniment help broaden the sound and give scope and dimension to the explorative music. In my opinion this is the strongest track on the CD and my favourite; not just because it has a darker undertow hidden beneath its glistening waters but because of the overall excellent dynamic range, structure and performances, which are simply superlative!

Hour of the Wolf has an uplifting all enveloping energy that held me enthralled and captivated right to the end. At times there’s a well executed freeform looseness that one would expect from jazz concepts, this peers nicely with the poetic nature of the lyrics and interesting song structures. Unexpected endings and climactic metal edged rock progressions with passages of unsettling dissonance take you on a roller coaster of a musical journey, which I found to be both thrilling and enjoyable. The eight tracks experiment with diverse musical ideas to create a wonderful montage well worth checking out, although the avant-garde nature of the music might be a bit inaccessible to the average punter. However for those who want to broaden their perspectives, Hour of the Wolf is a must have CD for your collection.