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Reviewed by Alexandra Selkirk-Hanna

J. Flyger: Luck EP

Reviewed by Alexandra Selkirk-Hanna

J. Flyger: Luck EP

Kiwi ex-pat J. Flyger ’s (Popstrangers) new EP couldn’t have landed at a more perfect time.

The cacophony of synths, shimmering acoustic guitar and endearing lyrics, almost all in a minor key, is a winter soundtrack for 2018.

The title is drawn from the first track, Call It Luck, which is reminiscent of 2009/’10, when albums like Bon Iver’s ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ and Grizzly Bear’s ‘Veckatimest’ were making the rounds.

Simply, the song is a busily warm, almost nostalgic invitation to the rest of the record. And by warm, it’s more like candid… and by candid, well, it’s more like sincere, emotional and confronting-ly introspective.

Not My Problem takes us deeper with swooning synths – straight out of the deep, dark depths of someone’s external hard drive – and a bass line with vocals that drives a Smiths-like alt-pop tune.

Tomi Honda, the first single released from the five-track EP, brings us to a sort of pinnacle of Flyger’s emotion on the record.

Sign of the Times sounds rather like a pop song but for the heavily fuzzed vocals and almost overwhelming synth drone.

Always most openly reveals Flyger’s Kiwi music origins, a distinctly Clean-like journey.

Judging this book by its cover wouldn’t be doing it justice. The cover art simplicity and low-fi negative nature does not anticipate the organised chaos of noise and tight production, though perhaps it does allude to the space in the back of one’s mind, where faces and memories reside, untamed.

Untamed, like the fantastical garden of sound that is J. Flyger’s ‘Luck’ EP, the perfect soundscape for a wintery city walk.