16 July 2021 - 0 Comments

Dehumanise is The Datsuns third single to be taken from their seventh studio album Eye To Eye - out now.

Directed by Sam Kristofski, an accompanying video for the Sci-Fi inspired, dystopian riff rocker is released today.

Says Sam, "I shot this clip with expired reversal black and white film which was hand-processed here in NZ. I then painted all the colours into the film using a number of different pens and inks frame by frame. I also used a bunch of blades and tools to scratch into the film and create things like lightning effects and lines. Len Lye was one of the first people in the world to use this effect on film before colour film was a common thing. He was from Christchurch and took the film to New York, so this technique is really a strong part of New Zealand's film history. It would have been one of the first accounts of projected colour film."

Just in time for Record Store Day this Saturday, the album's second single, and heavy psych track Suspicion will be released as a limited edition 7”. The band's seventh studio album Eye To Eye will also be released as a limited edition white version.

Seven years hath passed since the last release action from NewZild's most noted crafters of classic (as in some of sort of 70's-inspired grunge-metal meets garage) rock. And two whole decades are done and dusted since they took the Northern Hemisphere by storm, scoring a Peel session and an NME cover and touring the States and heading back to hit Australia & New Zealand for a Big Day Out tour and leading the back-to-rock charge at the beginning of the millennium alongside the White Stripes, The Hives and The Strokes. And while time has not stood still, it hasn’t slowed them one bit either – The Datsuns are now making the best music they’ve ever made.

Album number seven Eye to Eye has a varied stylistic grasp across its 11 tunes. It wraps the locomotive chug of classic Ian Gillan/Ritchie Blackmore-helmed Deep Purple - seasoned nicely with generous servings of Jon Lord keyboard surge - to some updated glam space boogie power chordage. Dolf comes across like some bastard offspring of Marc Bolan and Alice Cooper (and sounds at time a ringer for Redd Kross’ Jeff McDonald); there are some otherworldly fantastical floating melodies wafting in & out of this selection of tracks, and the Alice sneer & snarl is there on the more heart-pounding tunes. The guitar effects and greater keyboard dosage pepper the tunes with new flavours; let us not forget the contribution here of lead Datsun instrumentalist, Christian Livingstone, who has laboured intently, fine tuning freaked fuzz frequencies and space-age squeal and a host of other soaring dogfighting & dive-bombing tones, for the instrumental breaks and beds of the album. If the tone and attack are the primary responsibilities Mr Livingstone bears, the dynamics and tempo rest in the mitts of them other Datsun three. Guitarist "Windmill" Phil Somervell brings his rhythmic chops & noted arm flailin', to underscore the light & shade of the riffage; Ben "Poundin' Soul" Cole machine guns the rolls, and hits the timing twists & turns when required; Master de Borst locks in his bass walkin', & talkin', stuttering & strutting preposterously on cue.

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