Guitarless Guitar Music. This is the self-imposed one-line description chosen by Auckland, New Zealand's Wax Chattels. The keyboard, bass and drums trio don't have a guitar player, but their overwhelming sound and energy?create an atmosphere akin to a traditional power trio?- though?their music is anything but traditional. They create?darkly hypnotic and frenetic music that's? rhythmically complex and? sinister; there's heavily treated keyboards, unrestrained basslines and punishingly simple drums. And, it's loud. Peter (keyboards/vocals), Amanda (bass/vocals) and Tom (drums) met while studying Jazz Performance at the University of Auckland. After living abroad, completing Law School and/or performing in a myriad of other music-related projects, they started Wax Chattels, working up their material for a year prior to recording.?"We tracked the songs as a live band to capture the energy of the live show, restricting ourselves to instruments which we play live and keeping all production to a minimum to focus on the band's sound itself."?Live, they are not to be missed. While they do come across as a "rock" band, it's coming from so many places?so quickly?that you're kind of left wondering where you're going. The opening of the one-chord tour de force?"Concrete" begins in a downright frightening and jarring place?and ends up in a Krautrock-via-Suicide crescendo.?It was after a particularly insane live performance that they were signed by both Captured Tracks and Flying Nun Records?on the spot.?Wax Chattels recall the other side of Kiwi underground rock history that's a bit less sunny and a bit less jangly. The small, yet constantly groundbreaking nation has put forth a new act and album that demands your attention.
