New Zealand Post-Punk Outfit, Yukon Era, Unveil 'Feel' Music Video

6 June 2018 | 4:29 am | Alex Sievers
Originally Appeared In

Loneliness, my old friend.

Loneliness, my old friend. 



Despite KYS being an Australian music publication, we just don't hear much from our New Zealand pals. Other than new Antagonist A.D. and that recent Alien Weaponry album, my email inbox is often bereft of bands hailing from our adopted cousins just across the sea. Yet that NZ-based drought ends (for now) with the newest release from Yukon Era.

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Following their 2016 EP 'Consume & Scratch' and their 2017 single, 'Tongue', the budding Melbourne-Auckland group's dynamic new tune, 'Feel', has had me utterly hooked lately. Released earlier in the year, this moody track sonically sits between the anger of English punk's IDLES and the guitar-driven sounds of older (read: better) Arctic Monkeys. With classically gloomy post-punk chords, robust bass lines, driving percussion, and subdued yet bitter monotone vocals that brood nicely as the song flows along, 'Feel' is a darkened, fast-paced, and poignant tune about overwhelming numbness.

As vocalist Christian Dimick explained, 'Feel' is a golden-era post-punk song that "...touches on personal issues within my life. Feeling absent from others as well as myself, along with feeling crushed by the weight of people’s expectations of me."  

That emotional weight is heard during the bursting guitars, brisk hi-hat patterns, and sudden snare hits of the striking pre-chorus; instrumentals that lash out like someone trying to feel something - anything. Following guitar bends twisting heavily around and rising snare rolls, the track reaches a violent boiling point lyrically and musically, what with an explosive finale where inner-demons frustratingly surge out only to simmer down as quickly as they first arrived into one's headspace.

All of which goes hand in hand with the track's recently unveiled music video; a fitting visual representation of loneliness and isolation, all well-explored by actor Tom Gray in the below film clip. Up and coming directors Taylor Mansfield and Jake Munro (DOP) have really nailed the vibe of this song with their video here; creating a sad indictment about what often happens to us when we keep things bottled up and how that disconnects us from our surrounding social situations in the process.

This quartet's debut album was supposedly meant to come out in "early 2018", but we're past that point now. Yet if 'Feel' is anything like what the rest of this new LP will sound like, then here's hoping it's on its way soon enough!