REDUCTION AGENTS

(Live Review) The Reduction Agents and The Chandeliers

REVIEWED BY REUBEN FOURT-WELLS Happy, Friday 21st May

The Reduction Agents, who are from Auckland, were impressive. The band is made up of Lawrence Arabia who sings and plays guitar, Ben Elderige on bass and keyboards, and Ryan McPhun (pronounced McFun, apparently his real name). Lawrence is also in the Brunettes, but that doesn’t mean they sound like carbon copies. Rather, The Reduction Agents put on such a brilliant and individual display of mellifluous indie melody on Friday night, that I was at a loss to find apt comparisons.

To some extent they reminded me of the softer side of The Velvet Underground, and Jonathan Richmond and the Modern Lovers or even Weezer un-plugged. Wellington’s own The Phoenix Foundation also came to mind. But they were very independent in their sound. The music was mostly mid-tempo, nice simple four cords, casual drumming and low-key bass lines. There was double clapping by the drummer instead of hitting the drums, who had a tambourine high-hat, and this, combined with the lead singer’s sincere love-pop voice and high vocal harmonies, gave the band a great pop sensibility. But they weren’t afraid to occasionally take a more driving approach either, with the awkwardly placed Lawrence (who deliberately stood on a step at the front of the stage, either bending into the mike or bending knees to reach it) reduced to yelps and screams at times, as his guitar and the drums occasionally kicked out some more rocking tunes. However the band always retained a very endearing melody to every song, and if the drums and guitars got tiny bit more intense at times, it was only ever in the comparatively soft context of music, and for short breaks, with the bass, keyboards and backup vocals always keeping to the blue print of happy love songs.

In keeping with the (at times) surf guitar sound of the Reduction Agents, The Chandeliers also played an amazing, predominantly instrumental set, of surf pschobilly rock ‘n’ roll. The Chandeliers use a bass, keyboards and drums to ride out their songs, such as ‘The Mummies Tomb’, and ‘Robot World’. The immediate comparisons that came to mind were a mix between 60s instrumental surf music, such as Dick Dale, and the late seventies to eighties rockabilly craziness of The Cramps – but of course original tunes and played with a distorted and dominant bass; no guitar here, kids. The crowd loved it, and by the end of their set everyone in the audience was up by the stage dancing, making American Indian style mouth tapping noises at the behest of the bass player, letting out yelps and enjoying themselves immensely. If surf music is your thing, or indie-love-pop-rock ‘n’ roll, then the next time either of these bands play, anywhere, you better bloody well go and see them, or else you’ll be missing out on what will probably be one of the most enjoyable nights of live music Wellington or any where has to offer.

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