Buffalo

Devotees of classic Kiwi pop acts such as The Chills, The Clean and The Bats will likely go all gooey inside upon encountering Wellington’s Phoenix Foundation. Originally issued on storied antipodean label Flying Nun, their fourth album – the first to receive international distribution – deals in such ageless NZ rock tropes as hazy Byrds guitars, semi-whispered vocals and slow-building hooks the size of the Auckland Needle. But it is their resemblance to contemporary acts such as Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver which probably attracted the interest of London’s Memphis Industries (Go! Team and Tokyo Police Club). The horizon-stretching lustre of ‘Skeleton’ shows what the six-piece can achieve when they wax epic; ‘Golden Ships’ sounds like a country-rock xx, its slow, twanging guitars strung over deep chasms of hush. With a career arc that more closely resembles that of Bell X1 – domestic fame followed by a expansion overseas at their own pace – than of any British or American act, Phoenix Foundation come to our attention a more-or-less fully-formed proposition. It’s difficult to imagine a better antidote to the usual New Year deluge of over-egged, undercooked, UK buzz bands. Gorgeous and mysterious, Buffalo is worth grabbing by both horns.