Street Chant - Frail Girls

If ‘Means’ provided hints as to Street Chant’s greater vision, these two tracks, Frail Girls and Salad Daze suggest that they may well have realised it. More nuanced than their earlier material and never sounding altogether over-familiar, the band’s progression from ‘Means’ is obvious but their sound remains as distinctive as ever. Frail Girls handily distillsthe band’s modus operandi into three minutes of sneering cynicism, pitch-perfect vocal harmonies and a rhythm section that personifies ‘propulsive’, while Salad Daze takes a darker route to a similarly satisfying end, all gradual tension and sudden release before a stunning conclusion that probably rates as the band’s most epic moment to date.

If you can’t bear to wait for the chance to own these two songs in that most physical of formats, or if your record player has been sadly decommissioned, both will also be available on iTunes and Bandcamp on May 11th. Both the single and the forthcoming album are being coming courtesy of Auckland’s own Arch Hill Recordings, home to local legends The Clean and fellow over-achievers Surf City.