Mako Road – Stranger Days: cool kiwi vibes on a debut album

Mako Road release their debut album close to four years from their first single. They make it a good one. The Cantabrian-to-Wellington quartet have an immediately familiar Pacific Dub Reggae signature to their music, but they branch out and expand from there.

The album cover looks like a psychedelic magic mushroom cloud. Stranger Days taps on the shoulders of that Dad Rock outfit the Doors and their second album. They do have a Robbie, on drums rather than guitar.

There’s Rhian lead vocals and guitar, Conor guitar and CJ bass.

Go To Bed opens the show with that ambient sound of Kiwi summer Dub Reggae. Nice Gypsy Jazz guitar finger picking. The singer has a distinctive home-grown accent which anchors their sound in a nod to predecessors like Herbs.  Busy bees/ Building a hive/ Between your ears/ Behind your eyes. The tempo picks up and the guitar gets a bit heavier with Rock riffs.

Surfing On Mars. The Dub is there in the background. Rhythm ’n’ Blues backbeat. Nice surge and fade and there is some Funk guitar to get the hips swinging and the body swaying.

Helicopter. Now they really let loose with a great bass lead. Relentless and mixed in with some fluid note-bending. One guitar accents the rhythm. The other heads up to the stratosphere with psychedelic tinged melodies before bursting loose and fast.

The vocalist has a smooth tenor and eschews any over-playing. This comes to the fore on Velvet Pinata. They tone things down to a quieter Jazz sound. Smooth and not edgy. A more seductive approach to Rock similar to the likes of Steely Dan and what came under the blanket of Seventies AOR. Adult Oriented Rock and the hey-day of FM radio.

Don’t Keep Me Waiting is another personal favourite. This has the rhythmic drive of Sixties Stax matched to Indie Pop. The bass line is pure Donald Duck Dunn and would excite Elvis Costello when he was in his Soul phase of Get Happy! Smooth and clear voice. Drop in the ocean/wasted emotion/ running me ‘round again/ Don’t keep me waiting. Plenty of little hooks make it addictive.

Lost My Tongue. A Disco intro and the bass steps out again. The dance floor beckons. Just that little bit of Latin swing from the lead guitar makes it Latin Disco. They extend out on the vamp similar to the Rolling Stone’s Fingerprint File.

Title track Stranger Days is quite atmospheric and up in the clouds. Mostly texture and given lots of space. Little touches of colour, echo and reverb.

Anywhere You’d Like To Go. More of a belter to finish. Rock posturing on guitars and they work up some boogie riffing. The singer is soothing and soulful. Those Stax influences are buried deep in there.

An attractive package for a debut album. They have got that signature Pacific Kiwi-Marley foundation. A lot more gets added in. The influence of Stax and makes them a classy, good-vibes, distinctively Kiwi act.

Rev Orange Peel            

We talked to Mako Road about the album and life on the road. Watch the interview HERE