Haiku Redo: Disco Summer (Failsafe/digital outlets)

Up there in Japan, Rob Mayes of the Failsafe label goes through the dozens of recordings and albums he made with various bands, many from Christchurch during the Eighties, Nineties and some even beyond the label's heyday.

It's a rewarding labour love because here was a label on which was the alternative to the alternative (Flying Nun, Xpressway etc) and mostly held the banner high for guitar-driven power pop.

Elsewhere has covered quite a number of Failsafe reissues and new releases (Mayes is a believer in the expansive CD package with artwork and lyrics), most from bands we had heard at the time or at least heard of.

But Haiku Redo – a sterling power-pop band with pointed lyrics and an upbeat approach – was new to us.

And here's why.

Mayes first ran into Craig Horne (drummer in Andrew Fagan's Lig) in the UK when his own band Dolphin were based there. He was quite taken with the songs of Horne and his bassist partner Barbara Morgan (formerly of Fatal Jelly Space).

But that was then and the story goes fast-forward to more recent times when Horne and Morgan were in discussion with Mayes about releasing some of the those songs.

But instead Mayes was presented with a whole new album by Horne, Morgan, former Lig guitarist Kevin Moody and guitarist Dianne Swann (The Bads, Julie Dolphin etc).

So here is a local semi-supergroup with its debut album about 30 years on from when Mayes in Britain – now in Japan – was first taken by the clever songwriting by Horne.

And there's a lot to like in these melodically approachable songs with smart lyrics like those of a relationship in Who You Really Are going sour from “it's been two days and I think I'm love” to “it's been two months and it's starting to change” to “it's been a year and I see my mistake, she voted National for a silly tax break”.

Who You Really Are

From surging powered-up pop (Change is a Certainty) through retro-pop (the Buddy Holly-cum-emo anxiety of I Called You Up) and mainstream guitar pop with lyrical twists (Level of Comfort) to pokes at the realities of pub bands (the New Wave pop of Radio One, the pointed Fleetwood Mac Cover), Haiku Redo have been well worth the wait.

They ride those parallel rails of various types of guitar pop-rock which somehow cross with astute observation, humour and local references (Whangarei, the West Coast).

This much pop and sharp lyric writing make for a lot of unexpected pleasures  . . . and an album which sits comfortable alongside the best power pop the US and UK have had on offer.

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You can hear and buy this album at bandcamp here.