Album Review: Truth Puppets

<i>Puppets</i> album cover by NZ band Truth. Photo / Supplied

Rating: 4/5
Verdict: Local dubstep debut with heart and soul

Continuing the fine tradition of local dubstep comes Christchurch collective Truth's debut album of beautifully brutal bass-laden beats. Puppets fits in to the sinister yet soulful realm of music. It's not as oppressive and suffocating as a lot of the other music from the genre, where it seems heaviness is all that matters. There is definitely a heart and soul beating within this music. The 15 tracks, across a mammoth 70-minutes, bristle, even occasionally bounce and ping and, best of all, plumb sonic depths not often heard in these parts of the world.

The dual combination of Puppets and Masters of the Stars (a friendly nod to Metallica's finest album perhaps) is the finest and fiercest example, with the former an eerie and twisted portent and the latter a Dr Who-meets-War of the Worlds opus that harnesses enough power to leave the Daleks cowering in their metal shells.

Elsewhere Dead Silence has a staunch and soulful swagger; Don't Explain lopes along and resonates with a repetitive husky mantra and haunting piano chords conjuring up a Massive Attack and Archive mood; and the harrowing and more traditional dubstep attack of Juno takes over and beckons in something more extreme and potent. Puppets, and the recently released compilation Aotearoa Dubstep Allstars, is proof New Zealand not only does dubstep well, but carries on the tradition of well-produced and innovative Kiwi electronic music in general.

-TimeOut