EMILY FAIRLIGHT - Mother of Gloom FISH026 LP/CD/ iTunes/ DL
The music on Emily Fairlight’s “Mother of Gloom” album stands its ground alongside the storytelling of Will Oldham and the soundscapes of Calexico. Each song is a timelessly elegant, sometimes distressed, vignette, capturing the essence of a place, memory or feeling, framed by a varied palette musical arrangements leaving space for the imagination between the sounds. Her vocal style - a stark, haunting tone, teak-hard yet soft as crushed velvet, with a powerful vibrato – is as distinctive as her songcraft.
Fairlight has been composing and performing for over a decade now. She has played throughout NZ and Australia, and her third trip to the USA saw her record Mother of Gloom with Doug Walseth at The Cat’s Eye Studio in Austin, Texas, aided by local musicians. The recordings were mixed by Ben Edwards’ at his Sitting Room studios near Lyttelton harbour where New Zealand folk and country sensations Aldous Harding, Delaney Davidson, Marlon Williams and Nadia Reid created their breakout works.
https://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mother-of-gloom
The music on Emily Fairlight’s “Mother of Gloom” album stands its ground alongside the storytelling of Will Oldham and the soundscapes of Calexico. Each song is a timelessly elegant, sometimes distressed, vignette, capturing the essence of a place, memory or feeling, framed by a varied palette musical arrangements leaving space for the imagination between the sounds. Her vocal style - a stark, haunting tone, teak-hard yet soft as crushed velvet, with a powerful vibrato – is as distinctive as her songcraft.
Fairlight has been composing and performing for over a decade now. She has played throughout NZ and Australia, and her third trip to the USA saw her record Mother of Gloom with Doug Walseth at The Cat’s Eye Studio in Austin, Texas, aided by local musicians. The recordings were mixed by Ben Edwards’ at his Sitting Room studios near Lyttelton harbour where New Zealand folk and country sensations Aldous Harding, Delaney Davidson, Marlon Williams and Nadia Reid created their breakout works.
https://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mother-of-gloom
BAD SAV - bad sav FISH024 LP/CD/iTunes/DL
If guitar rock is dead, no-one told Bad Sav. The latest blast of Analogue Dunedin comes from the band that refused to be left behind. Although featuring Death And The Maiden guitarist/vocalist Hope Robertson and bassist/vocalist Lucinda King, plus Shifting Sands guitarist Mike McLeod (on drums here), Bad Sav are the primary strain from which both of those bands sprang.
Bad Sav offer a far more guitar-oriented hard attack; their distinctive filtering and reassembly of influences from shoegaze, psychedelic noise-rock - and goodness knows where else - conjure up a uniquely electrified Dunedin sonic alchemy, bursting with colossal, majestic, melodic noise. https://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/bad-sav
If guitar rock is dead, no-one told Bad Sav. The latest blast of Analogue Dunedin comes from the band that refused to be left behind. Although featuring Death And The Maiden guitarist/vocalist Hope Robertson and bassist/vocalist Lucinda King, plus Shifting Sands guitarist Mike McLeod (on drums here), Bad Sav are the primary strain from which both of those bands sprang.
Bad Sav offer a far more guitar-oriented hard attack; their distinctive filtering and reassembly of influences from shoegaze, psychedelic noise-rock - and goodness knows where else - conjure up a uniquely electrified Dunedin sonic alchemy, bursting with colossal, majestic, melodic noise. https://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/bad-sav
DEATH AND THE MAIDEN - Wisteria FISH022 LP/CD/DL/iTunes
"Wisteria" creates a shadowy world within a world; melancholy melodic synth waves, dreamy reverb washed guitars and vocals celebrate the excruciating beauty and crushing weight of everyday life. Continuing from their eponymous debut, "Wisteria" conjures dreams of love, decay. Sounding at times wispy and ethereal, "Wisteria" also has passages of driving, pulsing cacophony; breathing life into the dreams of the dead.
"This is the perfect soundtrack for the enveloping heat of a new season. Beautiful, scary and endlessly evocative." The Quietus (UK)
"a euphoric urgent post-punk sound that taps straight into a visceral need to nod and sway... "Wisteria" is more gutsy, more beat driven than their 2015 eponymous debut, and an enveloping, whole body experience." Album of the Week, The Listener (NZ)
https://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/wisteria
"Wisteria" creates a shadowy world within a world; melancholy melodic synth waves, dreamy reverb washed guitars and vocals celebrate the excruciating beauty and crushing weight of everyday life. Continuing from their eponymous debut, "Wisteria" conjures dreams of love, decay. Sounding at times wispy and ethereal, "Wisteria" also has passages of driving, pulsing cacophony; breathing life into the dreams of the dead.
"This is the perfect soundtrack for the enveloping heat of a new season. Beautiful, scary and endlessly evocative." The Quietus (UK)
"a euphoric urgent post-punk sound that taps straight into a visceral need to nod and sway... "Wisteria" is more gutsy, more beat driven than their 2015 eponymous debut, and an enveloping, whole body experience." Album of the Week, The Listener (NZ)
https://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/wisteria
THE SHIFTING SANDS - Zoe/ Run 7" single [FISH021]
Recorded in Manny’s Estudio International in East Los Angeles by The Shifting Sands after the band toured the West Coast of the USA supporting David Kilgour and the Heavy Eights, this 7" single continues on from the saturated guitar rock of their Cosmic Radio Station album.
“Essential” Not Unloved
https://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/zoe-run-single
STEF ANIMAL - Top Gear [FISH025 CD/DL/ iTunes /CDBaby]
Stef Animal (The Golden Awesome) presents her debut solo release “Top Gear” - a concept album of fifteen tracks of op-shop mysticism, each conceived and recorded in one session, and each made using a different piece of obsolete or unfashionable music equipment, resulting in a collection of lo-fi epic miniatures.
Even if you didn’t grow up with Atari video games, have no idea what Acorn and Commodore computers are or what acronyms like PCM and MIDI mean, you’ll still find the intricate universe of sound represented on “Top Gear” to be full of adventure, mystery, melancholy and wonder.
https://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/top-gear
Stef Animal (The Golden Awesome) presents her debut solo release “Top Gear” - a concept album of fifteen tracks of op-shop mysticism, each conceived and recorded in one session, and each made using a different piece of obsolete or unfashionable music equipment, resulting in a collection of lo-fi epic miniatures.
Even if you didn’t grow up with Atari video games, have no idea what Acorn and Commodore computers are or what acronyms like PCM and MIDI mean, you’ll still find the intricate universe of sound represented on “Top Gear” to be full of adventure, mystery, melancholy and wonder.
https://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/top-gear
ÈLAN VITAL - Shadow Self [FISH018 LP/CD/DL/iTunes]
The expression Èlan Vital describes the impulse of life. The music on the debut album "Shadow Self" by Dunedin cold-wave trio Èlan Vital represents that life impulse in an ambiguous zone between machine and human worlds. A dense claustrophobic swirl of dark dance-tempo synth-pop blooms from gloomy cold industrial dance music with vocoder vocals into uplifting melodic dream-pop catharsis about memory, longing, and obsession. Èlan Vital take a Gothic Dunedin angle on contemporary European cold-wave synth-pop dance music, layering it on analogue drum machines, then blending in warm psychedelic organ sounds of 1960s garage-psych rock. Distorted, overdriven bass guitar adds a further element of chaos into the mix.
https://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/shadow-self
The expression Èlan Vital describes the impulse of life. The music on the debut album "Shadow Self" by Dunedin cold-wave trio Èlan Vital represents that life impulse in an ambiguous zone between machine and human worlds. A dense claustrophobic swirl of dark dance-tempo synth-pop blooms from gloomy cold industrial dance music with vocoder vocals into uplifting melodic dream-pop catharsis about memory, longing, and obsession. Èlan Vital take a Gothic Dunedin angle on contemporary European cold-wave synth-pop dance music, layering it on analogue drum machines, then blending in warm psychedelic organ sounds of 1960s garage-psych rock. Distorted, overdriven bass guitar adds a further element of chaos into the mix.
https://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/shadow-self
THE PROPHET HENS - The Wonderful Shapes of Back Door Keys [FISH016 LP/CD/DL/iTunes]
The Prophet Hens‘ 2nd album “The Wonderful Shapes of Back Door Keys” is out on 18 August 2016 on Fishrider Records and, in the UK/ Europe on Occultation Recordings. It's an album of melodic jangling guitars, swirling Casio keyboards & the voices of Penelope Esplin and Karl Bray singing uplifting melancholic songs about hope & despair, joy & regret, ambition & reality, coming together & drifting apart.
Also, "Popular People Do Popular People" – the 1st album - is being (re-)issued on LP at the same time as their new album comes out.
https://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-wonderful-shapes-of-back-door-keys
The Prophet Hens‘ 2nd album “The Wonderful Shapes of Back Door Keys” is out on 18 August 2016 on Fishrider Records and, in the UK/ Europe on Occultation Recordings. It's an album of melodic jangling guitars, swirling Casio keyboards & the voices of Penelope Esplin and Karl Bray singing uplifting melancholic songs about hope & despair, joy & regret, ambition & reality, coming together & drifting apart.
Also, "Popular People Do Popular People" – the 1st album - is being (re-)issued on LP at the same time as their new album comes out.
https://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-wonderful-shapes-of-back-door-keys
THE SHIFTING SANDS - Cosmic Radio Station
FISH015 LP/CD/ iTunes
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, this is an album dripping sundazed melody through a shifting haze of fuzzy, chiming guitars, shimmering strings, and vocal harmonies. The cosmic radio station is on air. Tune in… turn on… pop out.
https://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/cosmic-radio-station
“Multi-faceted guitar pop channelling New Zealand’s ‘80s Flying Nun sound… they drift seamlessly from the pulsing pop of “Waiting For The Sun”, with its distinct echoes of the Mary Chain, to the aching, Big Star-like “We All Fall Down”, while “Dreaming to Keep Awake” remodels Sonic Youth’s dissonant wall of guitars as pure pop.” 8/10 Uncut (UK)
FISH015 LP/CD/ iTunes
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, this is an album dripping sundazed melody through a shifting haze of fuzzy, chiming guitars, shimmering strings, and vocal harmonies. The cosmic radio station is on air. Tune in… turn on… pop out.
https://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/cosmic-radio-station
“Multi-faceted guitar pop channelling New Zealand’s ‘80s Flying Nun sound… they drift seamlessly from the pulsing pop of “Waiting For The Sun”, with its distinct echoes of the Mary Chain, to the aching, Big Star-like “We All Fall Down”, while “Dreaming to Keep Awake” remodels Sonic Youth’s dissonant wall of guitars as pure pop.” 8/10 Uncut (UK)
DEATH AND THE MAIDEN - Death And The Maiden
FISH014 LP/CD/ iTunes
On their debut album, Death And The Maiden craft a shadowy sound world, filled with melancholic synth arpeggios, reverb-drenched guitars, and sighing vocal melodies. The combination is both hypnotic and devastating, exploring themes of love, loss, and decay, wrapped in tactile electro-acoustic languor. A party record for heartbroken romantics.
https://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/death-and-the-maiden
“The combination of drum machines, amniotic synth wash and guitars evoke select Hacienda-era Factory bands and the Sheffield Sound... while Lucinda King’s haunting, reverb-drenched vocals generate an incantatory power...” The Corner (NZ)
“an arty synth statement with emotional depth, romantic ennui and a pop sensibility. Recommended.” Elsewhere (NZ)
“A concatenation of echoing lullabies, the album itself is an escape into a dreamworld not only marked by beauty, but also plagued by an eerie sense of decay.” Origami Vinyl (USA)
FISH014 LP/CD/ iTunes
On their debut album, Death And The Maiden craft a shadowy sound world, filled with melancholic synth arpeggios, reverb-drenched guitars, and sighing vocal melodies. The combination is both hypnotic and devastating, exploring themes of love, loss, and decay, wrapped in tactile electro-acoustic languor. A party record for heartbroken romantics.
https://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/death-and-the-maiden
“The combination of drum machines, amniotic synth wash and guitars evoke select Hacienda-era Factory bands and the Sheffield Sound... while Lucinda King’s haunting, reverb-drenched vocals generate an incantatory power...” The Corner (NZ)
“an arty synth statement with emotional depth, romantic ennui and a pop sensibility. Recommended.” Elsewhere (NZ)
“A concatenation of echoing lullabies, the album itself is an escape into a dreamworld not only marked by beauty, but also plagued by an eerie sense of decay.” Origami Vinyl (USA)
T E M P O R A R Y - Selections from Dunedin's Pop Underground 2011 - 2014
FISH013 LP/ CD/ iTunes
A 13 song LP featuring 13 young Dunedin bands. Includes a 'zine of writing, photos & art by and about the bands & scene.
“This is simply a truly great record, more than a mere sampler. 9/10” Norman Records (UK)
"these are bands making startling alternative pop records" Sunday Star Times (NZ)
“each track its own tightly contained mini-masterpiece… a must-listen for any after musical expansion.” Get Into This (UK)
“We found ourselves wanting to hear more from pretty much every band here, which is a rarity with comps and makes this one very very recommended!” Aquarius Records, San Francisco
“Get hold of a copy and keep it safe…” The Listener (NZ)
Available here: http://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/t-e-m-p-o-r-a-r-y
FISH013 LP/ CD/ iTunes
A 13 song LP featuring 13 young Dunedin bands. Includes a 'zine of writing, photos & art by and about the bands & scene.
“This is simply a truly great record, more than a mere sampler. 9/10” Norman Records (UK)
"these are bands making startling alternative pop records" Sunday Star Times (NZ)
“each track its own tightly contained mini-masterpiece… a must-listen for any after musical expansion.” Get Into This (UK)
“We found ourselves wanting to hear more from pretty much every band here, which is a rarity with comps and makes this one very very recommended!” Aquarius Records, San Francisco
“Get hold of a copy and keep it safe…” The Listener (NZ)
Available here: http://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/t-e-m-p-o-r-a-r-y
TRICK MAMMOTH - Floristry
FISH012 LP/ CD/ iTunes
Trick Mammoth are a flower cult pop band from Dunedin. Fragile, lucid, their songs are unintentionally sincere & bashfully honest, performed with open arms & a soft indifference. Drawing mostly on film, literature & poetry, their music has a shy pretension buried under layers of simplicity.
“Trick Mammoth recall the similarly sunny bands of early-mid 80s – think Orange Juice or The Pastels…but they bring an unassailable energy to proceedings, and the interplay between Adrian Ng and Millie Lovelock’s vocals is utterly charming. A quiet gem.” Duncan Grieve, North & South magazine (NZ)
Available here: http://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/floristry
FISH012 LP/ CD/ iTunes
Trick Mammoth are a flower cult pop band from Dunedin. Fragile, lucid, their songs are unintentionally sincere & bashfully honest, performed with open arms & a soft indifference. Drawing mostly on film, literature & poetry, their music has a shy pretension buried under layers of simplicity.
“Trick Mammoth recall the similarly sunny bands of early-mid 80s – think Orange Juice or The Pastels…but they bring an unassailable energy to proceedings, and the interplay between Adrian Ng and Millie Lovelock’s vocals is utterly charming. A quiet gem.” Duncan Grieve, North & South magazine (NZ)
Available here: http://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/floristry
MALES - Run Run Run/MalesMalesMales
FISH011 LP/ CD/ iTunes
Males are a guitar pop band from Dunedin, making ‘garage pop’ - insanely catchy short songs, crammed with melody, propulsive guitar, falsetto vocals & harmonies. This debut mini-album collects together their first EP, a single & four brand new songs into one convenient bag of helium-powered pop treats.
"This double EP gathers nine effortlessly hummable power-pop gems, including golden early single So High and future summer anthem Lucky Too. Singer/guitarist Richard Ley-Hamilton's secret weapons are his chiming, precision-tooled riffs and a joyous falsetto, which are just the job over Sam Valentine's propulsive basslines" **** Sunday Star Times (NZ)
Available here: http://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/run-run-run-malesmalesmales
FISH011 LP/ CD/ iTunes
Males are a guitar pop band from Dunedin, making ‘garage pop’ - insanely catchy short songs, crammed with melody, propulsive guitar, falsetto vocals & harmonies. This debut mini-album collects together their first EP, a single & four brand new songs into one convenient bag of helium-powered pop treats.
"This double EP gathers nine effortlessly hummable power-pop gems, including golden early single So High and future summer anthem Lucky Too. Singer/guitarist Richard Ley-Hamilton's secret weapons are his chiming, precision-tooled riffs and a joyous falsetto, which are just the job over Sam Valentine's propulsive basslines" **** Sunday Star Times (NZ)
Available here: http://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/run-run-run-malesmalesmales
THE PROPHET HENS - Popular People Do Popular People
FISH010 CD/ iTunes
Hatched from Dunedin's dreamy but dark 21st century pop underground, The Prophet Hens bring a ghostly reminder of the decaying southern city's musical past, when bands crafted melodic, chiming jangle-pop in seedy bars.
“perfectly encapsulates the big bold ambition of Dunedin music with the quiet drama of isolation on a South Pacific island: part Chills organ-drenched pop, part bedroom angst” Did Not Chart (UK)
Available here: https://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/popular-people-do-popular-people
FISH010 CD/ iTunes
Hatched from Dunedin's dreamy but dark 21st century pop underground, The Prophet Hens bring a ghostly reminder of the decaying southern city's musical past, when bands crafted melodic, chiming jangle-pop in seedy bars.
“perfectly encapsulates the big bold ambition of Dunedin music with the quiet drama of isolation on a South Pacific island: part Chills organ-drenched pop, part bedroom angst” Did Not Chart (UK)
Available here: https://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/popular-people-do-popular-people
FACTORY STAR - New Sacral
FISH009 10" LP/ CD
Led by The Fall/ Blue Orchids founder Martin Bramah, Factory Star return with six songs channeling the Dark Spark. The combination of Bramah’s distinctive guitar style and lyrical flights, along with swirling, hypnotic keyboards, is reminiscent of Blue Orchids at their most potent.
“Crackingly good…” Otago Daily Times
Co-released by Occultation Recordings (UK) and Fishrider Records.
Available here: https://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/new-sacral
FISH009 10" LP/ CD
Led by The Fall/ Blue Orchids founder Martin Bramah, Factory Star return with six songs channeling the Dark Spark. The combination of Bramah’s distinctive guitar style and lyrical flights, along with swirling, hypnotic keyboards, is reminiscent of Blue Orchids at their most potent.
“Crackingly good…” Otago Daily Times
Co-released by Occultation Recordings (UK) and Fishrider Records.
Available here: https://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/new-sacral
THE SHIFTING SANDS - Feel
FISH008 CD/ iTunes
Alternating between dreamy and urgent hyper-melodic jangle-pop, Feel began as a Michael McLeod solo album. Along the way many of Dunedin’s finest musicians, including David Kilgour (The Clean), Robert Scott (The Clean, The Bats), Robbie Yeats (The Verlaines, The Dead C) & Lesley Paris (Look Blue Go Purple) became involved, and the current lineup of The Shifting Sands formed.
“an album of beautifully-textured psychedelic pop” Otago Daily Times
Available here: https://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/feel
FISH008 CD/ iTunes
Alternating between dreamy and urgent hyper-melodic jangle-pop, Feel began as a Michael McLeod solo album. Along the way many of Dunedin’s finest musicians, including David Kilgour (The Clean), Robert Scott (The Clean, The Bats), Robbie Yeats (The Verlaines, The Dead C) & Lesley Paris (Look Blue Go Purple) became involved, and the current lineup of The Shifting Sands formed.
“an album of beautifully-textured psychedelic pop” Otago Daily Times
Available here: https://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/feel
THE PUDDLE - Secret Holiday/ Victory Blues
FISH007 LP/ CD/ iTunes
The 7th album by The Puddle is two proposed 5-track EPs recorded a year apart & pulled together into one cohesive album. Their 1986-93 Flying Nun Records catalogue is long out of print but this album (their 4th on Fishrider since 2007) is George D. Henderson’s best in a storied career as the lost prophet of NZ underground pop.
“articulate, challenging pop tunes…this assured album traverses a good deal of territory - one of The Puddle’s finest efforts.” Otago Daily Times
“a tribute to an artist’s spirit to soldier on in the face of adversity – and complete their mission. More!” The Big Takeover (USA)
Available here: https://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/secret-holiday-victory-blues
FISH007 LP/ CD/ iTunes
The 7th album by The Puddle is two proposed 5-track EPs recorded a year apart & pulled together into one cohesive album. Their 1986-93 Flying Nun Records catalogue is long out of print but this album (their 4th on Fishrider since 2007) is George D. Henderson’s best in a storied career as the lost prophet of NZ underground pop.
“articulate, challenging pop tunes…this assured album traverses a good deal of territory - one of The Puddle’s finest efforts.” Otago Daily Times
“a tribute to an artist’s spirit to soldier on in the face of adversity – and complete their mission. More!” The Big Takeover (USA)
Available here: https://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/secret-holiday-victory-blues
OPPOSITE SEX - Opposite Sex
FISH006 - LP/ CD/ iTunes
The sound of this trio is, they say, “an absurdist-logico mix of Euro-pop, Beat poetry, and subterranean lo-fi adventuring.” Although their music ranges from oddly poppy carnival waltzes through to manic and melodic post-punk and no wave this is no retro exercise. The album is their own unique genre-defying trip through the experimental pop underground of their imaginations.
“The new wave of New Zealand pop begins here...it’s remarkable, leaping from sea-sick waltzes & crunchy post-punk to ADD-pop.” **** Uncut
“I absolutely adore it. It's going to be in my top five albums of the year definitely.“ Marc Riley, BBC 6 Music
Available here: https://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/opposite-sex
FISH006 - LP/ CD/ iTunes
The sound of this trio is, they say, “an absurdist-logico mix of Euro-pop, Beat poetry, and subterranean lo-fi adventuring.” Although their music ranges from oddly poppy carnival waltzes through to manic and melodic post-punk and no wave this is no retro exercise. The album is their own unique genre-defying trip through the experimental pop underground of their imaginations.
“The new wave of New Zealand pop begins here...it’s remarkable, leaping from sea-sick waltzes & crunchy post-punk to ADD-pop.” **** Uncut
“I absolutely adore it. It's going to be in my top five albums of the year definitely.“ Marc Riley, BBC 6 Music
Available here: https://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/opposite-sex
For a full list of Fishrider records releases visit our Bandcamp site here: https://fishriderrecords.bandcamp.com/
