Album review: Dictaphone Blues, Mufti Day

Edward Castelow aka Dictaphone Blues.

Mufti Day is the third album from Auckland-based Dictaphone Blues, and it's the best one yet.

Full of confident, joyous, swinging rock 'n' roll, songwriter Ed Castelow has decided he's going to revel in the opportunity to show off his colourful, and often hilarious creative inklings, much like deciding to show your peers how to impeccably match stripes and florals on mufti day.

It's warm, jangly, and fuzzed out, beautifully self-produced, and recorded to tape with a wide palette of guitars, bass, drums, horns, synths, percussion, and laden with harmonies.

Full of idiosyncratic stories (and with excellent song titles like Cryptic Lipstick and Wink and Watch) it showcases Castelow's wonderful way with words, and singular musical know-how. There's the unusual key changes that somehow work a treat, bridge sections which charmingly wander into a different dimension, and intricately dovetailed harmonic progressions.

It's psychedelic in the best way possible, and feels just like the optimistic beginning of a brilliant summer.

Label:

Independent

Verdict: Irresistible eccentric pop, brimming with fun.

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