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“Looking for love in the coffee mug/ Three sugars too many and it’s only 10 o’clock.”
By: Stevie Kaye
Issue: May 2007
Tags: Frase+Bri
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“Looking for love in the coffee mug/ Three sugars too many and it’s only 10 o’clock.” No local single last year captured the heart, head and hips quite like Christchurch duo Frase+Bri’s debut 7”, 8 Hr Crush; Bri’s everygirl vocals giving the kitchen-sink lyrics (“Breaking down in toilet cubicles at work/ Overheard by your boss because he’s a jerk/ He’ll ask if you need a shoulder to cry on/ You tell him to die - he offers you a ride home”) an authentic resonance and emotional heft, while the deft momentum of the brisk beats, heart-tugging string swoops of the instrumental chorus and the well-timed breakdown gelled into bittersweet effervesence. The track’s composition on the humble Commodore 64 imbues the song with punch and clarity.
“I was buying Commodore 64s really cheaply at garage sales, and ended up with a good collection of them,” says Fraser Austin. “One day I started running some music software on them, and programmed my old indie guitar songs into it.” Intrigued by the results (“I’d realised no-one really wanted to hear me and my guitar - I’ve got dark roots in singer-songwriting,” he laughs) and coming around to dance music, his typing skills allowed him to utilise a very different type of keyboard for musical composition than usual.
The charm of the technology allowed him to marry diaristic indie-pop (“My songs are quite narrative-based - character studies inspired by shit jobs I’ve worked or seen people work, trying to see the romance in that”) with giddy, primitive Eurodisco in a fashion less mannered and fey than the likes of the Postal Service or the Junior Boys.
Forming in April 2006, he played solo for a few months/shows before asking Briana Yaakoup to join. She’d previously played in the Pickups, whilst Frase was still playing bass for Pig Out - however, he left them late in the year to devote more time to his own group. Their 2006 output included a Geraldine lathe-cut split 7” with Australian act Alps, and a self-released live CDR recorded from a show at the Dux De Luxe that they’ve been selling at gigs. Currently, they’re working slowly on their debut album, having made recordings with Luke Disasteradio and James Goldsmith on a Wellington trip as well as recording themselves. They plan to play locally for a few months, visit Australia in September, and then tour around New Zealand.
Elsewhere, Frase has his own label/distro Crystal Magic to keep him busy, as well as side-project Loom (yes, it is themed around the legendary Lucasarts game), while for her part Bri has Kiss The Future, a project also involving some members of the Tiger Tones. - Real Groove Magazine
ISSUE 187
DECEMBER 2009
[5] FRASE+BRI - 8 HR CRUSH (2006)
8 Hr Crush is a desolate slice of synth-pop. Frase's pulsing production and Bri's forlorn, neglected vocal is tremendously affecting, but its sentiment make the whole shooting match strangely uplifting. - Real Groove Magazine
http://this.bigstereo.net/2007/05/15/frasebri/
"Ohmy… Frase+Bri is a duo from New Zealand creating some intense rave-pop tracks that remind me of a cross between Muscles and Freezepop. Their music is falling apart and coming together… all at once.
You’re gonna be finding yourself wanting to take all your clothes off and dance around in your living room in your underwear. Or maybe that’s just me. I want to hear a whole set of their songs soooo bad, but I guess I’ll have to settle with listening to “8hr Crush” over and over. and over.
Frase+Bri – “8hr Crush”
“8hr Crush” is off a 7? split with Alps from last year. I feel sooo slow. You should go buy it from Shriek Sounds’ MySpace. Or stream a live track on Frase+Bri’s Virb°." - http://this.bigstereo.net/2007/05/15/frasebri/
Discography
http://frase.bandcamp.com/
Frase - He's Going to Artschool - Diskette (2005)
Frase+Bri - Live at the Dux 2006 limited CDR sold only at shows (2006)
Frase+Bri - 8hr Crush single sided 7" (2006)
Frase+Bri - Frase+Bri/Alps split 7"
Frase - Shoegazer Sweat / Star of your class 7" (2009)
Photos
Bio
Having taken up the moniker of his own name to play music under in the early 00s, Frase has played up and down New Zealand with lots bands, as himself and in recent history as apart of FRASE+BRI.
Initially using what instruments he had available (numerous commodore 64's, broken casio keyboards and a guitar), Frase's sound was born from DIY necessity. Now, much handier with a soldering-iron, Frase has collected the sounds that first turned him on to music, most influentially the the general midi Roland SoundCanvas (a traditional staple sound-set from early PC Adventure Games). By using less desirable midi hardware, Frase is able to conjure up the pixelated worlds of the early 90s, playing the role of dungeon master on the dance floor whilst reminding you that you have to get up early for work tomorrow.
Frase is currently working on recording some singles and a compilation of such to fulfill an album grant, which will be released under his own label Crystal Magic sometime this year.
Frase is the perfect post-Hughes soundtrack to dancing-by-yourself-in-your-bedroom.
Bands Frase has played with include: Yacht (US), Casiotone for the Painfully Alone (AUS), My Disco (AUS), ALPS of New South Whales (AUS), Disasteradio (NZ), So So Modern (NZ), Goldenaxe (NZ), Bachelorette (NZ), Panther (US), Over The Atlantic (NZ), CSS (BRAZIL), The Shocking Pinks (NZ), and a few more that I totally can't remember.
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