soundcloud.com/shankaranewzealand follow up “Dawn Chorus” with “System Echoes”, a looser and more varied selection of tracks that temper their wide musical influences to their natural surroundings.
The general idea behind the EP was to organically capture some of the vibes that have inspired the duo over the years – growing up in the Christchurch area (AKA the bass capital of New Zealand) meant that jungle, drum & bass, halftime and dub sound-tracked their nights out.
“Cicada” finds them condensing a 20 minute live jam with Finn Kelscher on a hot summers day into a pulsating, dub drenched groove. Elsewhere, “After Thought” rolls through dancehall and downtempo en route to a junglistic finale, a vibe teased at on the triumphant one-take “Cycle”. As the name suggests, “Deep Fried Shankara” is what happens when the duo dipped into Deep Fried Dub’s Melbourne studio, while the epic “Run Away” naturally morphed from its dancehall origins to a drum and bass belter, courtesy of some heavy basslines and layers of live dubbed out guitar.
As with “Dawn Chorus”, field recordings made in the dense rainforests of the west coast are weaved into the tunes, accentuating the life-affirming positive vibes at the heart of the EP.
