Auckland’s Space Creeps have been gently brewing for a while now; understatedly going about their business and not tweeting about it every five minutes. Late last year they released a stunningly beautiful and creepy music video for the lead single, the dreamy lop-sided Harpoon. They’ve also stunned audiences with their haunting appearances in support for Unkle and Tricky as well as recently accompanying The Checks on a national tour. So, it is, perhaps, a bit surprising that they have only just released this, their debut EP – a testament though, to their undeniable abilities.
The Ep kicks off with the aforementioned Harpoon; Jack Smylie seemingly dead-pan imitates the too-and-fro bickering of a couple long past the honeymoon stage. It’s compelling to watch/listen to their gradual dis-intergration. The guitar-line pulses where the keyboard line gently caresses; the rhythm chugs and Smylies voice breaks your heart. A wild western is recalled in the opening of Pink Planet – rockabilly-esque guitars sit unexpectedly within the trip-hop rhythm before a quasi-nursery rhyme like chorus winds its hypnosis upon you.
The down-beat slows even further down on the wonderfully sad sounding title track – Smylie repeating that he’ll tell you what’s up; Boomio scratches suitably subtle in the mix; an expected interpolation dropped towards the end of the track shifts the mood momentarily before the fourth and final song – Theme For A Creep drifts in and out of your consciousness like a half recalled conservation in the middle of the night.
I’m very much looking forward to a full length album to fully get lost within. – review by Andrew Tidball
Download the EP for FREE from their Bandcamp
