Short Reviews [Postcards From New Zealand - 2022 - "Pfnz VII: Liminal Space"]

There are some bands who feel the right way to go about music is to make it as difficult as possible to find out anything about them, and that is very much the case with PFNZ. Even though they are listed as being from NZ on their Bandcamp page, I could not tracks them down so sent them an email asking them if they were from NZ and the response was simply “nope, we’re not”. However, the date in the responding email was in Italian, so perhaps they are from Italy? I also have no idea who is in the band, or what they play, and they themselves describe this album as alternative, death metal, electronic, post-metal, progressive, psychedelic, New Zealand. It is the third in the 'betwixt and between' trilogy, and they describe the album as being about “liminality in its various forms, affecting living creatures as well as space and time. its goal is to go beyond any discrimination or prejudice and return to giving differences their value.” It is certainly interesting to read what they have to say about the album, where the artwork comes from etc, and there is no doubt that here is a band (at least I think it is a band) who are certainly cerebral in their outlooks and have much more to say than many. Musically this is experimental, moving in and out of styles and genres so while black metal may feature in one place it can be far more electronic in another and one never knows where it is going to lead. Somewhat strangely there is no bass guitar on this album, yet it is never really missed as both keyboards and guitars make up for it. It is an interesting release, (I guess they think of it as the seventh in this series, although they have released many more), yet I did not find it as compelling as other albums I listen to in this genre as there is a lack of direction, almost as if they are making music without any sense of where it may lead them. Nothing wrong with that, but there is little or no excitement which consequently means there are times when the listener is drifting along. Progressive in its truest sense, there is not enough here for me to reach out and discover their other releases, but there are plenty on Bandcamp if experimental music is your interest. I wish it were more challenging and direct, less meandering, but it is still an interesting listen.