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Sandpit: Acoustic Energy To Electric Power

This may be their debut album, but it is no beginner's effort from Sandpit - more the culmination of some 20 years' experience of the Wellington band members. Beginning with synth-driven rock songs, moving through fuzzy guitars and catchy pop Sandpit is occasionally reminiscent of the brilliant bedsit alternative pop of The Shocking Pinks. The electro bands of the 1980s/'90s (Depeche Mode, New Order) can be felt, as can the influence of bands like The Stone Roses and, going further back, Wire. In fact a unique cover of that band's great song Strange (from the classic album 'Pink Flag') concludes this aural journey. To label it punk-pop would be unfair to the band (and not quite representative of both genres) but Sandpit manage to channel some punk-ish energy into cool electro pop that knows when to rock out and manages to stay together inside clean lines when it needs to. I liked what I heard.

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