Twelve Dollar Monkey

2008 EP Habitat

Reviewed by Dale Taylor

10 July 2008

Twelve Dollar Monkey are beating their chests and shaking the trees of the Adelaide music scene with their latest offering 'Habitat', and so they should! The 5 track in house production shows off what talent resides in the group and is a big step forward for the local funky five piece. There's a secret acoustic track just to top it off, I'll let cha find it...

Musically interesting and well performed the EP highlights Twelve Dollar Monkey's ability to produce catchy funk-rock tunes and belt them out with gusto. Sonically similar to RHCP in the early 90s and incorporating a punky rock feel, the recording will satisfy all your primal funk-rock desires and leave you wanting more. Arrangements and chord progressions of the songs are catchy and never leave you bored, and the EP as a whole has good continuity.

Vocalist Nareeda McInnes is in fine form delivering powerful and soulful vocal performances, and if you like a gat solo Guitarist Matt Collis rips out a few killer licks. On an audio production level while being a good production, some of the maximisation used in mastering flattened out dynamic performances and there is phasing in the drum kit. Overall the music is mixed well and there are great double tracked vocals.

The first track 'Gimme Some Credit' is a credit to itself and with its driving feel sets up the energy of the EP. The track has a warm tubie aesthetic to it and is well arranged, the performances punchy and tight and vocals to bring the roof down! The jumpy chord progression and groove of the chorus has a great dancie feel to it and in contrast the driving aspects of the verses give the song legs. A very cool smooth transitioning bridge leading to a fat outro. It is nice, I like!

Next up is 'Reality Road' another driving groove track starting with a half-time intro. Punchy bass and blistering guitars give the track a sense of urgency, the driving but still accurate kit playing from Drummer Ben Allan adds to the force of the song. I couldn't help but notice the drums in this track sounded a phasie and got lost in the mix a little. Still a great tune.

Seven Years begins with a soulful vocal passage leading into a funk track that explores the bands RCHP influences. Great sounding bass guitar is only exacerbated by the groovy bass styling of bassist Ross Read. This track is a solid funk and I enjoyed the overall production of this track.

Flowing into the next song 'Cross The Line' has a more laidback feel to it and give the EP and nice contrasting flow to it. The Drums once again sound phazie and squashed. But great grungy fuzzy guitar. The vocals are where they should be, up, and sounding really nice and clean. The slower tempo of this song and gentle nature of this tack allows the next song to really have some punch.

'Whatever' is the final song on the EP, rocking out with some great guitar and bass runs accompanied by explosive vocals. Took a few listens to work out what the distorted counter vocal was saying. Nareeda did a great job of double tracking vocals and the call and answer vocals towards the end really worked.

All in all this EP encapsulates the potential of one of SA's premier funk-rock acts and demonstrates the musicianship of the artists involved. Although the recording lacks lustre a little sonically, the musical performances over shadow any sonic issues. Definitely worth a listen.

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Twelve Dollar Monkey