番長 - Taste - 7"

Full disclosure, i'm not sure if this new project from Greymouth's Mark Anderson is called 番長 (a Japanese word relating to a group of delinquents), Taste, or 番長 Taste. Which is maybe the point i've once again managed to miss. What i do know is that Anderson is joined here by fellow Mysteries of Love member Anthony Guerra and another player who simply goes by the name Mariyo, for a debut outing that forms part of the ever excellent IDDB 7" series. This is a perfectly conceived addition to the catalogue, the kind of loosely assembled, hard to put a finger on lo-fi avant rocking with a penchant for inscrutability that we've come to (mostly) associate with the label. Strangely, it's infectious too, hiding some allusion to melody 'neath a good few layers of sonic murk and tumble. This is what these kind of 7"s are best at, standalone oddities that also make gestures towards something bigger forming on the horizon. Anderson has spent a good while conjuring this kind of magic, active in the margins of hard to parse, ever-shifting anti-rock action. Perhaps, then, we should call it a taste of things to come... Edition of 200.