Opposite Sex – “Oh Ivy”

Opposite Sex’s last album tapped into the jangle-pop past of their Dunedin roots, but they take things deeper on their sophomore release, Hamlet. “Oh Ivy” starts with the same basic ingredients that the band dipped from on their eponymous debut; post punk clatter and the lilting vocals of Lucy Hunter, but it quickly turns much darker than they’ve gone before. The tension is thick and the guitar slinks with a wild almost inebriated stumble. The song is up on its hackles within the first minute. Hunter’s vocals turn desperate, ravaged, pleading and accusing at the same time. The song slashes and crumples on itself and by the time the end draws near Hunter seems practically beside herself with longing and despair. Its the kind of post-punk that most who use the tag are not making. It wields noise, sheds any sense of self-consciousness and just lets the music embody ragged emotions, raw and nervy. The album is out in the band’s native New Zealand through the ever intriguing Melted Ice Cream Collective and here in The States from Dull Tools. From the sounds of this, its going to wipe any expectations that Opposite Sex set up completely off the table.



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