The Reduction Agents are an oddity in today’s world of pop music: they play catchy songs but without resorting to clichéd lyrics and repetitive musical structures.

The first twinklings of the band began when James Milne originally picked up a guitar in Christchurch (New Zealand) and decided that he may as well become quite good at playing it. This led to him joining the Brunettes, with whom he toured the US last year. He also contributed a song, “You Beautiful Militant,” to their album (Mars Loves Venus). Whilst with the Brunettes, Milne played at the Meridith Festival (Australia) and returned to this event when he played bass as a member of US band, Okkervil River in December 2005. He continued to play bass for Okkervil River and also supported them as a solo act (under the name, Lawrence Arabia) for their tour of Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Adelaide.

Meanwhile, he had found himself veering away from the Brunettes – possibly due to his light golden (rather than brunette) hair or his propensity to dress in fancy Arabian garb. Since he was leaving anyway, he decided to take the drummer, Ryan McPhun with him (okay, so, that’s not really what happened…). He also brought together two of his Christchurch music scene alumni – Ben Eldridge (guitar/keyboards) and Jolyon Mulholland (bass) – to complete “The Reduction Agents.” The band was driven by a set of songs that Milne had written and developed over the previous decade and quickly became a mainstay on the Auckland scene. The strength of the band was partly driven by the fact that each member was an experienced musician and singer in their own right – McPhun leads The Ruby Suns, Mulholland leads Gasoline Cowboy, and Eldridge is a core member of the Heavy Jones Trio. This meant that when it came to recording the Reduction Agents album, the band could simply go into a studio and play – a miraculous technique that apparently was common in the sixties when musicians didn’t require endless overdubs in order to play a set of chords in a row. In fact, they didn’t quite make it into an actual studio – though they recorded in a set of rooms they adjoin The Lab in Auckland, as well as in the foyer.

The result is The Dance Reduction Agents – a collection of rock songs in a classic vein (though not the kind of classic that you would find on old time hits stations, obviously). “Waiting For Your Love” is the kind of hit single that other lesser bands would’ve put at the start of their album, rather than burying it third to last. “80s Celebration,” “Urban Yard” and “The Pool” have already enjoyed strong airplay on New Zealand student radio stations and the latter two reached number one on the national “Alternative Airplay” charts.