Chances Are is a three piece unit from Tūranganui-a-Kiwa, Tāmaki Makaurau and London collectively. Alexander Grant, Lliam Powell and Maté Vella make up the unit, and I have a lot of thinking to do.

Let’s get this straight, right off the bat. This is not a song for the pop charts. I’m very much put in mind of the musings put into song of the legendary Brian Wilson during and after the Pet Sounds era. This is a nearly ten minute piece here, with considerable experimentation in tempo, beat form, orchestration and composition. It does have cohesion, and the lyrics are delivered well and with an extremely high degree of professionalism and technical nouse.

It is not a commercial release. The thought strikes me that mechanical licensing is where this track should be directed. Soundtracks to avant-garde, film festival art movies? Absolutely. Athletics team training sessions? Definitely (there’s an Olympics on the way…). That sort of avenue, I think. From the EPK: “I recall that the idea behind Asleep At The Wheel Of Love was to write a song differently to how we previously had (i.e. small room, guitars, bass, drums, riffs, melodies etc),” says Grant. “Ideologically when writing we took a maximalist approach, throwing all the ideas we had possible at the songs and seeing what stuck. Lliam had been writing a lot in Ableton based on field recordings he’d made so we took one of his demos and attempted to write something that incorporated that. As an additional challenge we all wrote on instruments we usually wouldn’t too (Lliam keys, Maté drums, Alex bass). Somehow – quite unsurprisingly – we came out with this weird convoluted song.”

It’s a highly introspective number, which could sit in a lot of surprising arenas. There’s a slight trance-like quality to it. It’s performed by very competent musicians, and the mix/mastering job has been ably executed by well known desk jockey Mikey Young. It’s well done in that it’s oddly compelling, and you have to listen to it all the way through, and you know you’ll listen again. The length of the track isn’t going to be an issue for an aficionado of the more alternative forms of indie, and it will do well in clubland either live or on some DJs laptop. Keys that are in part staccato, in part stretched. A dream-like vocal. Drums that definitely are there for playing around with to see what different vibes can be pulled out of ten minutes with a single, pretty decent vocal melody to anchor it.

The band is releasing their debut album on 11th April 2024, under the same name as this single. I have no doubt these blokes will deliver a truly eclectic mix of songs, with this unusual piece being quite a strong appetiser based on the mystery around where they could have gone with it if they’d wanted to try other options. It has a restraint to it. It’s pulling me in so I can see what’s being held back.

Clever. Listen a few times and you’ll get what I mean.

Yeah, this will sit well with someone who likes to sit down quietly and lose themselves in the sounds. Also, as mentioned, paradoxically I see the volume turned to eleven (thanks Nigel Tufnell, I will never leave it on ten again. If you know, you know), in the cavernous club, as the night is letting go and the sky is turning from black to blue.

It’s on Spotty Fly now, added to our playlist too, of course. If you’re the type that likes the ilk of what I have described, this is definitely for you – with the opportunity of more to come in April. Get into it. Chances Are you’ll be glad you gave it a shot.

See what I did there?