People of the Sun – People of the Sun (13th Floor Album review)
People of the Sun is the self-titled first offering from accomplished and talented trio, Joseph Anderson, Djordje Nikolic, and Tom Scrase hailing from New Plymouth.
The band have been together for 5 years or so, amassing a growing fan base around Aotearoa New Zealand playing progressive psych rock – that difficult to pin down genre that seems to draw influences from anywhere and everywhere to produce music taking the listener on a journey beyond the everyday and ordinary.
Their stated goal for this work is “to create an album that feels as deeply connected conceptually and emotionally as the records that shaped us,” they say in the album release notes. “The albums we loved weren’t just collections of songs – they carried us somewhere, unfolding as a complete, powerful experience.”
The product is an interesting and pleasing collection of songs that speak to themes of whanau, community and the land through eclectic music and lyrics offering clues to interpretation but leaving plenty of space for the audience to create their own reality.
There’s strong direction from Tom Scrase’s connections to indigenous music, notably under the moniker Aotūroa, being credited with taonga puoro alongside synth and drums on the album. Joseph Anderson on guitar and Djordje Nikolic on Bass are the backbone of the band honed by years on the performance circuits between Wellington and Taranaki.
The record opens with an instrumental track, The Call, that conjures images of a sleeping being – first a heartbeat, then breathing – gradually brought to consciousness. It’s a clever percussion-based creation overlaid with flute. At just a minute and a half it’s long enough to awaken interest, but stops short of over-playing what is to come.
What comes next is the band’s first single from this album, Lisurgen, released on Valentine’s Day earlier this year.
That date is appropriate given the pseudo-sexual nature of the song, one that leaves plenty of room for interpretation as intended: is it the connection between two individuals or is it a larger relationship forged between Mother Earth, Papatūānuku, and Ranginui, the Sky Father?
There’s a clue in the band’s name, of course, but there’s plenty of scope to include the human element in these songs.
The following track, The Seed, can be thought of as the result of Lisurgen’s exchange, the natural product of procreation and renewal.
There’s a pattern forming here, a concept for this album as it unfolds with Elders up next. This song referencing the passing on of knowledge, of education and remembering. And at the centre is the mother, Papatūānuku, and the growing concept of kaitiakitanga – we are the guardians to preserve and continue that knowledge:
Only the truth will remain Only the sea will remain Only her heart will remain –
Anderson sings in the closing refrain.
The track leans heavily into the World influences built on complex percussion, harmonic voices, haunting synth and guitar chords and Scrase’s puoro.
The journey takes a breather with 10,000 Things, a gently meandering guitar track that clears the air giving everyone some time out from the burden of existence.
Sky progresses the concept speaking to the struggles of maturity, of keeping it together as the going gets tough:
Been tryna hold this river for far too long Letting go the flood makes me bleed…
Capitulation is not an option. – there’s a duty to satisfy:
The whole man calls to the weary man Can’t you see you’re only weary from sleep…
Because I’ve got to see the void and carry on
Musically the track reverts to more of a guitar heavy, drum-driven feel reflecting the burden of struggle, the weight of survival.
The final track, Last Song (Keep Burning), brings the tempo down from Sky. It’s a reflective piece introduced with a simple, repeating guitar riff that gradually builds, first with Anderson’s voice then the rest of the band rhythmically pulsing evoking waves rolling and breaking on the shore.
The trio are joined by Joe Kapstein on B3 Organ, Julian Báez on Trombone, the French Horn of Henry Close and Ben Hunt’s Trumpet creating a full-noise anthemic song, uplifting and hopeful:
Love is deathless Love is boundless
Are the closing lines.
A fitting message to an album that should, also, last the test of time.
Alex Robertson
People Of The Sun’s debut album is released today. Click here to buy.
Click here to watch the 13th Floor interview.
