EP Review: Puzzle

Harry Hodgman plays the piano. He sings a little as well, a bit like Rufus Wainwright or Perfume Genius. But the piano is his weapon as much as a conveyor of melody. And Harry purveys as well as plays.

Back in 2018, at least a hundred years ago, Harry popped in to the Wellington Art Gallery and played the Michael Parekowhai Steinway, and now that music is released as a six track EP, called Puzzle.

Puzzle is a delightful tune which ebbs and flows around a simple construct but more importantly introduces Harry’s style, (no pun goes unpunished), as quirky, jumpy and occasionally offbeat. Imperfection is his mantra, compelling is the result. Puzzle the enigma. And therefore we next get some Clarity which is more sombre, but elusive in its change of pace.

In the City Art Gallery stands a Steinway encased in an extraordinary Parekowhai sculpture. Like looking at a cadaver from which emanates piano’s sweet tones. And it’s on this piano that Harry plays Apothecary, ancient medicine for tortured souls and a flourish to end.

The tone shifts and accelerates and off we go in ragged pursuit of an Airport Bomb. Joplin-esque, but only a hint. And while Astrophotographie takes us back into more contemplative French observatory mode, we bounce back with The Mailman which completes the transition to ragtime leaving us astonished and breathless: Mailing an Airport Bomb to the galaxy, just as you might find it a bit unnerving to sit down to a feast of ivory, so be comforted. Puzzle is short and sweet, a little snack as opposed to a smorgasbord, and thus pleasing to the palate.

Harry Hodgman rides his motorbike from town to town and busks and plays. Who knows, you might see his piano trundling along behind, not the Parekowhai, but something more towable.

And if you can’t see him play, you can listen to the puzzle which is Harry, on Spotify for free, on Bandcamp for $1, but go on, don’t be shy, it’s worth at least $10 !!

Harry Hodgman, Puzzle, out today!