Culture

This week Critic had the pleasure of listening to a new Pikachunes track. Pikachunes is Miles McDougall, a Christchurch-born Auckland based electro/Detroit house act. The new Pikachunes track is a remix of Tono & the Finance Company’s ‘Barry Smith of Hamilton’.

It’s no surprise Pikachunes paired up with Tono. Tono’s new EP received 5 stars in Real Groove; CD of the week in the Sunday Star Times; and he’s talked about on NZ music blogs, just like Pikachunes, who has just come off a six-week stint on the Radio One Top 11 with his track ‘Nervous’. 
   So here’s the story: Tono and Pikachunes meet a party in Ponsonby, they talked away, and Pikachunes mentions he’d like to remix one of Tono’s tracks. Easy as that, they meet later over an interview Tono was doing on Pikachunes and Tono hands him a CD. I tracked down Pikachunes for a quote:
   “I've always been impressed by Tono’s song-writing ability, in particular his lyrical content. I thought it would be fun to put his writing into a new context. Despite our almost opposite styles of writing, I enjoyed this project and am happy with the final product.”
   Here’s what Critic makes of the whole thing:
   1. Pikachunes has a great compositional ear.
   2. Tono has a great compositional ear.
   3. Pikachunes has a great idea of what sound looks like.
   4. Tono sometimes gets a bit blind and makes things complex.
   5. To remedy this, Pikachunes strips the song back and makes it look better and by doing so he provides a key to understanding one of the country’s most talented emerging songwriters. And by doing so, Pikachunes demonstrates how incredibly honed his talents are. Pikachunes is the king of mundane everyday simplicity, and Tono rules the cities of mundane complexity. Somewhere in the middle, your head rests, filled with E (don’t fall off the balcony) and pilsner (don’t fall off the balcony), and you’re safe as houses. 
   So, have a listen; you can vote for this track at www.r1.co.nz on the top 11 if you like.