Three songs only but so much promise! This EP does what an EP should do – leave a rather intriguing calling card and leave you wanting more with each listen. For a band born only in 2016 and hailing from “the golden sands of Omaha Beach and the concrete jungle of Auckland City” you realise that great music can come at you from any angle.
Opening with ‘Shiver’ you’re immediately hit by the rather unique style of a band who manages to capture the elusiveness of arena-filling alt-rock bands like Incubus whilst injecting just the right amount of funk and therefore avoiding making it sound like a horrible lab experiment gone wrong. They must be feeding them on some good stuff over in NZ as there’s a sound here that could take this band anywhere with a little support behind them.
‘Call Out’ adds to that feeling, starting out slower, with much more sparing use of guitar, it allows the subtleties to shine through and showcases the rather fine vocals. There’s a delicate reggae glance, a funky bass and an other-worldly feel amongst the distinctive economy (no song here breaks three minutes).
Final word ‘Gorilla’, although a little out of kilter with the cool early vibe, might just hit the nail on the head as far as attention-seeking goes. Again it starts slow but this one kicks itself awake before pulling away to a catchy alt-rock canter and evoking a real feel of early The Strokes without the sometimes detrimental self-absorption. It’s a great song and again packs a lot into the sub-three-minute template. This is the song the curious should try first.
Touting their sound as ‘Space Funk Rock’ Groove Lagoon aren’t as swampy as their name suggests, but the more you listen the more ‘groove’ you get. And with the promise of another EP before the end of the year you wonder where that release will take you. Groove Lagoon are by no means the definitive article on the basis of a single three track EP but if ‘Extended Play’ is a taste of their brand of sonic stew we’ll certainly be waiting and listening.