“Newfoundland” was released only a couple of months ago, but it genuinely feels like an old record. We also recommend you see the Auckland band, Great North, play its passionate live set at the Wine Cellar whenever you can…
Great North – Newfoundland
The phrase ‘Great North’, to any Auckland local, will ring up the image of the road which stretches from that busy intersection at the edge of Karangahape Road, all the way to the foot of the Waitakere Ranges.
It is one of the more important – and historical – arteries of this fine city; if it had a voice, it would have story upon story to tell.
In many ways the band Great North epitomise many of the attributes of this well-worn route, essentially through carrying a sense of Auckland’s history.
I have seen their passionate live set many times – mostly at the Wine Cellar, (a bar which literally sits within the heart of the city) – and can attest to their creative honesty.
At its heart, “Newfoundland” is a record inhabiting the prophetic; calling to account the goings-on in this sometimes disenfranchised, un-magical city –a theme hinted at in their 2009 release, “Soldiers”.
The standout track on that EP was the brooding ballad, “Old Town”, which asked the ‘wind to blow through this old town, and leave these broken streets behind, (and lead the howling demons out!)’ It was a call for a form of social-baptism, and the song has undoubtedly informed the direction for Great North’s debut LP. “Newfoundland” launches ferociously into ‘News’, with slide-guitars aplenty, and a guttural, earthy production. The track is littered with references to both the ocean (a general theme for Kiwi artists), and The Exodus* (‘by this fire in the night, leading us to the Red Sea’).
In fact, Moses’s account of Bronze Age history weaves its Old Testament influence throughout the entire record, carefully spliced into its very relevant, Auckland-based narratives. ‘Sailors’ speaks of the Auckland skyline ‘getting cut up piece by piece’, a fact which can be readily observed when driving over the Harbour Bridge toward the city. The waters eventually subside for the song’s nautical characters… ‘Oh, my dove, the flood has gone, and all it leaves is a song’; an olive branch of peace for a city flooded, a message represented by that most majestic of optical illusions – the rainbow (over Mount Eden, maybe?)
The biblical (and ocean) themes continue through the raw energy of ‘Whales’. ‘We sailed to a new world, where we tore the laws of science down. Together made enough smoke, to burn our way out of the belly of a whale’. The prophet Jonah ran away from his mission, and so to does our culture through its false self-reliance, and obvious frailty. With Christmas just behind us, it would be hard to miss the incarnational reference to the birth of Christ hidden in the track – ‘you would bring your Father down’. This city may lie next to the ocean, but it is circling its way thoughtlessly through the desert, waiting for some messianic figure to life it out of its self-made mess.
“Newfoundland” was released only a couple of months ago, but it genuinely feels like an old record. Its production has a very open-ended sound to it, allowing lots of room for the stories to find their place in the music. Drawing influence from ancient texts, as well as the more modern protest songs of the 1970’s Vietnam War era (Springsteen, Dylan, etc.), the songs will make you think, as well as move you. It’s a really good record, and I would recommend wrapping your ears around it when you get the chance. But to fully experience what Great North are all about, I would suggest checking them out live. You won’t be disappointed.
Written by Theo Sangster, 19 January 2010.
*The Exodus is the Old Testament biblical account of the Patriarch, Moses, leading the Israelites out of Egyptian captivity, into the desert, and ultimately the Promised Land. It’s a story you will find in a million different ways in our post-industrial Western culture, despite its so-called secular (post-modern) set of narratives.
Photos of Newfoundland album release by Ralph Matthews.
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