The Winebox Inquiry: Liquid Air (bandcamp)

You'd have to concede this about Wellington's William Daymond: he moves on and can't be put in any convenient box.

In the late 2000s he was drummer in the indie-rock band Terror of the Deep and as he admitted in 2014, “We like to keep things fun and interesting. We just play what we want. We started kind of poppy, then went psych, now we’re doing prog and almost garage stuff.”

In 2011 he was bassist in a later incarnation of the hefty Axemen and along the way appeared in the Pickups and Green Eyed Owl.

He also released a self-titled mini-album as The Winebox Inquiry in 2015 which touched on power-pop and indie folk-rock, and then the excellent, poppy Sets Sail! (with some tougher rock and folksy material) in 2016.

But this new album sees him turn things down even further on an all-acoustic album for some delicate, almost fragile bedroom folk (the finger-picking miniature I've Talked Too Much).

There's a little gently energised folk-pop here too (Whole) and some subtle string arrangements (by Tom Watson) on three of the 11 originals which have some penetrating lyrics (Impossible to Tell).

This is an album where less is more.

With the merest hints of Donovan, Cat Stevens and some lovely tonal work on the spare Downpour (old piano, string drones), Daymond/Winebox Inquiry has clearly found a rewarding new incarnation.

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You can hear and buy this album at bandcamp here