Album Review: Disco Summer

Haiku Redo are a New Zealand based indie rock band with a strong pedigree in Alternative Pop. Centered around the songwriting of kiwi Craig Horne who drummed and sang with the UK based band, Lig. (Lig itself was the alt rock vehicle for NZ’s own king of pop Andrew Fagan.) He also had a sideline in home recordings with his partner, Lig Bassist Barbara Morgan (Fatal Jelly Space) which ended up on the stereo of Failsafe Records. Morgan plays bass in Haiku Redo live. Horne does almost all the bits on the album.

Between 1996 and 1998 in the UK, Morgan and Horne were working on some home studio recordings that would become the basis for Disco Summer; quirky, charming and fun indie pop songs. The idea was raised of dropping them on an album so that Horne’s gift for storytelling, which harks back to the wit and insight of The Smiths and Elvis Costello, wouldn’t be lost in history.
The collection was combined with some new songs and polished to an indie pop shine.

As soon as the opening line on title track, Thinking of You, effortlessly croons “I placed the option right before you/ cos i don’t ever want to bore you,” it’s a wave of nostalgia for an era where melodic hooks filled every nook and cranny of a song.

Jangly strings, now retro tones, and a warmth bred from a constant, subtle phasing sensation emanate from the headphones. It’s easy listening in a sense, filled with comfort and non-committal delivery that makes the catchy lyrics easy to sing along to. Phrases like Who You Really Are‘s, “It’s been a year and I see my mistake/ She voted national for a silly tax break,” poke out like the sharp part of an otherwise pretty agreeable potato chip.

The musical accompaniment cushions the dexterous songwriting. The whole album is evocative of yesteryear’s summers spent touring from rural pub to rural pub, living on the smell of an oily rag. Songs like Level of Comfort are dialled in perfect harmony between unintrusive guitar melodies and campfire introspection. The lyrics are allowed front-and-centre placement: “Even as I write this song, we may not be together very long.”

By the time of the final track, the entertainingly named Fleetwood Mac Cover, the temporal setting of the music feels like it has shifted slightly from the start. A slight bedroom pop tinge to the warbly melody is reminiscent of the turn of the century. The whole album has an optimistic afterglow and is full of great songwriting with a tight and well-honed pop sensibility.

Haiku Redo have released 4 singles from the album over the previous few months with accompanying videos and they’re ready to drop the album in the second week of April. In the end only one song of the original demos made it through vetting, so that album still remains in waiting. Here’s hoping they’ll be dropped as bonus tracks on a single or something.

What we got was a large step up from the bedroom studio recordings and Horne really took his songwriting up a level too. The songs are still fun, and Horne hits that balance between amusing and heartfelt. There’s a lot of resonant points in the lyrics as he tracks his misadventures and mistakes for us to enjoy. He’s the antihero of the tracks.

The physical cd comes in a deluxe Double gatefold cover with lyrics and artwork in an included booklet. The booklet is available for download on Bandcamp. Failsafe Records has NZ national distribution through JB HiFi 23 stores so all new releases are in all stores nationwide for under $30.

The band play their album launch concert on the 12th of April at Ding Dong Lounge in Auckland.