Sean Bodley goes ‘Pitchblack’

Once again I find myself blown away by music coming out of Tauranga.

Of course that's ambiguous. It's a toss-up whether being surprised at how good something from Tauranga is, is insulting or complimentary.

I mean it as the latter. I'm not surprised that something good should come from here – just at quite how good this latest offering is.

The latest offering is a new album from guitarist Sean Bodley, who is not only a virtuoso player but a prolific composer.

Last year saw two instrumental albums from him in the space of a few months, one showcasing the electric guitar, the other acoustic. This new set is called ‘Pitchblack',
is largely electric, and to my ears is the best thing Sean has ever done.

Many people around town know Sean.

As well as teaching from his home studio, he takes lessons at Katikati College, Aquinas College and Tauranga Intermediate. Earlier this year he joined guitarist Mark Wright's band The Eternal Sea and in May they released a debut album. He's only just moved on from that to focus on his own stuff while still playing in covers band Mr Krinkle with Cam Hardcastle and Tayla Hart on vocals, Sam Shirley on bass and drummer Tim Frame.

He's also been doing session work, most recently on Tim Julian's superb ‘Southern Utopia' CD which I reviewed last month.

As far as ‘Pitchblack' goes, Sean's made a few changes: he sold every electric guitar he had, and went back to the one model that started it all for him (take note guitar buffs,
it's an Ibanez JS). How much of a difference that made is hard to judge but, whether it was the guitar or not, for me this is a huge step forward for Sean, and his previous albums have been pretty stunning in their own right!

Although guitarists Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and John Petrucci still get name-checked on
the sleeve, the increased focus on tone, harmony and melody (and less on the shred guitar thing – though there is plenty of jaw-dropping shredding) has allowed Sean to develop and display his own musical voice.

Here he steps out of the shadow of his influences to produce an album of rich variety, from the prog-rock flourishes of opener ‘(Welcome To the) Freak Show' through the deep chordal build of ‘Renee' and swinging hard rock of ‘Eat Me, Beat Me' – enhanced by Tim Julian's keyboards – to the sinuous guitar harmonies of ‘Shutdown'. There are 14 original instrumentals and together they make up the most varied and musically interesting collection Sean has yet released.

Ian Clark drops in to provide bass on five songs but other than that it's all Sean – the guitars, bass, and the drum and synth programming – though the decision to hand over mixing duties to Tim Julian at the Colour Field Studio has helped create a warmer and more three-dimensional sound.

You can obtain your actual physical CDs via Sean's Facebook page. Otherwise ‘Pitchblack' can be found on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, Apple Music and the usual dozens of digital outlets.


The Weekend Sun has two albums to give away to the lucky readers who can tell us one of the schools Sean teaches out of? Enter online at www.sunlive.co.nz under the competitions section. Entries must be received before Wednesday, November 25.

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