Album Review: Repeat Repeat

33 minutes. 14 tracks. That’s how long it takes for post punk 3-piece Repairs to make their mark on what should be a stand out release for Aotearoa’s independent music scene this year.

With three singles throughout the year to tease what Repeat Repeat would deliver, Repairs’ debut album delivers on all fronts. It’s dark, loud, and dynamic. Let’s not waste time here, this record is meant to be cranked. The production feels alive, like it was recorded in the early hours down in Whammy Bar. The guitars reign supreme, but listen closer and there is intrigue and detail to be found. Crunchy bass, foreboding synths, little snippets of distorted chaos that give it an almost concept record like feel.

Despite a very constant musical palette, each song carries its own, with its own little bits of truth and sketches of reality snuck in. Tempo changes not just between songs, but contained within keep the pace of the record filled with intrigue. No mean feat when most tracks hover around the 2-minute mark. Tracks like Thanks for the Advice, (a personal favourite) throw you into a frenzy, tempting you to throw a couch off a balcony or something equally drastic. Then for it to all come crashing down in a wave of contemplativeness with more brooding songs like Spinning Out. A couple of instrumentals either side of the vinyl flip really showcase what the band can do when they let themselves focus purely on the sonics. Drones is a mega storm of panic inducement. It builds at such a hectic pace, making you feel like you’re being followed by something you can’t see.

It’s refreshing to see a band compose and operate within very clear musical parameters, and still produce plenty of variety without the need for a billion differing textures that music production can offer now. At its core though, Repeat Repeat is just having fun channeling all the boredom, anxiety, pointless stress and daily pinpricks of life into a crashing loud album of top class noise. That’s punk. End of.

Stand out tracks: Last Chances, Drones, Thanks for the Advice.