“Shirley In The Sun” by Wurld Series

Wurld Series have an “Anthology” out on Portland, US tape label Voyager Golden Records. Hard to pick just one song from an absolutely stellar collection of DIY recorded guitar pop, but “Shirley in the Sun” here caught the ear with its homespun psychedelia.

“Anthology” is a cassette release. “Professionally dubbed” it says proudly, as if to differentiate itself from the home taping which was killing the music industry in the 1980s. (That’s a joke by the way. Anyone who made or shared cassette tapes in the 1980s knows this was how the music you didn’t hear on radio stations was shared around and discovered, and we cassette makers and sharers also hoovered up 7″ singles 12″ EPs and LPs like they were going out of fashion. Which they did by the mid 1990s. But they are back now. As are cassettes. It’s a long story.)

“Anthology”  ticks all the boxes for fans of lo-fi home-recorded pop, and triangulates its sound roughly within reference points like Pavement, Guided By Voices and The Clean. Of course, it’s not that simple and the undercurrent I hear most strongly here is a very NZ (or maybe Australasian) take on British psychedelic pop. So there’s a bit of The Kinks and The Who and even more obscure psych-nuggets. Have a listen and see what you reckon.

While we are on the subject of possible influences or inspirations, Wurld Series have recently thought about their Top 5 NZ songs for The Wireless. I can’t fault their selection or what they say about one of their picks – “Own Two Feet” by The Jean Paul Sartre Experience.

Oh, here’s a video for another song from the album. It’s called “Rabbit”:

‘Dust From Your Eyes’ by Shunkan

Shunkan (from the Shunkan Facebook page)

Day 5 of the May month of NZ music madness comes from Invercargill NZ via Los Angeles USA and Weymouth UK.

I introduced Shunkan (pronounced ‘Shoonkan’) here a few weeks ago. At the time I was intrigued by the fully-realised bedroom DIY noise-pop emanating from this 20 year old Invercargill resident. I know a bit more now. While the fact she re-located to Invercargill from LA does help explain the music a bit more, it also adds to the mystery & intrigue.

In any case THIS is the song which first grabbed my attention when her Weymouth, UK based label Art is Hard Records sent me a streaming link to the whole EP last month.

The voice and noises here initially are such a huge reminder of the odd beauty of that first Dear Time’s Waste EP but ‘Dust From Your Eyes’ soon goes off-road into a perfect feral wilderness of noise & emotion.

The cassette tape release is sold out already but the digital release happens today 5 May (UK time). A bargain.

‘Matariki Mayhem’ by Fantails

Here’s the selection for day 9 of the PopLib New Zealand Music Month 31 Days of May challenge of buying something each day from Bandcamp. This time it’s a cassette tape with a free EP download from Wellington punk trio Fantails.

According to their Bandcamp page “Fantails are: Charlie – drums; Na – Bass; Sarsha – Gat and vox. Fast punk with diggable poppy leanings, masked with some heaviness. Politically motivated lyrics sung in English, Maori and French make Fantails Fantails.”

That also makes Fantails unique. The lyrics are borderline indecipherable but I think I read the cassette comes with a lyric sheet. It is exactly as described and it’s great. Nothing longer than 2 minutes, a couple of songs don’t even pass the one minute mark.

The music is heavy, fast, skilfully executed and suitably abrasive. Yet there’s also melody and playfulness in these songs too. If you like Street Chant, Fantails are a concentrated dose of the same medicine, only less self-absorbed and more activist in their outlook.

There’s some substance behind the punk attitude too. An informative blog gives their insight into the socio-political context of punk and linking through to other bands, books and activities (‘zines!)

The cassette and a 7” lathe-cut of the EP are also available through Wellington label Epic Sweep, who have released a very eclectic catalogue of limited editions in many formats now, most of them selling out pretty quickly.

Fantails play at Queens in Dunedin on Friday night 10 May 2013. I’ll probably be there.