Tāmaki Makaurau is home to Family Band. I’ve just heard their debut single Large Dirt Piles, which has been out, to be fair, since Feb 21st so I’m a little behin the 8 ball on this one, sorry. It’s the opener for their forthcoming E.P. The Dog Box, released on 30th April.

The three members of the band are Maté Vella, Sam Shepherd and Brandee Thorburn. Between them they have come up with a single that compels me to declare one of my new genre titles. I call this NeuroPunk. Ooo yeah, I like that.

We have a pulsating rhythm guitar riff that snarls menacingly, hypnotically, throughout. A bottom end that’s effective in its lack of overpowering the discord going on around it yet anchoring the track to the truism of music’s need for structure and form. Well played. Lead guitar is very discord-ish, and targeted to grate. It’s avant-garde and in your face, and works for what the band is trying to capture.

Vella‘s vocal initially came across a little like 70s punk/New Wave icons Magazine, but transforms into a furious and threatening version of Glenn Gregory, he of 80s electronica icons Heaven 17 fame. As ever, these comparisons are not aimed at saying “oh this guy just sounds like so and so…” but are to help you with a term of reference for what to expect when you give this a listen.

The lyrics are about being the one to break the cycle of violence that perpetuates behind far too many closed doors. It’s something in my own family’s past, and is a subject dear to me in the extreme. I wear my Refuge tie-pin on a necklace around my neck 24/7. Thank you to the band here for writing and releasing this song. Such subject are increasingly less taboo to talk about, and it’s through the continuation of the dialogue via media like music that it gets t a wider audience… and gives people the fortitude to get out.

The engineering for this very intense number is down to Martin Philips at Auckland’s much lamented Vault. He’s captured a raw anger, an intense energy and vibe. I’m impressed with the avoidance of anything that could turn this into something insipid. It needs to have been different. If you’re into the less commercial sounds, and like the sound of the term NeuroPunk, then give this a listen. It’s out already, and is on our Spotty Fly and their own.

Hopefully you’ll see them live soon, because this is the sort of sound that will give a live audience some semblance of trance-like zen during a deeply ferocious rendition of a song. Very cool.