Experimenting with a variety of unconventional sounds and atmospheres, Postcards from New Zealand composes an epic sounding instrumental story on their new release, “City Islands.” Sometimes the best albums are written without lyrics, because in the absence of lyrics, the musicians are able to use their talents to create an environment that then allows for the listeners to let their minds wander and create mental pictures for the sounds that they hear.
Part of the band’s, “We Watched Them Devour album series,” this new offering comes screaming across the musical landscape with a monumental rush of vibrant sounding elements. From progressive to post-rock influences, this band is all about putting together vivid sounding atmospheres that inject a cinematic flavor into the overall mix. Instrumental albums can be exceptionally well done, or can end up turning listeners off once they realize that the band has become lost in a repetitive haze of pointless rhythmic structures and lack luster sounding arrangements.
To be quite honest, if the music begins to sound weak or just plan sloppy, people will turn it off. Postcards from New Zealand seems to be aware of this and right away I could tell that they band wanted to make an impact and pull listeners into a massive sounding world by coming up with a strong and moving piece of music on their opening track. The band starts off with a very powerful sounding composition called, “As the Towers Crumbled,” that makes you feel like you are walking through a post-apocalyptic world and there is nothing around besides an endless row of ruins. I really thought the drumming was precise and provided a great deal of emotion to then aid the somber sounding guitar arrangement.
Throughout the rest of the album the band continues to experiment with sounds that continuously fuels this vivid cinematic environment. At times you do start to hear the band getting a bit comfortable with a rhythm and maybe stretch it a for bit, however, they always seem to transition at the right time and incorporate plenty of creative dynamics.
Take for example the song, “Ocean Avenue,” which is around 16-17 minutes long and contains one massive sounding riff structure. Even though what the band is hammering out is not exactly the most technical sounding arrangement, I was really impressed by the tranquil and trance like atmosphere. It is never an easy task to write out a 16 minute piece of music, although Postcards from New Zealand did a solid job and I felt as though the song helped strengthen the album’s overall theme which flows with an impressive synergy.
In the end, Postcards from New Zealand is definitely a creative group of musicians who thrive on experimenting and expanding on instrumental concepts that draw from a variety of influences, yet they are able to establish their own unique identity. Postcards from New Zealand is a band that I highly recommend checking out and the group demonstrates a great deal of artistic talent. No pointless sounding instrumental arrangements that you might hear at the local supermarket being played on this album!
Check out the entire album below via Mr Doom 666's Channel :
Postcards from New Zealand Bandcamp:
https://postcardsfromnewzealand.bandcamp.com/
Band's Facebook:
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