Fluidity - New Direction

Hear The Track Here

John Paul Carrol (aka Fluidity) even though a relatively new name to Soundclick has established himself rapidly both through some good reviews (he reviews under the jp23 nick) but more importantly through his music, two tracks I have reviewed have shown me that this is one New Zealander that should be taken seriously. Not that I make a habit of laughing at Kiwi's ya understand. At least not their face anyway. Sorry, it's just the thought of spending your whole life upside down (and not knowing it) that particularly touches that sadistic streak within me. They, of course, counter it with the thought that maybe it's US northern hemipshere folks who are on their heads and I can't say I find fault with that argument - at least not when you look at our politicians.

White rabbits, holes and toking catepillars have nothing on these guys...

It's sufficient that Fluidity has garnered two Highly Recommended's from me already but I have to say that his music does indeed reach all my musical pleasure centres. Acoustic rock it may be, complete with great vocals and harmonies if tinged with a West Coast feel, but I like this kind of material and I am not alone. Again, I would urge Fluidity to sign up to a Songplanet account and get his stuff played on the radio. So the burning question right now is New Directions a step away from what I liked about the first two tracks? The answer is a very glad sounding no, if it's stylistically a bit different from what has gone before. It's a more rocky, raw track than anything I have heard before, but it still retains all the hallmarks I have come to expect from this artist.

What it does tap into iis yet another of my favourite areas - antipodean rock (as opposed to UK or US rock, that is). I don't care what you say, to me there is a very real difference between these two schools. It doesn't start and end with the letters AC/DC. Fluidity shows this difference splendidly on New Direction a track dedicated to his girlfriend but is a song about moving house, and the ensuing veiwpoint it shows you. It carries all of the positives of previous tracks (good production, keen songwriting and adept performance) with a dash of heaviness that only registers after you've lived with the track a while. Sure, you are BOUND to notice that rockiness as soon as you hear it but only with repeated plays does it show the strength of the underlying song. Excellent and well worthy of adding to my growing Fluidity folder...

Highly Recommended (sheeesh, again!!??)