Awning – Awning (13th Floor Album Review)
Awning is Christian Dimick, originally based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, where Dimick was, not only making music, but also working part-time making coffee, toasting sandwiches, and studying Fine Art. All the while releasing songs on Bandcamp since 2023, before moving to Tamaki Makaurau and releasing the magnificent Gold Star EP in 2024.
2025: Awning is vocalist/guitarist Christian Dimick, drummer Riley Noonan, bassist Damin McCabe and guitarist Ethan Broughton, and together they have just released their debut album – Awning. Awning, the album, not the band, is eight songs long, two of which have previously been released (The Rabbit and Moth & Fly) Comes in at forty-seconds beyond the thirty-minute mark, and the cover, while Dimick is an exhibiting artist, is actually by McCabe.
Awning, the album, inhabits a musical paradigm that fluctuates, juxtaposes between the fixed genres that Music Journalists like to categorize music and musicians. Live Awning are a rambunctious, raucous affair, drawing on alt-pop sensibility the likes of: Neutral Milk Hotel and Aldous Harding, smattering themselves with quirky diversions, think: Grandaddy and Elbow, and being conducted by Dimick’svocal harmonies, characterized by signature falsettos, ethereal vulnerability and sentiment.
Awning, the album, pretty much captures all of this. The Rabbit (which should’ve been (was?) a student radio hit), its predecessor Cardboard Boat and its successor Moth & Fly are firmly in the indie guitar band camp, actually, add Mast in there as well. This quartet of songs is addictively catchy and dance orientated, with Riley Noonan showing off his mighty chops and Dimick’s lyrical poetry at the forefront. By now, we are half way through the album, side one?
Part two (or side two) is crowded with genteel melancholy and angst. Pure & Simple (love this title) is a harrowing rollercoaster, whilst Game, with its simplicity of piano and vocals is, well, oddly placed, perhaps in the wrong spot, but maybe Dimick just wanted to be awkward? The Gun is LOUD, a sudden leap (back) on the switchback, guitar dominated, and feistily angular. Finality comes on Punching a Bruise, momentarily melancholic, like Mast, but then a sizeable tranche of obstreperous guitar dominates, in an appreciatively addictive manner.
Awning – Awning is a rewarding experience, but perhaps a little short lived, I would’ve liked a one, maybe two more offering to sate my palate. But contentions aside, Awning, the album, deserves a star, a gold star…
Simon Coffey
