Dictaphone Blues: “Bully” Hits the Airwaves

Dictaphone Blues is no stranger to New Zealand’s alt airwaves. 2014 – 2015 yielded three Top 10 alt radio hits including Her Heart Breaks, Like A Wave, 365 – featuring the talents of Emily Edrosa and Cryptic Lipstick which all came from the album Mufti Day.

Bully is the first single to come from an EP and see’s songwriter Edward Castelow teaming up with UK producer Dave Eringa. Eringa’s production credits include Manic Street Preachers, The Who, Idlewild and for good measure, Kylie Minogue.

The song moves away from the jangly guitar sound of Mufti Day and sets foot in heavy groove based alt-pop territory, a move which was inspired by Castelow’s love of 80s pop stars such as Madonna, Eurythmics and Cyndi Lauper.

Available on Spotify , this song packs a presence and needs to be heard, check out this extraordinary artist’s vision today.

With its upbeat, “popish” yet amusing composition, it reminds me a bit of the Ska influenced music of UK’s 80’s music scene. It is a nice change from some of the down beat and morose driven “I hate my life” music that seems to be coming out of the euro music scene.  Dictaphone Blues, “Bully” for you, good job.

Joseph Timmons, IndiePulse Music Magazine.