The bittersweet nature of Dunedin-based band OV Pain ‘s new music offering is quite compelling. 

Tim Player‘s dark, slightly sprechstimme singing manner takes listeners to some expressionistic faraway land. In contrast, Renée Barrance‘s voice has the quirkiness yet resoluteness of a stubborn 5-year-old stomping the floor whilst demanding a sweet and sour lollipop.

It is not all sweetness and acidity, though as OV Pain can bang on a can really loud, too. There is an obvious kinship with some punk rock elders – hello ‘Unknown Pleasures‘ – in some drum beats and looping synthesizer melodies which are simply irresistible.

However, the album also journeys through English Elizabethan poetic soundscapes, themes and harmonies. Special mention to the political nod to May 68 – student and social uprising in Paris in May 1968 – as the band manage again to conflate richly diverse sources of inspiration in one consistent and assertive opus.