Grand Prix: The Way of the Racer

Herald rating: ****

A love of country music, racing cars and the trumpet makes for an unlikely, yet riveting, combination for Grand Prix. Put it this way - if you love the Ennio Morricone soundtrack of the classic Western, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966), doing donuts, and racing cars, then this is for you. Although, the band admit car racing is a metaphor for life, rather than their being petrol heads.

Grand Prix have hints of late-period HLAH, another Wellington band who touched on a more docile, country sound before they split up. But GP started out as a country band and take a far more stern and steely approach, something that has a lot to do with Andrew McKenzie's voice, which is a cross between Nick Cave and Kiwi country icon, John Hore Grenell.

And Viv Treweek's trumpet, with its dramatic flutters and soaring serenades, makes Grand Prix sound unusually original.

Stand-out track, Racing On the Surface of the Moon, with its slide guitar and punchy, "Oh my baby, on my darling" break down, is a very sexy country song indeed. Let's go racing.

Label: Arch Hill