Dunedin band, Tomahawk Radio’s latest single Missiles is the first release off their upcoming album. Reading the bands incredible and inspiring story makes me feel really quite lucky that we get to hear this music. During the post production phase of the album, Jeff Avery (vocals/guitars/keys) was airlifted to Auckland hospital to await a heart transplant. Luckily, he has since made a recovery and looks forward to living life to the fullest. Drummer, Scott Mason has also had a kidney transplant three years ago. They’ve beaten the odds to be here creating music like Missiles.
Brian Graham (vocals/bass) explains that Missiles is about “coming to grips with the confusion of not fitting into life”. The lyrics are delivered with almost constant harmonies that never cease to catch my ear and remain interesting throughout the song. It seems that Tomahawk Radio have a great understanding of what every instrument should be doing; the song has so many musical layers, but it’s not to the point of being overcrowded. Each instrument has its own place in the mix with everything complimenting everything else.
I really enjoy the use of space in this track, much of the power comes from varying the complexity of parts rather than the classic technique of kicking on a distortion pedal for a chorus. The delay on the guitar tracks reminds me of U2’s guitar tones, using the delay to emphasise the space while not leaving the soundscape bare. As with a lot of great New Zealand rock music, the bass isn’t playing simple root notes, it has its own melody to drive the song. Missiles does this spectacularly, the bass it sits alongside the other instrumentation rather perfectly and provides a beautiful build throughout the entire song. The drumming throughout is locked in and feels like it steers the rest of the instruments through the song. The drums keep it pretty simple, and I say that as a compliment. The selective use of drum fills puts the emphasis in all the right places and makes those fills shine. The best emphasis of all is that short and sweet drum intro that slaps you in the face and opens your ears to the rest of the song.
Described by the Tomahawk Radio as a “good taster for the rest of the album” I must say I’m excited to hear the rest. Missiles is an incredible demonstration of a band who understand the power of space in a track and understand the role of each instrument within a song. As I said in the beginning of the review, these guys have been through a lot to get this music to you and that drive is so evident in the music. Of course, don’t just take my word for it, check it out for yourself on April 7th!
