Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Ekko Park, Dinner For Wolves 2020.
It’s always a treat to receive some new music from across the ditch.
It seems to me that, like everything else that our NZ cousins do, they rarely produce a dud and Ekko Park keep the high quality that we’ve come to expect going.
They are an Auckland based band and they’ve been around since 2013 when they released their debut album, Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Today that received a nomination for the 2014 Best Rock Album at the NZ music awards.
Their second album, Know Hope (2015), debuted at #15 in the local charts but two singles from the release, Probable Cause and Validation, caused a sensation in Italy when they charted at #1 and #3 respectively.
Since then the band continue to be regulars on over 200 European radio stations potentially bringing their music to 100 million listeners.
It’s an interesting phenomenon that a number of Australian bands have also experienced where they are often better known in Europe than in their own country, or near neighbours.
Ekko Park are not prolific album releasers, Horizon is only their third album in seven years (they have released a few singles as well) however each album has been real quality.
They play a hard driven indie rock that is an amalgam of a variety of rock genres.
The first single from Horizon, All Eyes On Me, features guest vocalist Grant Nicholas from the Welsh rock outfit Feeder and it’s an absolute cracker, there’s a good video clip of it on YouTube.
While you’re there check out some of their older material.
The second single, Uh Oh, dropped on the 14 August with the full album slated for release on August 21.
I like what Ekko Park does, they’re not metal and eschew the clichés of hard rock. They’re forging their own path and we’re all benefitting from it.
