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21 July, 2008
The DFenders - 'The DFenders' Album
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Dunedin has been notorious as the home to some genuinely weird music; loner misfits operating so far from the spotlight the very idea of the mainstream is completely irrelevant. Examples abound in Crude’s and The Aesthetics’ spastic noises, the 3Ds’ weirdo gothic rock and Alastair Galbraith’s singular amalgam of wavering delicacy and freeform soundscapes. But the recent advent of the Degree in Contemporary Rock Music has brought a different set of influences altogether into town, a set of influences that are weird in the context of Dunedin’s past musical pedigree.

It is easy to see the twenty year cycle that is prevalent in music, witness the current post-punk influence in popular underground circles. The DFenders, while embracing the past revering norm choose a different and slightly perplexing set of influences. Theirs is a distinctly Eighties synthesizer based pop idiom, heavily reminiscent of The Cars and their ilk.
Songs are treated as opportunities to completely replicate the sounds of the early Eighties pop era, sometimes cheesy heart-rending ballads, upbeat and snappily dressed vignettes to attractive girls, and plenty of saxophone solos. The production is an amazingly faithful replication of the sounds favoured by their idols, the drums particularly nailing the exact reverb soaked snap so prevalent of the times.

The attention to detail doesn’t stop with the production, though. The whole aesthetic is thoroughly conveyed through the song subject matter (mainly the admiration of girls, and the subsequent trials and tribulations associated with said admiration), the chorus enhancing key changes, the barely raspy/teen heart-throb singing, the tight pop song structures and the distorted guitar, just on the melodic side of fragmenting completely. The icing on the cake is the attention to detail on the album artwork, including the Compact Disc logo and common typography albums shared around the time of the birth of the CD as a musical medium.

Of course there is a fine line between homage and wholesale plagiarism, and this is a line that The DFenders wholeheartedly hurl themselves over on at least two occasions. Further to that it could be said that their whole band concept is a plagiarised, content to replicate sounds from years ago rather than apply themselves to using their obvious talents to create something new based upon what their heroes did, adding something a little more unique.

As a tribute to a bygone era of early Eighties mainstream synthesizer and guitar based pop music, The DFenders’s debut album functions extremely well and is certainly unique amongst the vast majority of Dunedin music. It is a music that is certain to work well in a live context (particularly a party atmosphere), and, I suspect, perform a valuable function in attracting plenty of female attention for the band members themselves. If you are content to look no further than tight, melodic pop songs which display very little acknowledgement of any sort of development or innovation music has undergone in the past twenty or so years then The DFenders debut album will be more than satisfying for you.


By Dave Local

Posted by rob

Posted by rob
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