Single Review: Careless Ones

Ghost Merchants

Review by Kev Rowland // 14 July 2022

While the band name may be new, and Careless Ones is their debut single, all three of the guys involved in Ghost Merchants are no strangers to success in the NZ rock market, as here we have a combination of drummer Nick Douch (Ekko Park) and multi-instrumentalists JP Carroll (Swerve City, Arrays) and Adrian Drew (Investigator). Both Adrian and JP are singers as well of course, but here Adrian takes the lead while JP is right behind with double-tracked vocals while we get the strong riffs we expect from JP, combined with the more commercial sound of Investigator with Nick always driving them forward. It is a very commercial number, as one would expect, and I was somewhat surprised to discover that some of the vocals are quite reminiscent of Feargal Sharkey, and indeed the song does contain some of that infectious energy The Undertones were known for.

Adrian says, “It’s about the haves and the have nots. A mass rally for the marginalized and undervalued to take a stand and be the designers of change.” Infectious, with a very strong production (which is what I would expect given who is involved) this is punchy with the expectation that when/if it is played live, it will be much more of a banger. The drums are always hitting hard with a very strong percussive element and no danger of just sitting back and providing time, the bass is chunky, guitars polished, and then the vocals bring it all together with the hooks ensuring we keep playing this on repeat. So what’s next guys?

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About the author Kev Rowland

From 1990 – 2006 I ran Feedback fanzine in the UK, writing about bands that were rarely covered in the mainstream press, many of whom were in the underground scene. I built close ties with many British Progressive groups in particular, including writing the newsletter for Freewill, getting gigs for Credo and writing the introduction to Galahad’s OCMDII compilation. I reviewed literally thousands of cassettes and then CDs from bands from throughout the world, and was lucky enough to interview many of them. During this period I also contributed to the French progzine Acid Dragon, wrote for the music newspaper Rock ‘n’ Reel and was also involved with the Ghostland website. In 2006 I moved to NZ, and stopped running Feedback (which was then renamed Amplified after I left, at my request) having produced over 80 editions with more than 11,000 pages of print and heaven knows how many reviews

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