Family Band is definitely not your average, run-of-the-mill three-piece combo. These guys and lady were flat-mates who put together the band in 2023, and have been building up a pretty decent live rep up and around Tāmaki.

They like to challenge the listener with a repetitiveness of sound that definitely does that. With a beginning half of this six minute track called Spit we’re treated to some really gritty, discordant post-punk. A baritone reminiscent of Magazine’s Howard Devoto, in timbre, menace and gravelly snarl, is our vocal piece here. Singing about the landlord of their old local cafe, a cafe that shut down as a result of the challenges to hospitality during the Covid-19 lockdowns. The vocal also covers how that sort of thing could make one feel like a failure following such hard work only to see your dream fail.

Standing this up is a jarring mix, deliberately set to shake your bones. We have some high octane, trebly-focused rhythm guitars layered over a snare-led drum beat, up-tempo but not thrashing. The bass is a wee bit low in the mix for my liking, but that’s just me. People don’t release tracks that they aren’t happy with, so the band aimed for that, and doubtless others will disagree with my penchant for a fatter bottom end.

The second half of the song was where I felt them raising the bar on their intention to challenge the listener. The vocal takes a break, and we’re left with the rhythm section, inclusive of the rhythm guitar. Some power chords and/or light riffing over the bass and drums takes us through the entire second half of the song. Again, personally I felt it could have done with some extrapolation over the top – even some experimental phrases or a cut-off loop, if not some lead guitar work.

As I always take great care to point out, music is subjective and it is not fair for a reviewer to pose as a critic. When a track could have provided different elements for me, I will say so, but I will always acquiesce to the fact that I am giving you my own, subjective, point of view. The song is very memorable, and I can see it going down extremely well in a number of genre-based shows: punk, industrial, deep-core punk, indie, and a raft of others. It’s out on Spotify now and is on the Flash-Trax playlist of course.

I do take my hat off to any musicians who say they want to challenge the norms, and then proceed to do exactly that. This is very experimental, very original and I can see why they have garnered such a good response to their sound. If the vowels, consonants, syllables and punctuation I have provided here gives you a sense of intrigue as to what Family Band is all about, then what are you waiting for? Go check them out.