Voom: Hello, Are You There?

Herald rating: * * * *

For all of New Zealand music's confident air of professionalism, being in a band in this country is largely still a part-time pursuit for the majority of its practitioners.

Case in point is Voom mainman Buzz Moller, a guy who just doesn't seem cut out for the professional era. This is his band's second album in eight years. The first one was similarly long overdue.

But for all its slacker roots, it's also a record which reminds that sometimes enthusiastic amateurism has it all over those careerists wondering how they will ever be able to fit the Pop Goes the Weasel recording, the in-store signing session and the private gig for the mobile phone contest winners into one week.

Voom's first album - good thing we file these things alphabetically and not chronologically huh? - had many inspired moments (Relax, Beth, Sad Surf Scenario) among its general low-fi flakiness.

But Hello, Are You There? is altogether more satisfying.

While its protracted recording might bring the risk of sounding like a work in slow progress, it's not only cohesive, it's frequently compelling, with swings from infectious fuzzpop to mid-tempo janglers to sad-eyed bent ballads. The seeming influence of 90s goofs King Missile and Ween can be heard on the edges (especially My Friend Satan). But largely this delivers one pearler after another, from the wakey-wakey Beach Boyish opener Beautiful Day to the nigh-nighs closing I Went to Sleep.

Second track B Your Boy unleashes the first attack of fuzz and hook-power which is later supplemented by the giddy King Kong (originally released in 2002 and ageing brilliantly). The soul-shaped Feel could be Dimmer song, Ride of Your Life goes neatly gospel, while the likes of We're So Lost and I'm Leaving Forever are a fetching mix of guileless lyric and extravagantly dreamy studio arrangement.

A few tracks don't rise above "ditty" and employing the "worth the wait" line would be very foolish. But its idiosyncrasies add up to an album of peculiar but contagiously charming pop from an outfit now one small but vital step closer to that box set.

Label: Lil Chief