The Renderers - A Dream of the Sea

The Renderers are a kickass psychedelic/dark country act from New Zealand, and are associated with the legendary Flying Nun scene, sharing members with The Terminals (quite possibly the greatest rock band of all time) and have been putting out fantastic records since the early 90's. This is their best work in my opinion, 1998's A Dream of the Sea. 

Fucking brilliant. Songs about the human relationship with sea and our failure to understand it, and our attempts to connect with it via leviathans, storms, shipwrecks and even the surrender of oneself to the water - ultimately signalling that there is something exceptionally serene and enigmatic about the darker depths; how we long for catharsis from things that are larger than our lives. Painted with the velvet brush of The Terminals' legacy of noise, every track tells a tale while the guitars lick their wounds and occasionally lash back and forth; and husband-wife duo Brian and Maryrose Crook are your northern stars, your only guides in these treacherous waters. 

I have been looking for the way back
I have been lost on dry land
my body walks away from me
since the river beneath 
the river broke its banks

Have I spoken about the songwriting yet? It's flawless.


low to the ground

PJ Harvey - Dry

During the early-'90s alternative rock explosion, several female singer/songwriters rose to prominence, but few were as distinctive or as widely praised as Polly Jean Harvey. Over the course of her discography, Harvey established herself as one of the most individual and influential songwriters of the '90s/00's, exploring themes of sex, love, and religion with unnerving honesty, dark humor, and a twisted theatricality. Early in her career she delivered her stark songs with bruisingly powerful, punkish abandon, as typified by the 1992 debut effort Dry.

AMG review: 


Polly Jean Harvey arrives fully formed as a songwriter on PJ Harvey's debut album, Dry. Borrowing its primitive attack from post-punk guitar rock and its form from the blues, Dry is a forceful collection of brutally emotional songs, highlighted by Harvey's deft lyricism and startling voice, as well as her trio's muscular sound. Her voice makes each song sound like it was an exposed nerve, but her lyrics aren't quite that simple. Shaded with metaphors and the occasional biblical allusion, Dry is essentially an assault on feminine conventions and expectations, and while there are layers of dark humor, they aren't particularly evident, since Harvey's singing is shockingly raw. Her vocals are perfectly complemented by the trio's ferocious pounding, which makes even the slow ballads sound like exercises in controlled fury. And that's the key to Dry: the songs, which are often surprisingly catchy -- "Dress" and "Sheela-Na-Gig" both have strong hooks -- are as muscular and forceful as the band's delivery, making the album a vibrant and fully realized debut.

You can love her, you can love me at the same time