Renderers

Renderers

A Dream Of The Sea

Tinsel Ears

*** Amidst their stellar discography, The Renderers are best known for their album A Dream Of The Sea, released in the mid-nineties by Siltbreeze, and now issued for the first time ever on vinyl in a gatefold jacket on the band's own label. Various forces were at work - a revered label, increased attention towards New Zealand artists - but the greatest achievements were within the band itself. Maryrose and Brian Crook reached a new level of insight and honesty with their lyrics, forming a wave of insight and metaphor that is as forceful today as when first written. Songs draw from ghostly sea tales and personal demons, where the specters as much rise from the waters as emerge from within oneself. The forceful songs are propelled by tornados of guitar play, always rumbling and screeching underneath the singing. There's a connection to be heard between The Renderers and Dead Moon, both bands dedicated wholly to the music they create, a fact clear in every note they play. When Buzzfeed gets around to making a list for it, A Dream Of The Sea will inevitably be listed amongst the greatest New Zealand rock albums of all time.

Renderers

In The Sodium Light

Ba Da Bing!

The seismic rumbling of The Renderers goes beyond the fiendish pastoralia of their music. Long-time Christchurch residents, Brian and Maryrose Crook witnessed the earthquakes crumble the city. That, and Maryrose’s developing career as a painter (she is self-taught, only starting in her late thirties), inspired them to move to America and concentrate on touring here. So, where do they move? Obviously, a rock-throw’s distance from the San Andreas Fault, to Joshua Tree. Not surprising, given the tenacity of the Crooks. Through endless band lineups and continual challenges, they have maintained a focused sound and approach to their music. A Renderers song creates its own space, one that threatens dissemblance at every turn. With two of the most distinct voices in New Zealand rock, they trade off vocal duties, and both contribute toward burying their songs in layers of swelling and swirling guitars. For their new record, In the Sodium Light, The Renderers take a step back from the furious chug of their last album, A Rocket Into Nothing. Instead, they appear to be representing the landscape of their new home. Songs creep out of holes, seep and spread, permeating the room. The album is a languid, calm-waters drift over the abyss in a glass-bottomed boat. Let the tide take you.

Renderers

A Rocket Into Nothing

Ba Da Bing!

Over the past two decades, The Renderers have crafted half a dozen albums of intimate psychedelia infused with Americana and noise. A Rocket Into Nothing is another extraordinary display of Brian and Maryrose Crook’s talent as songwriters and sound sculptors. The Renderers are still as essential a piece of the diverse New Zealand indie rock puzzle as they were on their first Flying Nun album. Crafted during the series of earthquakes that hit the country in 2011, A Rocket Into Nothing seethes with the anxiety born of life-threatening experiences. On opener “Down River,” slippery minor key melodies lie on beds of shaky feedback. Even the upbeat “This Shining Life” features wild, overblown guitars and subtle synth squeals. At any point, close listening reveals unexpected textures and tectonic shifts hidden just below the surface. More successfully than on any previous release, the band balances detail-oriented and spontaneous songwriting and recording techniques. Uncertainty plays a key role. Twenty years into most careers, bands lose the edge of their earlier work, but The Renderers’ music is as exciting as ever.

Renderers

A Dream Of The Sea

Siltbreeze

***After ten years and three albums one of New Zealand’s great many treasures returns with a wondrous new album. A fine fine blending of the delta-esque bluesing of Tav Falco, the amphetamine feedback shriek of the Velvet Underground, and the heartsick, melancholic harmonizing of the Carter Family, along with vocalist Maryrose Crook’s honey-soaked voice and the reckless abandon of Brian Crook’s guitar frenzy. Members have passed through the ranks of such notables as Bill Direen’s Above Ground, Scorched Earth Policy, Max Block, and the Terminals. Touring the states along with Barbara Manning fielding a group that adds Robbie Yeats of the Dead C and Richard Baker filling in for regulars Greg Cairns and Denise Roughan. Invincible, as if from the Gods.