The debut album from Auckland’s Office Dog is a grungy, punky, psychedelic dissection of inner turmoil and hopeful prospects. 

Release Date:  26^th January 2024

Label: New West Records (Flying Nun Records in Australia / New Zealand)

Formats: CD / Vinyl / Digital

Originally from Dunedin, New Zealand psych/grunge trio Office Dog are now resident in Auckland – or Tãmaki Makaurau as they prefer to call it, in honour of the Māori traditions of their homeland.  Kane Strang, the band’s guitarist, vocalist and frontman was already an established songwriter with three solo albums to his name – the most recent being Happy to Perform (2021) – when the band decided to come together in late 2021.  He was also a leading figure in Dinosaur Sanctuary, the Dunedin – based collective responsible for the intriguingly-titled debut album, A Public Toilet Told Me Nothing Gets Better.

It was shortly after the release of that album that Kane hooked back up with childhood chum, bassist Rassani Tolovaa whilst traveling in Germany and the idea of a collaborative venture started to form.  Drummer Mitchell Innes, formerly with Yesses – yet another Dunedin band – was recruited and the three put their heads together to come up with a bunch of new songs.  The fruits of that collaboration are collected here, on Spiel, the debut album from Office Dog.  I’ll say it upfront: Spiel isn’t an easy listen, but, described as “an introspective view on profound experiences, turmoil and hopeful prospect,” it’s a rewarding one for those willing to persevere.

The songs that constitute Spiel are an intriguing mix of psychedelia, grunge and punk, with splashes of pastoral, introspective acoustic folk wedged in, often at points where it’s least expected.  It all makes for a fascinating, if challenging, listening experience.

Opening track Shade sets the pattern and the mood for the album.  Kane’s close-up vocal and slightly distorted guitar set a psychedelic mood that is soon dashed by bursts of flat-out punk as Rassani and Mitchell join the fray, and that’s a model that’s used repeatedly throughout the album. Antidote is tighter, but no less forceful, and manages to be both druggy and precise at the same time.  And there’s something richly reassuring about the blend between Rassani’s clangy bass, Mitchell’s crisp, tight, drums and Kane’s dreamy, stream-of-consciousness vocals. 

Contrasting styles are a constant feature of Spiel, as evidenced by the merger of crashing art-punk verses and the 60s-pop chorus of Gleam, whilst the reflective pastoralism of Warmer (a real surprise when it comes in) is counterbalanced by Mitchell’s quasi-military snare drum sound and the Beatle tones of the song’s drawn-out coda.

A punchy drum and bass figure provides the intro to Big Air, a glorious slice of power-pop with a wonderfully loping bassline from Rassani and a real drive from Mitchell’s drums; and it’s Mitchell’s drums that leave the most lasting impression on Tightropes, as his precise rhythms provide the most solid of foundations for Kane’s mix of distorted riffing and jangly chimes.

The clean-sounding In The Red is a power ballad, albeit in a style that you’ll never have heard before.  A persistent guitar figure propels Kane’s vocals to ecstatic heights when he reaches the song’s “Feels like heaven” climax, before the unaccountably exciting Hand in Hand takes us on a trip into punchy psychedelic pop territory.

Kane demonstrates that he’s no slouch when it comes to nifty acoustic fingerpicking on the slow-building Cut the Ribbon.  A sense of foreboding arises as Rassani’s bass signals a menacing hint of things to come, before Mitchell’s drums lift the song to a whole new level of intensity.  And that mix of contemplation and full-on riffage is carried forward for Teeth, this time with a touch of Lennonesque anguish thrown in for good measure; it’s fulfilling and magnificent.

Possibly the most accessible song on the album, The Crater is as close to a conventional pop song as, I suspect, Office Dog are willing to bend.  It’s tuneful and memorable, and it’s packed with sparkly guitar sounds.

And all that leads us to Spiel, the album’s title track and, as the only song on the album that passes the 5-minute mark, the album’s centrepiece.  It’s another slow-builder, structured around a Hendrix-flavoured guitar figure.  Kane takes the band on occasional excursions into deep grunge, but the song always returns to that figure, and to passages of introspective contemplation.  A microcosm of the whole album, it’s a durable track that will reward repeated listens.

Spiel is an interesting album.  In many ways, it’s as ‘off the wall’ as the early work of The Velvet Underground.  Indeed, I suspect that the Velvets may be a formative influence on Kane and the guys, and, what’s more, I reckon that Spiel is an album that will appeal to anyone with a Velvet insight.

Watch the official video to The Crater, a track from the album, here:

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