Bike EP by Bike

Bike made things easy in this introductory stage of their relationship with the music consuming public by calling their debut record Bike. But like all introductions to relationships of a lasting nature (as we're certain this one will be) you'll be asking for a little background first.

Best to start with the guy who write the songs. That's Andrew Brough, for five years a member of Straitjacket Fits, only one of the greatest guitar pop bands of recent years. Andrew's steady reverbed guitar strum held down the rhythm on the Straitjackets' debut EP and first two albums, Hail and Melt, to which he also contributed a string of timeless pop classics, from "Sparkle That Shines" to "Take From The Years", "Such A Daze" and the group's biggest single in New Zealand and Australia, "Down In Splendour".

The pieces should fall into place pretty quickly then, when you put on Bike's new recording. Opening salvo "Save My Life" just has to come from the pen that brought forth the melodic heartache that was "Down In Splendour". Bike follow that with a surprise by upping the guitar voltage on second cut, "Old & Blue", where Andrew's voice is literally drowned in the swell of guitars courtesy of York St producer, Malcolm Welsford. With a similar sense of menace, "Undone" crashes on like Piha surf in its opening and the crunch of its electrostatic end. "Don't Cry" winds up the four song EP, wrapping a vocal lament in a cosy blanket of acoustic and electric guitars.

Throughout the four songs, Bike's three-piece line-up - Andrew on guitar and vocals, Tristan Mason on bass and drummer Karl Buckley - work to add lean power to the often brittle emotional skeleton of Andrew's pop songs. Through those chiming, rocket-powered guitars and timeless melodies, Bike's debut then hints at the blend of delicacy and grandeur of groups like the Byrds who have always been close to Andrew's heart.

Andrew Brough’s abrupt departure from Straitjacket Fits in late 1991 paid dividends for fans of his soaring, sixties-kissed pop ballads – a vital element of his previous group’s sound – when he re-emerged onto the national stage in the mid-1990s as BIKE.