NZ Music Review – Bike

Bike is New Zealand guitar pop at its best, producing 40 minutes of shimmering melodic moodiness in their first full length CD ‘Take in the Sun’.

Bike is the new vehicle for Andrew Brough’s international class song-writing, previously heard through StraightJacket Fits, one of New Zealand’s most successful rock/pop exports. He was responsible for some of their best moments and many people have followed his career with great interest since he left them after their second album. There was so much promise shown in his earlier songs that his re-emergence years later with a new band and new music is met as much as anything with relief that he is fulfilling that potential.

The two most striking things about Bike’s music is the quality of the song-writing, and the smooth melodic vocals of Brough. Each song is well crafted, with classic chord progressions underpinning vocal lines which have a natural flow and really stick in your mind as good pop should. The delivery is understated and has the richness which comes with double tracking, and though Brough has been criticised for placing the vocals too far back in the mix, he has done this deliberately and I think it works as it allows his voice to be enfolded and supported by the instrumentation around it.

The music is as much textural as melodic and to achieve the rich and smooth quality of the music without losing the rock power is a credit to the production of Brough and Malcolm Welsford (Shihad, Supergroove), as well as the playing of the rest of the band. Brough has admitted to being influenced by the music of the 60s in general, and the Byrds in particular especially in their melodic and textural approach, and this shows through in many aspects of the music, from the vocals to the guitar lines to the layering of tracks. This is all greatly enhanced by the quality of production available in the 90’s.

The album opens with the title track, typical of the Bike amalgam of rock with lush vocals, and once those vocals come in you know this is not going to be the predictable rock outing portended by the opening guitar riff. ‘Circus Kids’, the second song and also the second single, has received a lot of airplay particularly on Student Radio, with the tremelo guitars sounding suitably circus-like before launching into a typically soaring Brough chorus.

Highlights for me include the moody ballad ‘Tears Were Blue’ with it’s Beatlesque sound and lyrics (a contender for the White Album I think), and the first single ‘Save My Life’ which has (haven’t they all!) a classic chord progression and vocal line, and a great fade out chorus.

The one criticism I could make is that the Bike ‘sound’ which permeates through every song means that the songs tend to have a similar pace and texture so that tracks don’t stand out as much from each other. I guess it’s fortunate that that ‘sound’ is so good!

‘Take In The Sun’ is released on Flying Nun Records in New Zealand and Bike have their own webpage where you can listen to two of their tracks in RealAudio, view the ‘Circus kids’ video and make an order using the Flying Nun online catalogue.