Death And The Maiden
(Fishrider - FISH014) CD $15.00 (Out-of-stock)
(Fishrider - FISH014) LP $24.00 (Out-of-stock)
Inspired by The Chromatics and Munch’s famous engraving after which they’re named, bassist / vocalist Lucinda King and Danny Brady on synthesizer and drum programming initially sought to make their own style of hazy Italo-pop, but ended up with something much darker. With guitarist / drummer Hope Robertson, the group fills their shadowy sound world with Rohypnol drums, melancholic synth arpeggios, reverb-drenched guitars, and sighing vocal melodies. This hypnotic album, wrapped in tactile electro-acoustic languor, was recorded in the cavernous rooms of Dunedin’s None Gallery, a spiritual home to many of New Zealand’s experimental and electronic upstarts.
Run Run Run / Males Males Males
(Fishrider - FISH11) CD $12.00 (Out-of-stock)
(Fishrider - FISH11) LP $20.25 (Out-of-stock)
This garage pop band from Dunedin, New Zealand crams insanely catchy, short songs with melody, propulsive guitar, helium vocals and harmonies.
Opposite Sex
(Fishrider - FISH006) LP $24.00 (Out-of-stock)
This New Zealand trio’s debut leaps from sea-sick waltzes and crunchy post-punk to ADD pop. Genre-defying, half-melted, and t-t-t-trippy.
Wonderful Shapes Of Back Door Keys
(Fishrider - FISH016) CD $15.00 (Out-of-stock)
(Fishrider - FISH016) LP $20.00 (Out-of-stock)
Album number two by this NZ group, favorably compared previously to both The Chills and Belle And Sebastian, doubles-down on tunefulness courtesy of bassist Robin Cederman’s adventurous songwriting and keyboard player Penelope Esplin’s lead vocals. Strong melodies,and richly detailed, dramatic storylines complement the melancholy and exuberance of Karl Bray’s minor key pop numbers. Their teasing guitar intros, jangling chord progressions woven through swirling fairground keyboards, and reflective lyrics chime as strong as your classic UK jangle pop and vintage REM.
Popular People Do Popular People
(Fishrider - FISH010) CD $15.00 (Out-of-stock)
(Fishrider - FISH010) LP $20.00 (Out-of-stock)
Hatched from New Zealand’s dreamy but dark 21st century pop underground, and marinated in the melodic sounds of that mostly fictional “Dunedin Sound” — The Chills, The Bats, Magick Heads, a little bit of The Clean and The Orange — The Prophet Hens are a ghostly reminder of the decaying southern city’s musical past. Big, bold ambition with the quiet drama of isolation; organ-drenched pop, bedroom angst.
THE PUDDLE / ROBERT SCOTT / ADALITA SRSEN
That's What I Heard b/w Average Sensual Man
(Fishrider - FISH004) split 7-inch $12.75 (Out-of-stock)
New Zealand’s reigning ambassador of strum Robert Scott (The Clean, The Bats, Magick Heads) duets with Magic Dirt’s pop-rock powerhouse Adalita Srsen for the rustic “That’s What I Heard,” described by Still Single as charming and heartfelt, “nothing but sweet, full-sounding acoustic guitar, tambourine, and … two beautiful voices complementing one another.” On the flip, The Puddle’s slightly out-of-character “Average Sensual Man” delivers some underground cabaret psych-pop, Dunedin-style, with guests Al Starrett on accordion and viola, and vocalist Sharon Cunningham imbuing the track with a smokey jazz vibe. Both tracks are exclusive to this release.
Playboys In The Bush
(Fishrider - FISH005) CD $15.00 (Out-of-stock)
(Fishrider - FISH005) LP $24.00 (Out-of-stock)
Sixth album to be released by Dunedin underground psych-pop band (although it’s the third they recorded). Fans of Pavement and 1990s American slack can squint and see the southern-hemisphere brotherhood of nonchalance.
Secret Holiday / Victory Blues
(Fishrider - FISH007) CD $15.00 (Out-of-stock)
(Fishrider - FISH007) LP $24.00 (Out-of-stock)
The seventh album by New Zealand underground psych-pop legends.
No Love – No Hate
(Fishrider - FISH002) CD $15.00 (Out-of-stock)
The Puddle have been around, in one form or another, since 1984, attracting critical appreciation and notoriety in equal measures for “pop as shambling and sweet as you could possibly imagine.” That is, when this unique New Zealand underground music institution’s strange odyssey wasn’t getting derailed (which it was, frequently). No Love - No Hate is George Henderson’s great leap forward, recorded in the 1990s but not released in 2009. The Puddle’s idiosyncratic character and wry, fuzzy delivery is infectious.
The Shakespeare Monkey
(Fishrider - FISH003) CD $15.00 (Out-of-stock)
The second of the Puddle’s albums following their 2006 comeback — a sprawling masterpiece of wigged out dreamy indie-pop. Articulate and well-read, George Henderson’s typified literate guitar music in the 1980s and ’90s New Zealand.
Cosmic Radio Station
(Fishrider - FISH015) CD $15.00 (Out-of-stock)
(Fishrider - FISH015) LP $24.00 (Out-of-stock)
Beamed into the Pacific ether from a woolshed and a tumbledown house perched on the hills above Port Chalmers during a period of heightened solar flare and aurora activity, Cosmic Radio Station “delves into the angular, chiming, hypnotic drone-pop of the city’s early-’80s Flying Nun clan,” according to the Otago Daily Times, “in more psychedelic shades.” The Shifting Sands drip sun-dazed melody through a shifting haze of fuzzy, chiming guitars, shimmering strings, and vocal harmonies.
Feel
(Fishrider - FISH008) CD $15.00 (Out-of-stock)
Weightless, naturalistic psychedelia that updates angular, chiming, hypnotic drone-pop with injections of synthesizer and sitar, effectively turning The Flying Nun Sound on its head, alternating between the dreamy and the urgent. Michael McLeod (ex-The Alpha State) with guests aplenty: David Kilgour (The Clean), Robert Scott (The Clean, The Bats), Robbie Yeats (The Verlaines, The Dead C), Lesley Paris (Look Blue Go Purple), and Tony de Raad and Tom Bell (David Kilgour & the Heavy Eights).
Floristry
(Fishrider - FISH012) LP $24.00 (Out-of-stock)
(Fishrider - FISH012) Used CD $5.00
The songs of this fragile, lucid but rough-around-the-edges flower cult pop band from Dunedin, New Zealand are unintentionally sincere and bashfully honest, performed with open arms and a soft indifference. With comparisons ranging from Black Tambourine to The Carpenters, Trick Mammoth have crafted a sound saccharine sweet yet doused in death. Sealed