Listen To BIRDPARTY's Self-Titled Debut Album
Soon embarking on a tour of China with Taite Music Prize winner Vera Ellen and Kaishandao before they've even fully toured Aotearoa, BIRDPARTY are the Whanganui-based "electronic noisey idk duo" of William Barrett (Heresiarch) and Emma Bernard (Ludus). Feeling akin to a sonic embodiment of their hometown's beloved Brutalist Department Building, the pair's self-titled debut is brooding, craggy, powerful — radiating dark energy sculpted from pounding percussive rhythms, intricate synthetic sound design, and delayed / treated vocal utterances.
Local parallels could include Skeptics' post-industrial churn, drums / synth dynamos The Shocking & The Stunning, a hulked-up Half Hexagon, or the gothic club mutations of late period Thought Creature, but BIRDPARTY have very much crafted their own unpindownable style. Premiered on NTS Radio yesterday on Flying Nun's resident show, 'Suldo Limit (BIRDPARTY Mix)' moves bodies to dance with insistent driving bass, amorphous distorted textures and momentary glimpses of ambient bliss. I still have visions of glimmering fog engulfing both audience and band, when the duo threw down their evening outdoor set at Camp A Low Hum earlier this year. Definitely an Aotearoa release highlight of 2024, open your ears to BIRDPARTY and be sure to head along to their China tour fundraiser shows, with Vera Ellen in Whanganui and Pōneke next weekend...
"This album has been forged in the spaces we have played in over the last 18 months, the songs influenced and moulded by the varied events we've had the privilege to be a part of across Aotearoa."
BIRDPARTY + Vera Ellen China Tour Fundraisers
Friday 4th October - Meow, Wellington w/ Ekho Laliah
Saturday 5th October - Porridge Watson, Whanganui w/ Alphabethead
Whanganui tickets on sale HERE via UTR
instagram.com/_birdparty_/
birdpartynz.bandcamp.com/album/birdparty
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