Whatever the standard teenage determination to belong is made of, 3D Howls are composed of its polar opposite. A ferocious refusal to be pigeonholed, results in a debut album with so many tones and personalities that even Oliver Sacks would be stymied. ‘The Journey to Find Keith’ crosses futuristic expanses of progressive rock, metal, jazz fusion and other less familiar territories.
Ōtautahi’s self-styled “most bizarre band” wears the title well. The six-piece pastiche includes Dylan Jonkers (vocals, bass and keys), guitarist Jack Trnjanin and Dylan Blundell on drums, with a brass section of Will Kao (trombone), Lena Krakowiak (trumpet), and Sam Kennedy (saxophone).
Frontman Dylan Jonkers began writing ‘The Journey to Find Keith’ while still in high school, and the story is entirely his own – genre diversity pressed into explorations of neurodiversity, social commentary and demons slain in odd time signatures.
Making early Roxy Music sound like a Status Quo tribute band, 3D Howls are so far out there they’re on their way back for a victory lap – a Rorschach blot of ambition, funk and insanity. Nigel Tufnel’s amp might go to 11 but so does 3D Howls’ entire world – a maximalist Bacchanalia straight out of Syd Barrett’s head.
The album’s six minute-wide opener No, Thank YOU Scientist struts in on full Blaxploitation swagger, brass trading blows with drum solos like nobody’s told them the song has to end, Blue Note breakbeat cool pivoting into full shred, Shaft-style horns holding the fort while guitars go feral.
A basso profundo chorus wanders in looking for Bohemian Rhapsody, realises its mistake, and wanders back out muttering to itself. So many false endings it sits between The Return of the King and Monty Python’s Black Knight – charming with it, though.
A crystalline slice of jazz-funk, No Eyed Deer hosts swaggering rhythm and precise brass. The vocal slaps down a gaslighting (and possibly unfaithful) partner – a “kleptomaniac who takes my puns literally” – in a style not a million miles from Huey Morgan, too controlled to let the Conchords in, righteously angry instead. A welcome change of pace, and proof of 3D Howls’ real depth. Comic chops too – the deer/sheep skit at the end is a quirky one. Though it’s still a sheep, Dylan!
Heart of Stone opens like a laptop booting into a metalcore rumble, before a brassy ’60s Batman theme staggers in, played by asthmatics. The rumble shifts into a growled vocal set oddly against a kindergarten percussion trolley yet stays on theme – Glenn Danzig fronting Doctor Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. Then the percussion snaps into gear for a Rocky Balboa montage, exactly what the chorus deserves – until, oh dear, they’ve woken up Danzig again. Bang those heads until the melody opens into glorious vistas, the shapeshifter finally broken by the forces of rock. Mad, never dull and you will absolutely dance.
Unwrapping Gift Giver reveals fat, brashly confident drums juxtaposed against guitars that may have teleported in from K-Billy’s Super Sounds of the ’70s. A consistently joyous jam in which everyone gets a chance to shine. Even Glenn Danzig. And the harmonies? Positively chewy on occasion.
Post-Traumatic Breakdown is less a closing track than a lost prog-rock concept album, lovingly remastered – the unwillingness to compromise magnificent, the vision epic, the human story genuinely touching. One day books will be written about it, but for now you should just hear it… the full 19min 41sec experience. Go on – give your brain a treat.
As the band’s own press release points out, you may walk away hating this album, but you certainly won’t be underwhelmed.
