Mecuzine's Sophomore Album Locksmith Thief

Locksmith Thief is the new album from Auckland band Mecuzine. It has been four years since their debut, Cutting Strings, and much has changed. Now a two-piece rather than the ten-legged band of old, their sound has somehow become more exploratory, more adventurous in the process, as if the guitar orientation of the early days was actually defining them and holding them back.

Featuring the 80s-inspired synth-wave sounds of “Beautiful Notes” alongside the dark and atmospheric “Blue Skies”, Locksmith Thief sees the band channelling the wildness of their West Auckland stomping grounds, refusing to remain caged. The sparse, acoustic sounds of tracks “Midday of Spring” and “Jet Plane” contrast with the guitar-driven tones of “Dancing with the Thought” and the digital rhythms of “Illusions”.

If you like to hear the sound of genres blurring, Locksmith Thief offers it in spades; rock acquiring pop awareness, indie exchanging pointless cool for on-point creativity, gothic shade creeping in, dance grooves being given wings, the sound of genres being smashed, rearranged and reassembled into new sonic shapes.

Written, recorded and produced by the band themselves, Locksmith Thief is a cutting-edge record that could only be born of the twists and turns of experience Mecuzine have navigated, providing a rich background tapestry from which to draw on.

Listen to Locksmith Thief here: