The Golden Awesome

Being in a shoegaze band in 2011 is roughly the equivalent of being in a rockabilly band in the 1980s. You either end up sounding like a musty museum piece, trotting out the same clichés to diminishing effect, or you can somehow transcend the inherent creepiness of slavishly keeping a long dormant style alive by adding something new to the routine or by writing amazing songs and playing the hell out of them. On their debut album, Autumn, New Zealand’s the Golden Awesome escape residing in the shoegaze trash heap by doing the latter with extreme levels of skill. The record is filled with songs that burrow into your brain easily, like termites into rotted wood but much more pleasantly than that imagery might suggest. Whether slow and dreamy (“Where to Begin,” “Highlife”), midtempo and dreamy (“Autumn”), or fast and dreamy (“Astronomy”), there is a whole lot of dreaminess on Autumn. The layers of overdriven (but not too processed-sounding) guitars add to the dreamlike state and the swooning female vocals give the songs an aching beauty and a gracefully mysterious undertone that, when combined with the welcome sense of urgency and drama the band plays with throughout, give the impression that the songs actually mean something to them; they aren’t just re-creating the sounds of their favorite albums for kicks. There is a level of emotion and power to Autumn that most shoegaze bands (past and present) totally bypass in favor of monkeying with pedals and trying to out-reverse-reverb each other. You could argue all day long over the merits of rehashing old musical ideas and reanimating the corpses of dead Valentines, but when a band does that with the ability, passion, and undeniable knack for crafting beautiful songs that the Golden Awesome do here, it kind of makes all the debate irrelevant. - All Music

Why do I find such bliss in noisy abandon? There's something about a thick blur of grinding sound that drowns out my daily concerns. It's cathartic, even as fuzzed out guitars seem to echo some of the static I repress in my brain.

Regardless of how I made this association -- was it that first golden moment when I was transfixed by the Velvet Underground's Heroin? -- it hints at the psychoactive nature of music.

On Autumn, The Golden Awesome are just that: awesome. I'm cossetted and comforted in a hazy blanket of noise. Ragged guitars weave a psychedelic tapestry, mediated by distant, close-harmony vocals. The yin-yang between the singing and the music permeates Autumn. Floating above the fray, the dreamy sweetness of the vocals complements the sonic flail with a soothing contrast.

I included A Thousand Nights and One Night in my September singles post. All of that is true for Autumn as a whole. The songs vary in tempo and feel, but the shifting balance pervades the tracks, providing a subtle power that mere noise rock or dream pop would lack.

One of my favorite tracks is Where To Begin. It melds Pink Floyd's Fearless with the Beatles' Blue Jay Way. The repeated Escher-like melody climbs briefly before resolving back where it began. I love the sense of moving forward while staying centered.

Autumn was released on November 15 on M'Lady's Records. - Jester Jay

Ten seconds into the debut album of the Golden Awesome, a fuzz-laden pop-shoegaze-grunge outfit out of Wellington, New Zealand, and you know exactly what you’re in for: layers of syrupy guitar distortion, harmony female vocals, middling chug-a-lug tempos and fuzz enough to drown in. That’s exactly what you get, too, with occasional side trips that never stray too far from the formula. And you know what? It all works just fine.

There’s something to be said for finding what you’re good at and sticking with it. Album opener “Autumn” sets the template, both with what it includes (see above) and what it does not—extended instrumental solos, tempo shifts, proglike multi-part song structures and the like. Vocalist Stef Animal has a limited range, but delivers the goods in a languid, whispery moan that floats above the prevailing noise clutter like oil atop choppy waves. As often as not, those vocals are layered to sing harmony with itself, which only adds to the overall sense of being wrapped in a warm, silky blanket.

Subsequent songs introduce minor variations to the formula. “Highlife” takes down the tempo a notch, while “Blue” dispenses with percussion altiogether and relies on Animal’s heavily processed vocals to create something more akin to a tone-poem than an actual song. “Sooner and Later” introduces ambient distortion and floating waves of feedback to offset what might otherwise be a too-sugary pop confection. To their credit, the band seems to recognize the limitations in which they are working, both sonically and in terms of their singer’s range, and they strive hard to overcome them. For the most part, they succeed.

For the most part. “The Waves” suffers from an unmemorable melody and an overweening sense of I’ve-heard-this-before, while “Ruby” is simply too bland musically to make much impression. Energy is a key component in music like this, and when it flags, the effect is immediately noticeable.

The good news is that the successes far outnumber the failures, at least for listeners favorably disposed to this sort of female-fronted fuzz-rock. At six and a half minutes, the mini-epic “Where to Begin” is considerably more ambitious than most other songs. With its opening midtempo shuffle disguising a variety of sounds buried far down into the mix, the tune establishes a hypnotic drone before launching into overdrive—if “overdrive” is the right word to describe those languid, dreamy vocals. It’s this tension between the instrumental grit and vocal sweetness that creates much of the tension in these songs.

The record wraps up with “A Thousand Nights and One Night”, another meaty tune that goes on for some time. It’s an appropriate way to end the album, as its rhythmic repetition and overdriven distortion both reflect what has come before, and ramp it up a notch before letting it go. There’s no shortage of overdriven, fuzz-tastic shoegazey bands out there but, speaking for myself, I’ll keep listening to them as long as they have somewhere interesting to take me. The Golden Awesome do just that. More, please. - Pop Matters

The early nineties shoegaze scene burned brightly for a very short space of time, before falling out of favour with the UK music press and derailing completely. Hailing from Wellington, New Zealand, the Golden Awesome's debut "Autumn" gives us another chance to appreciate all of the stronger elements of that scene, without some of the more ponderous elements that have dated some so-called classics from the original era of shoegaze.
"Autumn" was recorded recently, but the Golden Awesome have done an admirable job of capturing the period flavour of 1990 and this sounds like a lost classic of that era.
They operate at the heavier end of the shoegaze spectrum - no weedy keyboards on display here, just huge, multitracked guitar riffs piled on top of layers of eerie guitar drones with a solid rhythm section and the dreamy, cathedreal ( is that a word? ) reverbed vocals of Stef Animal.
Early Ride and Swervedriver are obvious touchstones, and there's also a touch of Siamese Dream era Smashing Pumpkins for those seeking a more mainstream comparison ( Billy Corgan has admitted that the original shoegaze scene was a major influence on him at the time ).
Give it a listen - while I have high hopes for the Smashing Pumpkins upcoming "Oceania", I suspect that "Autumn" will be the more enduring of these two releases. - The Active Listener

It's as though, in some strange way, The Golden Awesome wanted to make it easy for everyone. Which, when you think about it, is exceptionally polite and thoughtful of them. All the Wellingtonians needed to do was get together, create exceptionally wonderful music, and come up with a name that would make for easy fodder for music writers. And hey, presto! New Zealand's gone and done it again. In truth, at its basest level, Autumn is a gloriously golden, unquestionably awesome record. But wait! There's so much more to it than just that.

It's hard to imagine Autumn being a debut LP, but that's exactly what it is. Over the course of nine songs The Golden Awesome demonstrates a sonic authority that seems effortless, so totally and completely do they cast their collective net. Contemporaries of bands like Ringo Deathstarr and Young Prisms, the band undoubtedly pays homage to My Bloody Valentine with their wondrous washes of drone and fuzz, not to mention the deliciously dastardly guitars alongside some intoxicating, female-heavy vocals that land somewhere betwixt those on Loveless and those found in certain Lush songs. The end result is quite an aural opiate.

Each song is a joy to behold and offers up something special to sink your teeth into. "Ruby," for example, features a bewitching, golden hum laced with grit and some bulky, delirious droning. Perhaps title track "Autumn" will prove to be your favorite, launching immediately into towering billows of dirty scuzz and wrapped in the shimmer of gossamer vocals. The splendidly-titled "Sooner and Later" brings a pop sensibility to all the shoegaze, tilting in the direction of some of those great Yuck songs with a pert beat and bursts of guitar noisiness. Another favorite, "The Waves," strikes a lovely, elemental chord, almost tasting of sea salt and the maddening swirl of the ocean breeze with each note.

The more I've listened to Autumn, the more I've found to love amongst all that blissful racket. It's one of those records that is a constant pleasure to listen to, and is solid from start to finish. If you're in need of some instant sonic gratification, you need look no further. Go ahead, reach out and touch The Golden Awesome. - Fuzzy Logic

The Golden Awesome create a balance somewhere between psychedelia, shoegaze, and dream pop. A Thousand Nights and One Night shows off their sound: thick and and throbbing, evoking strobe lights diffused through dense, smoky rooms. Unlike Pujol's fuzzy guitars, the Golden Awesome's edge is blunted and ragged as they echo through the song. The harmonized female vocals drift through the track, leaving reverb-scattered trails.

The band's sound is consistent through the several songs I heard. Like the ringing drive of a maxed out band playing in a small club, foggy with herbal smoke, the noise batters your ears at 2 am. Too tired to even nod in time to the music, you wearily smile and let the waves wash through you.

Autumn is due out November 15 from M'Lady's Records. - Jester Jay: music and other essential thoughts

Wandering from Kent over to the more inviting confines of Death by Audio, I took in a couple bands playing the unofficial showcase of local label, M’Lady’s Records. First were New Zealand's The Golden Awesome, shoe-gazers in the classic heads down, squall up sense. As big as the guitar sound was, it was dwarfed by singer Stef Animal’s voice, run through a “seraphic harmonizer” to make it huge and strange. (It was a sound I associate mainly with British bands from the 80s, though alongside The Clean, Flying Nun signed quite a few shoegazers of their own, I guess.) It was ultimately more about the wash of sound than any distinct lyrical information being transmitted; that sound was sweet and enveloping. - The L Magazine

Along with instrumental variety, the New Zealand showcase also featured genre diversity. The four piece  shoegaze band from Wellington known as The Golden Awesome switched up the audience’s Pikachunes dance moves to a more sway-like movement.  Slow, blissful major-key riffs generated by a heavily overdriven guitar and bass provide an enveloping background to the seraphic harmonized multiplied voice of front-woman Stef Animal.  A mix of heavy guitar and bass sounds with the keyboard’s mellow beat created an ethereal vibe that was difficult to not be swept away by. The four-piece band exposed the crowd to a genre that is frequently overlooked, the world of shoegaze. Re-experience the glory of shoegaze Friday the 21st at 8pm at Trash Bar in Williamsburg - Last.fm

These Kiwis dropped into town last week during CMJ and dripped '90s shoegaze all over the proceedings. A wall of guitar is at the forefront, adressing everything with a polite "how's your news", and then moving on to pretty harmonies, ranging from whispery, breathy high notes to strong low howls that remind me of the few Electrelane songs where they kind of chant. Nothing is moving as fast as Electrelane, though – the Golden Awesome like to maintain that 4/4 that really allows notes to grow and resonate between being played. A good record for a scene in a movie where a bunch of really intelligent people have been invited to a dinner party but the hostess spiked the soup with DMT and now everyone's wiggling around on a beautiful carpet, staring at the ceiling with glassy eyes

The Golden Awesome play Boston tonight at Zuzu's, but then they truck it back to New Zealand. Here's two tracks for you to check out if you can't make it to the show. - Impose Magazine

Introduction, with MP3: Astonomy - Radio New Zealand

Despite there being very few exciting things to come out of Wellington this year, and despite the fact that gig-goers have upheld their status as apathetic drunks, there are three things that maintain Wellington as a paragon of excellent music.

The Golden Awesome. Ho-ly shit.
Sonorous Circle (see last week’s issue).
O-Week—This year was amazing, and if rumours are to be believed, next year will be even better. - Salient magazine

The talented Stefanimal’s other project, The Golden Awesome’s jaw-dropping set in the barn on the final night of Camp was serenely gorgeous. A huge sound composed of various melted parts, the band bonded together in such a way that the songs just grew until they burst. An unassuming but powerful presence with gorgeous, glittering songs, it was like no other shoegaze music ever existed. Everything stopped and ended there. They had me floored. - Einstein Music Journal

Due to some ‘technical difficulties’ our interview with Jo from The Golden Awesome on Auckland Calling on Kiwi Fm last night didn’t happen like it should have.

But as promised, here’s a short phoner for you to listen to…
- Kiwi FM / Cheese on toast

Monday, 18th April 2011 11:02AM
The Golden Awesome are a mysterious bunch. Much lauded amongst bands they have played with and those lucky enough to have caught them live, they’ve kept quite a low profile since emerging seemingly out of nowhere mid-2010. No longer content to wait for their story to unfold, we eagerly tracked them down and drummer Justin Barr was kind enough to shed some light on the project for us, including their collective background in Dunedin and previous projects including Mestar and Cloudboy.

You guys seem to have come out of nowhere, who are you and when/how did you come to form The Golden Awesome?

Mostly we are just a bunch of friends with a shared love of the super-loud-but-sweet music of early 90s Britain & NZ. We have all played (and still play) in other bands and also together in various off-the-cuff party bands. We talked for literally years about starting a shoegaze band and finally got around to it about a year ago.

Tell us a little [more] about your musical backgrounds, past bands etc….

Well we all have pretty long CV’s – all beginning in Dunedin (albeit independently). Briefly: Jo Contag (guitars, recording) is a founding member of Cloudboy, Mink & Bad Statistics (and has recently been dabbling in orchestral composition); Justin Barr (drums) also played with Jo in Mink & Bad Statistics, and in The Raskolnikovs with Matt Steindl (bass); and Stef Animal (vocal, keys) was in Mestar and also performs solo.

Shoegaze seems to be your most common descriptor – is this how you see yourselves? How would you describe your sound?

We are certainly shoegaze, but with our own angle on it.

Who would you say are your biggest influences…

We all have pretty diverse music tastes, but in terms of shoegaze, My Bloody Valentine is the obvious one, being the touchstone group of that era. Also groups like Jesus & Mary Chain, early Cocteau Twins, and the underrated Medicine. I also think that our shared 1990s Dunedin heritage makes that music an unavoidable influence too; particularly groups like Snapper, Bailterspace, 3Ds and Suka.

What is your writing process?

Generally Matt or Jo will come up with an idea on a crappy little ¾ size acoustic guitar, then we develop it as a group at ear-splitting volume, and Stef will write the vocal parts.

You have a Cassingle out at the moment, is this your first physical release? Tell us a bit about it….

Yes, it is. It’s a pretty low-key release on our friend Jeremy Coubrough’s cassette label, Rampant Runes. We only made a handful of them, most of which have already been sold or given away. We went for a cassingle because we think it’s nice to have music in a physical format, but CDs are shitty technology and vinyl is just a bit too much hassle for a single.

Have you had any interest from labels local or otherwise?

Yeah, we have had really positive interest from some local and international labels. We've recently decided to run with M'lady's records of New York, so we're aiming to have our debut LP out this coming spring, which is very exciting.

We get the sense of big things ahead for you guys, do you share this feeling?

Thanks! I think we’ve been around long enough to be realistic about these kinds of things, but yeah, it’d be nice if people like our album.

What else on the cards for The Golden Awesome this year?

We’re planning to shoot a video with Menno Huibers and John Lake shortly. Jo is going to Europe for winter, so we probably won’t do too much over that period, but come springtime we will be sure to go touring. I’d imagine that will probably coincide with the album and video release. - Under the Radar

Drowned in sound, The Golden Awesome’s stylistically spot on shoegaze rock is the by-product of a series of friendships stretching back fifteen so years. Friendships which were formed in Dunedin through mutual loves of playing music, listening to records and going to parties, loves which remain central to The Golden Awesome to this day.
Now all based in Wellington, Justin Barr (drums), Joe Contag (guitars, recording), Matt Steindl (bass) and Stef Animal (vocal, keys) began The Golden Awesome close to a year ago. Trading laughter and stories over cups of tea in a Wellington cafe on Cuba Street, Contag explains their origins and ethos, with verbal assistance from Animal. “We’ve always had this idea to have a shoegazey style band for many years,” Contag admits. “We talked about it, mostly at parties and eventually we decided to do it.”

With the band roster having played in seminal New Zealand acts like Mestar and Cloudboy, and outside of The Golden Awesome currently working in acts like Bad Statistics and The Raskolnikovs, once the four settled on a, as Animal puts it, “a loud, epic and slightly slower [approach],” to their sound, their My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins, Snapper, Bailterspace and 3Ds informed sound evolved naturally. “It’s quite easygoing when we write, there aren’t any bottlenecks to creativity,” Contag says, with Animal co-signing his statement with the thought, “The whole thing is quite light-hearted. It’s not an academic process.”

Netting a support slot before the 3Ds as their first big gig, and wowing punters at Camp A Low Hum earlier in the year, The Golden Awesome’s haze hidden melodies have seen them release a cassette tape single via Wellington tape label Rampant Runes, and in September this year, they will release their debut album on vinyl through boutique New York imprint M’Lady’s Records who discovered them while attending the aforementioned Camp A Low Hum. As a result of this connect, The Golden Awesome intend to tour America in October. Step by step they’re dragging the sound of the early 90s into the present day, one intoxicating release or show at a time. - Rip it Up