Disco Summer

Disco summer is here. The debut album from Auckland NZ based indie pop band Haiku Redo. The album is brimming with charming witty and warm indie pop tunes from the pen of bandleader Craig Horne, a man not shy of a good turn of phrase. The album sees a tight 12 songs created specifically from scratch for this album over the last 2 years.
Haiku Redo have released a series of successful singles over the past year to streaming services and the Disco Summer Album collects all the singles and adds one more for good measure. The title track to the album Disco Summer celebrates the joy of taking time off work to head for the river or the ocean with a tank full of gas and enough food and drink to last the weekend. The new single is accompanied by a video. View the new video Here

The album was initially intended to be a collection of home recordings in a ‘low-fi charming pop’ vein culled from pre existing demos Craig and partner Barbara Morgan had done during his time in the UK as drummer for Andrew Fagan’s indie rock band Lig and their attempt to break into the music scene during the 96-98 period. The demos had landed on Failsafe’s music player at the time and suggestion was made that maybe now was the time to do something with them. Craig agreed but wanted to spruce them up a little, and maybe write 1 or 2, maybe 3, or 5 new tracks to go with it.

Fast forward to 2024-25 and it’s 11 new songs, in the indiepop/indierock studio-polish vein. Only one song from the demos (“It’s Just Too long”) making it to the album, so we’ll have to revisit those early recordings at another time along with a number of outtakes. Horne isn’t short of a tune or 2 and this album will hopefully be the start of a long line of quality writing from this talent.

Craig has a knack for an understated self-depreciating witty lyric and power-pop melodies and hooks, so you hum the tunes and listen for the next line. The songs on this album reflect that with 12 succinct, witty, entertaining and imaginative deliveries. There’s the Girl/Boy stories with witty cutting one liners but there’s also the scene setting scenarios of “My Sister’s Name where Horne tries to get his new Girlfriend to change her name to anything she might choose so that he won’t have to deal with the discomfort of having the two share monikers. He’s very polite about it though.

There’s also Fleetwoodmac cover where our protagonist finds himself in for the night with a lady insisting on playing her way through her repertoire of Fleetwoodmac songs. He’s not a fan.

 

The band have a strong pedigree in Alternative Pop. Joined by fellow Ex Lig guitarist Kevin Moody & Bassist Barbara Morgan, and rock royalty Dianne Swann (BADs, Julie Dolphin) also on guitar.