Have you heard about it yet? Undoubtedly the best NZ music album to be released this year? It’s called ‘Treble and Reverb’ by Aaradhna or Radz as she introduces herself to people. Even if you haven’t heard about the album you would have heard the first single from the album “Wake up,” which hit the number one plays spot on iTunes its first day of release. “Wake up” is just the beginning of a newfound attitude partnered with old school soul and described by Radz as Retro/Metro, and all the songs on the album are just as good! Treble and Reverb is to be released on Nov 9th and is the follow up to her Sophmore album Sweet Soul Music from 2008.
When Aaradhna's sound spills through the speakers in her opening track, you learn that it's not just treble and reverb that work in unison. It's her silky voice over that doo-wop sound, BB King style guitar paired with snare drums, Aaradhna and music just go so well together. The album has undertones of Amy Winehouse, Ruth Brown, LaVern Baker, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, and Little Anthony and the Imperials. As a result, her writing has elevated and her knack for hypnotizing harmonies is amplified and so predominant in the later tracks “Crying like a Wolf” and “You Don’t Love Me Anymore.”
While the late 50’s/60’s doo-wop style was present in Aaradhna’s first album with songs like ‘Downtime’ and ‘I Love You’, Treble & Reverb goes all the way with it. She also favours sass over sweetness as you will find is one of the main themes through-out the album; her beautiful voice belying the ugly things she’s threatening on the cheeky and hilarious ‘Lorena Bobbit’. Or there’s the way she tells a girl she’ll kick her ass, in the nicest way possible, on ‘Miss Lovely.’ One of the lines in ‘Cool Shoes’ goes, “sucks that I ain’t cool enough to hang with your gang!’ But really it’s pretty safe to say that everyone is going to be rocking to this album come November 9th and there will be no one cooler than Aaradhna.
Written entirely by Aaradhna, and produced by P Money and Evan Short, Treble & Reverb is definitely an album that should be on everyone’s wish list come November, it promises to be one of this nations best ever releases.
Aaradhna is a New Zealander of Samoan and Indian descent. Her father Jayanti Patel is an Indian from Navsari, Gujarat, India and her mother Sia'a Patel is Samoan. Aaradhna is the eldest of five. She first showed singing aspirations at the age of 11, singing along with her mother to traditional Samoan and country songs. She would try to imitate the songs she heard in Bollywood movies that she and her father watched and also went to festivals at which her father performed. Aaradhna began writing her own music at the age of 11, entering her first talent quest at the age of 13 and making it into the finals. She joined the school choir at Porirua College and went on to form a five piece girl group called Lovera.
Her debut album I Love You entered the top 20 RIANZ, with various songs featured in films including Sione's Wedding and It's a Free World. She released a club-inspired song
alongside Australian producer, DJ and artist Paul Mac in late 2006 titled Love Declaration. The song features on Mac's album Panic Room and reached #31 on the local charts in Australia.