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Pangolin Band came together in 2002 in Melbourne, Australia. The band originally consisted of Paul Hughan (guitar), Barry Mason (drums), and Gerrit Thomson (bass). On their rousing debut TRB, right from the starting line until the curtain drops, they offer you an incredibly tasteful and diverse array of rock music. To say it is more than just rock music is an understatement. They mix compelling measures of rock, blues, jazz, jam, fusion, well you name it, they draw from an eclectic wellspring of influences and carefully mold it and shape it, enlist some nice alluring female vocals to their sound, then magic happens. TRB features well-known Melbourne funk and soul singer Kylie Auldist (Brown Hornet, Bomba, Renee Geyer, Small Fish Deep Sea), and solo artist Wendy Rule. They come up with something so appealing and different that you will feel obligated to turn on anyone within your circle of friends and family on to their unique and compelling sound. The basic tracks, cut mostly in one take without click tracks and with minimal editing, sound fresh and innovative. The results preserve some of the flexibility and spontaneity of jazz, without losing the strong song structures.
Pangolin Band's music is equal parts rawness and lushness, like a panorama of Australian summer sky seen through a bug-spattered windscreen on the lazy rush of a car trip to the beach. Serenity is a word not often associated with rock music, but it is readily apparent in the sound of the Pangolin Band. They swing from delicate to thunderous like the Smashing Pumpkins' good twin and have the luster and spaciousness of the Cocteau Twins and The Church, but with the rock and roll thud and jazzy clatter of the great power trios such as Cream and The Hendrix Experience. Overlying this is the influence of global grooves from bossa-nova to Afro-pop, and bubbling beneath it, showing through in the side slipping chord progressions, is a hint of the addictive sourness of Flamenco and Eastern European music. Throw in the iridescent chord voicing of Allan Holdsworth and Bill Connors, and a bit of distant Shoegazer thunder, and you have the complex mix that is Pangolin Band. Like the landscapes and sensations of the Australian summer that they evoke, Pangolin Band has a huge energy that can become trancelike. TRB is only beginning for this musical marvel from down under. What you will hear may be many things, but one thing is certain, you will not be able to put your finger on the pulse of this band with just one listen.
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Paul Hughan
Paul Hughan has followed a long and winding musical path.
He has classical training (a Bachelor of Music from Melbourne University) and makes a living as a guitar teacher, but his main focus has always been electric music.
He has worked with a country-rock band, with acoustic Soul-Blues band Mink, (which performed as support for people such as Chris Wilson, Joe Camilleri and Geoff Achison), and with power-pop band Zentaxis. At one time he focused on playing solo guitar, with a repertoire from players such as Leo Kottke, Pierre Bensusan and Bert Jansch, and recently arranged music and performed for a Flamenco version of Carmen.
This band, however, represents for him a chance to bring all his interests together in one powerful alloy. He approaches the electric guitar as a pool of complex possibilities, from classical style counterpoint to Flamenco drive to bluesy wail to pure sound. Sometimes it sounds exactly like a guitar is supposed to sound, at others it mystifies listeners into thinking that keyboards are present when there are none.
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Gerrit Thomson
As a drummer, guitarist, singer and bass player, Gerrit approaches Pangolin Band's music with a keen sense of the harmonic complexities and the detailed arrangements.
Depending on the song, he crafts his bass lines with an awareness of Hard Rock, Motown soul, Jazz Fusion and South African Mbaquanga (township jive).
The result is that his bass provides lines that become an integral second voice in the band, counterpointing and playing off the guitar parts, as well as supplying some serious bottom end drive, to create a power trio sound that appears much fuller than a three piece.
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Matthew Rose
Pangolin's newest member Matthew Rose is an experienced drummer who brings to the fold a blend of precision and groove formed out of eclectic influences ranging from the complex progressive rock stylings of Rush and Yes, to the sophisticated jazz rock of Steely Dan and Frank Zappa, to the funk of James Brown, Earth Wind & Fire, and Jamiroquai, and everything in between. More recently, he has found himself inspired by many of the famous American session drummers of the 70s and 80s, to whom he credits with bringing more versatility and maturity to his playing. Though still a relative newcomer to Melbourne and the Australian music scene altogether, in his short career he has produced a solid resume as a longtime member of Deborah Hocking's touring and recording band, as well as having recorded with Cinematic and ex-Blowflies frontman Neil Robertson.
Past Members and Guest Artists.
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