Hailing from Dunedin, Eliot Ripley debuts his music with this self-produced album.

Authentic to the title, ‘Home Recordings Volume 1’ is a collection of five songs Ripley recorded in his home, where he took on the writing, singing, guitar, recording and mixing.

The music can be described as alternative rock, where the likes of a ‘90s-type grunge seem to carry the loud, guitar-driven themes to each piece.

Ripley’s confident vocals naturally sit at a middle range, but he allows himself to occasionally raise the pitch, push himself outside of his comfort zone and provide some refreshing melodic diversity that gives the music a dynamic range.

Ripley does endeavour to contribute new ideas to NZ music, and succeeds in Topsy-Turvey World, with an odd yet interesting combination of accompaniment, narration, and societal themes in the mix of this short piece.

In other tracks like Uptight and Hide and Seek he displays further compositional sophistication. We are given some catchy riffs, themes, and in particular, skilled guitar playing that is no doubt the highlight of the EP.

Ripley’s enthusiasm and talent are evident and this proves a wonderful debut.