REVIEWS: Soft Plastics - Loozer + Fruit Juice Parade - the more you question, the further you get from the answer

Words by Oli Cheyne (he/him)

In the spirit of NZ Music Month, we all have a moral obligation to listen to new, exciting, and diverse music that is being created and released up and down the motu. To kickstart your search, here are a couple of suggestions that you ought to put on repeat. 

Soft Plastics

Loozer 

Garage pop trio Soft Plastics’ latest release has been storming the student radio network airwaves recently, and for bloody good reason. “Loozer” is lush and spacious, complete with soaring vocals and a bassline that keeps driving forward, giving the track a real momentum and power. Delving deep into themes of self-sabotage and desire, Soft Plastics create a pensive but tense song that is reminiscent of some early 90s shoegaze, owing to its melodic and methodical structure, and unresolved tension at the close of the song. 

Woven into the are song resplendent hooks that are brooding yet keep it wonderfully open. There is a catharsis to the song’s coda, as Scott-Maunder’s vocals break amongst the distorted guitar into screaming. Sometimes there is no better release than just belting one out at the top of your lungs, and it shows in “Loozer”. Hot off a tour of Te Ika-a-Māui, Soft Plastics—Sophie Scott-Maunder (vocals/bass), Jonathan Shirley (guitars/synths), and Laura Robinson (drums)—have followed up on their previous singles with a grand statement that makes me wait with bated breath for what they are cooking up next, and you should be too! 

Fruit Juice Parade

the more you question, the further you get from the answer.

Another recent release that has been charting on SRN quite frequently is duo Fruit Juice Parade’s second EP, the more you question, the further you get from the answer. Brilliantly named, the new release is a follow-up to their first EP from 2018, The More You Don’t Know the Less You Know, which funnily enough is the name of the leading track from the new EP—have I confused you yet? Such titles could potentially invoke cynicism, but the more you question… is far from that. The four-track EP seems like it has had time to form and evolve into a thoughtful and fully realised body of work. 

Fruit Juice Parade, who are Shannen Petersen and Tharushi Bowatte, are recent arrivals to Te Whanganui-a-Tara, coming from Palmy where they went to high school together and cut their teeth in Rockquest. The more you question… is full of exciting and unique turns and instrumental direction. Given the tonal range of Petersen’s guitar and strong vocals from both members, you’d be forgiven for not realising that there isn’t any bass on the record. There is a synthesis between the guitar and Bowatte’s complex drum movements that meld together in such a mature way. They both follow each other in cyclical ways, pushing the instrumentation to an edge that is rarely met. Songs “the more you don’t know the less you know”’ and “dræyyke” are perfect examples of the ways Bowatte and Petersen navigate sonic landscapes, displaying their ability to pick up or drop off the intensity on a whim, which is a testament to the musical relationship the two share. 

Self-professed emos, Fruit Juice Parade, value emotion within their lyrics and songwriting. This EP seems to be a way in which Petersen and Bowatte have understood and reflected on their high school years, and confronted emerging ideas and growth as artists. What hooks me in to these songs is the honesty in the lyrics, which are used with perfect restraint throughout the crescendos and more quiet moments of the more you question the further you get from the answer. Happy listening!