Album Review: Something Good Is Happening

To say Buzz Moller and the boys from his intermittent project Voom are not prolific is a bit of a false negative. According to a recent interview, he reckons he’s got suitcases of material, ideas and snippets of hastily made recordings hiding away in his garden shed. Trouble is most of it has never made it on to a completed recording. The last proper release from Voom was 19 years ago, with Hello, Are You There?, the follow up the even earlier Now I Am Me, which came out in 1998. This is a band that’s in no rush to push product.

But fair enough, they’ve been busy on other stuff. Buzz has four kids and only recently became an empty nester, giving him time, and headspace, to get into a few musical projects. Other band members also had families and other commitments. It’s not that music wasn’t a priority, just a bit down the list.

Like all Voom albums, there’s a collection of tracks written and recorded over a goodly time period. Their sound is pretty DIY, recorded in sheds and home studios. It’s the perfect antidote to the overproduced audio-tune radio fodder we are assaulted with on air, screen and even in our shopping malls. Unburnished, it’s as cool now as it was when Chris Knox was brandishing his Teac 4 track down Dunedin way in the 80’s.

Something Good is Happening, and it starts without the music. Or at least any backing. A tiny forty second slice of ironic a cappella, comprised of a bare four/five lines from Buzz. It’s Unless You Are Alive and is both poignant and pointless. It’s probably just the man playing with his home recording kit and a bit of reverb. But imagine what it could be if he gave it to a choir and an orchestra. Could be one of many ideas Buzz might have dreamed up on a building site whilst at his day job. I think it could be destined for greater things.

More ‘good’ happens on Trouble, a perfectly formed student radio pop hit destined for high-rotate. With grunge and fuzz all over the shop, and a hooky melody, it took me straight back to flatting in the 90’s.

Crazy Feeling sounds a bit like a Goodshirt cast off. No surprise given the band includes guitarist Murray Fisher from the very same band. It’s also catchy as heck and worth a good pogo around the living room, any day of the week. But be careful that the corporates don’t nab it for a supermarket commercial, bread commercial or some such!

Speaking of band members I should name check the others: Nick Buckton (AKA SideKickNick and he of The Tokey Tones) on bass and the newest member, drummer Josh Sorenson. As a unit, with Buzz and Murray, too, they come across slow and loose. Which is why this music is so good. It’s the anti-shiny.

Everyone is just a cool little sing-along. Cute, dumb lyrics, a half-baked laugh a minute. I think I heard the lyrics “Everyone has the same mum”. Who writes that? Turns out there’s a bit of a backstory. “I wrote this song,” Buzz explains, “after a dream about the Big Bang.” He compares rocks floating in space to human attraction. Wow, I didn’t see that coming.

I loved the intense ‘slacker-ness’ of We Don’t Care. The lyrics are simple, non-specific. So, you can apply them to a cause of your choosing. The beat is great too, guaranteed moshing live, for sure.

Amelia Rahayu Murray (Fazerdaze) helps out on Magic, which for my money is the most comprehensive and full track on the album. It’s sad and uplifting at the same time. It thinks it’s about a doomed relationship. With lines like “Excusing me while I die inside, but it’s ok”, but then a great sweeping chorus, hooky as highwater and full of that infectious trademark fuzz grunge that Voom do so well. The chorus is a bit of a sucker punch, for sure (see the video, people) It’s a great tune. I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up on a Silver Scroll nomination list.

Buzz really doesn’t like writing comprehensive lyrics. On the title track he repeats the title over and over, changing lines only once to fit a chord change. It’s a looping strum on guitar backed by the band. It never goes anywhere. Nor does it pretend to be anything more.

I Love You Girl, which follows, offers more development. Arriving in a slow fade in, it’s a swaggering, waltzing ballad that builds to a pleasant crescendo over and over. Again, limited vocabulary – “I love you girl / You know I will all my life / There’s nothing else that I wanna say”. Short and sweet. No prizes. Perfectly formed simplicity. Maybe this might work as an alternative wedding dance song for the hopelessly inarticulate and shy?

Then there’s another acoustic number, questioning faith in a relationship. This one does have a few insecure lines of questioning.

Voom have a go at Beatle-esque with the darkly ironic track, Most Beautiful Girl which clocks in at under a minute twenty. No need to labour on it, apparently. It’s almost a joke offering to bookend other material and provides no warning for what’s to come.

For Nightmare Man was Buzz playing around with laptop down in the Garden shed, I wonder. He’s distorted his voice and guitars to sound like Daleks from a 70’s Dr Who episode. For some reason I keep being reminded of the audio treatments undertaken for Fane Flaws’ Underwater Melon Man project.

The next time I’m in trouble with my partner; I’m playing this as my make up song. One More Chance has the opening: “I can’t Live without you/ You I never meant to hurt you/So, please give me one more chance’. With more gentle strumming and a quiet accompaniment from the band this is quite a beautiful little alternative record. It should be a single and will probably be a hit with nostalgic 80’s student listeners. If that’s not enough, the song features the most charming whistling sing Roger Whittaker in the 70’s.

On Pianos and Mushrooms Buzz finally gives up on writing lyrics altogether, opting for a short interlude piece on the keys – just for the heck of it. I think this is another of his half-finished sketches

The album, and I use that word loosely, finishes on If I Waited A Lifetime – an appropriate title given it’s taken nearly twenty years to hand in their homework. At a minute and thirteen seconds, it’s another quick one borrowed in the style of McCartney, perhaps.

With all but one of the group being ‘grown up’ parents, I guess you could label Voom ‘Dad Pop’ – with a leaning towards 80’s Flying Nun indie. And while all these numbers are super short, Lo-fi, occasionally hastily recorded, and a little bit dinky, they are all still incredibly satisfying songs.

Voom go on tour soon and I’m looking forward to seeing them for real. Until lately, they’ve been a just figment of my playlist. I really hope Buzz raids his suitcase and finds a few more unrecorded gems to try out on us, too.