With the release of his debut album PUT, Ben Woods establishes himself as
the
poster boy of a new, more personal phase of the ‘Antipodean Gothic’: a
term,
penned by the writer Jasmine Gallagher, which describes the dark output
spilling
from outsider musicians in Christchurch in the mid-2010s. To other New
Zealanders, Christchurch seems to be a desolate, xenophobic, flat city, which in
the wake of a series of natural disasters is being sparsely put back together by
a bunch of brutal development moguls. It's also a city with a thriving indie
rock scene, unspoiled by commercial interests and held together by bands all
drawing from the same small pool of members and venues. Christchurch has a
rare grit.
Ben paid for PUT by pulling pints in Lyttelton bars and through the
short-term loan of his body for drug research trials. It is, in spite of its
gothic upbringing, something of a pop record that has been boiled through indie
rock influences. He has described the song-writing process for the album as
‘spontaneous’, and this mood can be felt throughout the record. The Tall
Dwarfs-esque energy of LOZENGE is contrasted by the songs INDULGE and GOOD 2 BE
SLEEPING, which feel more akin to late era Smog, Sparklehorse and other
nineties slowcore greats. It was recorded at Dunedin’s Radio One with
Steven
John Marr (Kane Strang, Doprah), during a biting cold winter week in 2018.
LOZENGE and ROMANCY, the singles already released, show off both extremes
of
PUT. The former is dizzy, bubblegum punk, and evokes the fever that comes
with a love-hate homesickness. ROMANCY is a meditative, long-winded
rumination on the befogged states we enter under the influence of new and
uncertain affections. Deeper into the record, the listener will find more
attempts to understand and respond to new and old love (MARCHY, INDULGE,
PIRATE), bewildered responses to the harshness and pace of being alive
(LESSON, PRAISE) and ventures into the subconscious as a remedy to one’s own
sense of alienation (GOOD 2 BE SLEEPING, ANTIQUE).