This new EP from Shady Brain Farm sounds so youthful and alive, with 5 real songs that have a great psychedelic rock sound driven by a feel good up-tempo rock beat.
The first two songs lean toward the psychedelic rock form, with tuneful crooning from Ben Furniss, who also supplies superb flangy melodic guitar riffs. The songs have a great live feel, with the three piece Guitar, Bass and Drum clearly defined and not drowning in overdubbed guitars and layered vocals. It’s great how you can hear Chris Vaughan's bass riffs in the songs with Paul Taylor's percussive drumming sounding sturdy and real throughout.
I Need You has a cool surf reggae feel with it's wonderful on the upbeat groove. Eight Seconds imparts it's cool funky rock groove with great bass and chunky guitar bursts of rhythmic energy. Last up is the groovy The Separation with a funky vibe and 60's sounding vocals that round off the EP nicely.
Shady Brain Farm have created a very likable sound, it is funky but also psychedelic, a cool mix of old sounds delivered with youthful energy and thus is very worthy of a listen.
Shady Brain Farm have played together as a group off and on for the last 19 years,
all members living in the Norwest Auckland area of Kumeu, Waimauku and Muriwai beach
the music they make reflecting this West Coast beach vibe.
Ben Furniss - Main Vocals, Guitar & Keyboards has been in many Auckland bands over the years including The Broken Heartbreakers, Superturtle, White Swan Black Swan and Surrealistic, has a nice home studio in a barn on his farm in Kumeu where they do their recordings, (recent Galveston Demo Recordings were done there), and record local up and coming bands (this area seems to be saturated with talent coming out of Kaipara College).