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Salmonella Dub
 It's four years since Salmonella Dub's last studio album was released, and a lot has changed in that time for the group. Once heavyweights of New Zealand's dance scene, the group has lost two members and the remaining four have watched a slew of acts from the same scene in New Zealand rise to prominence, among them Concord Dawn, Shapeshifter and, in particular, Fat Freddy's Drop. Keyboard and trumpet player Peter Woods is philosophical about it all, though - he's happy to see these other groups achieving success and glad that the band's stayed together, and though there's no guarantee of success, "having gone a long time, we're lucky that our name is still pretty much a household name," he muses.
When one of the group's main vocalists, Tiki Taane, left to go solo, it could have signaled a real change in direction for the group but surprisingly their latest effort 'Heal Me' fits in pretty comfortably with their earlier work and contains, if anything, more vocals. "The surprise in the album is that it's just as good and focused and it has that vocal focus mainly from the drummer," Woods agrees, before adding cautiously, "The group's kept a lot of its past sound. The producer's also introduced new elements and from here we have to tread a little bit carefully. We can't be too overambitious as we build it up, we need to find how many people were Tiki Taane fans, so to speak". That said, the difference is one that many casual listeners will barely notice, and first single Love, Sunshine And Happiness doesn't suffer from Taane's absence or any superfluous additions as it treads similar ground to the band's biggest hit to date here, For The Love Of It.
Woods credits producer David Harrow with bringing a bunch of fresh ideas to the music from his Los Angeles base, but one of his more surprising contributions was a friend who he roped in to the project. "I feel he's done a very good job on the vocals, he's made them very clear and they've had a lot of treatment so to speak," Woods says, pausing to laugh as he relates the anecdote. "We've had the same auto tune person as... what's that supermodel that's done that recent song?... Um, I'm just trying to think of it." After a pause he triumphantly shouts a most unexpected name: "Paris Hilton". And though it's hard to imagine Salmonella Dub ever sounding as slick and impersonal as the famed heiress, the vocals certainly do sound very polished this time around.
The instrumentals also sound excellent, no doubt in part due to the studio the band has built at Kaikoura, where Woods was speaking to me from. While I'd assumed that access to their own studio and the freedom that it afforded for recording was at least partially responsible for the long gap between albums, as it turns out the answer's even simpler. "It was more we were touring, a lot of touring, so we never sat down to focus on writing another album, it was never quite the right time."
From one extreme to another, the band hasn't played a gig since Christmas as they've concentrated on the album and day jobs, and with guitarist Andrew Penman becoming a father for the first time recently, the future touring loads will be significantly gentler. "Because we've lost two members, we're kind of reshaping the sound and getting back on our feet," Woods explains. "From now on the touring will be a lot quieter than it used to be." And while this means that Adelaide misses out on the next Australian tour in November, the positive side is that it should mean a lot shorter wait between albums next time around.
Alexis Buxton-Collins
'Heal Me' is now out through EMI.
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