“Moat” by Wurld Series

Our Day 25 song for 31 Days of May Madness, attempting to post a New Zealand track every day of the month of May, is “Moat” by Wurld Series:

It’s hard to pick just one song from the glorious album “What’s Growing” to represent it. But “Moat” mixes some of the sweetest soaring lead guitar lines (courtesy of Adam Hattaway) with woozy mellotron atmosphere.

That combination of brilliant lead guitar lines and the pastoral psychedelia of the mellotron is as good a sonic calling card for the wonky guitar-pop/ psych-folk of Wurld Series. Then there’s the enchanting songwriting and Luke Towart’s bemused delivery of skewed elliptical philosophical lyrics.

It may initially sound to be under the influence of Pavement and Guided by Voices (Tobin Sprout era), but the more you play it, and the more thoroughly this set of songs embeds in your subconscious, the more this takes on a charming homespun form of its own.  

“What’s Growing” is one of the highlights of 2021. Every home should have one.

“Supplication” by Wurld Series

Here’s the second single shared ahead of the March release of the Wurld Series album “What’s Growing”… something from the other side of the Wurld Series universe. “Supplication” reveals a surprise pastoral psychedelic folk side of the Christchurch band:

Wurld Series has been creating little gems of EPs for a few years now. Previous releases were generally on the lo-to-medium-fidelity end of the spectrum; perfect for the DIY melodic pop with fuzzy wandering lead guitar lines.

This time their “Pavement-y” influence is less of the slacker pop style and more the wonky melodic psych-folk element of that band (and a bit of Brit-Psych-Folk too). The loopy off-kilter lead guitar is replaced by various mellotron and flute sounds. It’s charming and different and sounds like there’s more of this once the full album is released next month:

“The songs contained in What’s Growing are submerged within reeling guitar, hypnotic mellotron and meditative drones. Lyrical themes include post apocalyptic living, extraterrestrial visitation, TV game show monsters and the workplace as a dreamlike medieval dystopia. At times traces of Tall Dwarfs or The 3Ds can be heard. More obvious American 90’s indie rock influences are also evident, alongside a clear strain of unsettling, pastoral British psych folk that runs throughout the album. What’s Growing is a compact statement of intent; a collage of full-noise indie rock recordings and minimal, psychedelic, and homespun artefacts.”

There are still some LPs available to pre-order but it may be best to pre-order soon if you want to make sure you get a copy of the LP in March.

“Nap Gate” by Wurld Series

Posted this song “Nap Gate” last year when it was released as a single, but now it is the first track shared ahead of the March release of the Wurld Series album “What’s Growing” so here it is again, as a fitting semi-psychedelic-Sunday aural feast:

Wurld Series has been creating little gems of EPs for a few years now. Previous releases were generally on the lo-to-medium-fidelity end of the spectrum; perfect for the DIY melodic pop with fuzzy wandering lead guitar lines.

Sure, they have always had a “Pavement-y” kind of slacker guitar pop vibe, as much from the low key singing of Wurld Series songwriter/ guitarist/ vocalist Luke Towart. But the music also weaves in a bit of the loopy off-kilter style of lead guitar that local 90s legends the 3Ds were known for (and who arguably influenced Pavement) as well as the fuzzy melodic feel-good factor from Teenage Fanclub’s “Bandwagonesque” album.

“Nap Gate” is less lo-fi than some of the previous recordings but packs all the familiar ingredients. The lead guitar parts here – from Adam Hattaway – are spectacular too, which should be no surprise if you have listened to the Adam Hattaway and the Haunters album “All Dat Love”.

The Wurld Series band is from Christchurch, NZ (the original home of Flying Nun Records) and has always had a revolving line up from release to release. Towart now sees Wurld Series as “less of a band and more of a music-making guild, with a changing line-up that depends on who is present for recording sessions at the band’s lock-up space in the industrial suburb of Woolston.”

Roll on the release of “What’s Growing” in March in a limited LP run. Here’s what they say the album contains:

“The songs contained in What’s Growing are submerged within reeling guitar, hypnotic mellotron and meditative drones. Lyrical themes include post apocalyptic living, extraterrestrial visitation, TV game show monsters and the workplace as a dreamlike medieval dystopia. At times traces of Tall Dwarfs or The 3Ds can be heard. More obvious American 90’s indie rock influences are also evident, alongside a clear strain of unsettling, pastoral British psych folk that runs throughout the album. What’s Growing is a compact statement of intent; a collage of full-noise indie rock recordings and minimal, psychedelic, and homespun artefacts.”

It’s an understatement to say “What’s Growing” promises a diverse range of intriguing sounds. Based on the reliability of every previous Wurld Series release it’s definitely worth considering pre-ordering now if you want to ensure a copy of the LP in March.

“Turn Out The Lights” by Water

Auckland band Water have an album called “Supa” out next month. Here’s the opening track “Turn Out the Lights” to insinuate its way into your senses with a winning mix of jangling rhythm guitar and snaking saturated fuzz lead guitar.

If your favourite bands are Wurld Series and Kool Aid (current bands from Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand) and Pavement (1990s US band who were influenced by bands from New Zealand) and then Water is perfect for you.

Wurld Series and Kool Aid feature inter-changeable line-ups of overlapping band members from the Christchurch scene. Water are also made up of members of other past and present Auckland bands, like Rackets (Oscar Davies-Kay and Vince Nairn),  Eyes No Eyes, and Couchmaster (Rikki Sutton), Surf City (Mike Ellis), Nae Nae Express (Mason Fairey), The Mint Chicks (Joel BB) and Greenfog (Elliot Lawless).

Fuzz + Jangle + Melody = Water.

“TY Duncan” by Wurld Series

Shop display of re-purposed NZ Music Month poster at Too Tone Records (2010-2017) in Dunedin.

Our New Zealand Music Month treat for day 13 is the fuzzed-up guitar splendour of Christchurch band Wurld Series. Here’s “TY Duncan” from their recent digital single:

“TY Duncan” is an out-take from the “Stately & Befrothed” sessions. Wurld Series have had a morphing line-up obver the years but this song predates the current line-up of guitarist and vocalist Luke Towart with Adam Hattaway (lead guitar), Emma Hattaway (bass) and the ubiquitous Brian Feary (drums), so substitute Abi Macilquham for Emma, and Ben Woods for Adam and you have last year’s “Stately & Bethrothed” ear model. Confusing? Well, that’s rock’n’roll, Christchurch style.

What stays consistent with Wurld Series through the line-up changes is the loping nonchalant off-kilter melodic fuzzy guitar wonderfulness.

“Nap Gate” by Wurld Series

Continuing on from yesterday’s stellar album by Christchurch’s Adam Hattaway And The Haunters, here’s another new – and closely related – release from the Melted Ice Cream stable from Wurld Series. It’s a new single “Nap Eyes”.

[Note: The single release this post originally linked to has been taken down, so this is the track on the “What’s Growing” album announced for release March 2021]

There’s a bunch of familiar names from yesterday’s post. Joining guitarist and vocalist Luke Towart is Adam Hattaway (lead guitar), Emma Hattaway (bass) and the ubiquitous Brian Feary (drums).

“Nap Gate” – which will feature on the second Wurld Series album later this year – is one of the best sounding Wurld Series tunes to date. It’s less lo-fi than some of the previous recordings but packs all the familiar ingredients. Hattaway’s lead guitar parts here are spectacular too, which should be no surprise if you listened to the song from his solo album featured in the previous PopLib post yesterday.

The B-Side is an out-take from the “Stately & Befrothed” sessions. Both songs on this single are typically glorious slices of the fuzzy guitar-driven pop we’ve come to expect from Wurld Series.  Roll on the release of “What’s Growing”.

“Slow Going” by Wurld Series

Christchurch fuzz-pop band Wurld Series are back with a six song EP called “Stately and Befrothed” which is coming out on cassette (and digital download) on 4 July. Here’s one of two songs shared ahead of the release – “Slow Going”

They say “This is the new EP by Wurld Series of Christchurch, New Zealand. It follows last year’s album ‘Air Goofy’” and describe the EP as “a sprawling, post-debut-album short form exploration continuing in the tradition of Lilys’ ‘A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns’ or ‘Watery, Domestic’ by Pavement.”

We say this is exactly what we’d like to hear more of. The tone of that fuzzy, tremolo guitar is like, well, music to our ears. The song has a relaxed walking pace, good natured melody and certainly carries off that woozy Pavement-esque vibe with a bit of je ne sais quoi of its own.

Given that Pavement were hugely influenced by South Island NZ guitar pop back in the day, this kind of re-filtering into the local vernacular of true-life Christchurch DIY recordings is admirable cultural re-appropriation.

It’s out on Melted Ice Cream and that cassette sure looks like a collectible analogue thing, so don’t dilly dally.

“Second Hit” by Wurld Series

Day 20 of our 31 Days of May New Zealand Music Month marathon comes from Christchurch lo-fi fuzz pop specialists Wurld Series and the opening track of their “Air Goofy” album. Here’s “Second Hit”

“Second Hit” is a good introduction to the Christchurch band if you haven’t discovered them before. A blast of fuzzy guitars with a bit of tremolo and a lot of 3Ds style wild guitar shredding solos, all recorded on a 4-track cassette portastudio is mostly what we associate with Wurld Series.  However the album also unfolds with unexpected twists and turns into more experimental psychedelic pop and odd sound-collage pieces.

As an added Wurld Series bonus, here they are caught live on Lo and Behold.

As an extra added bonus, here’s their recent Live-To-Air session on Dunedin’s Radio One:

“Rip KF” by Wurld Series

Christchurch guitar-botherers Wurld Series are back with a full-length album called “Air Goofy”, fittingly available on cassette. Here’s the second song “Rip KF” for you:

It’s ‘fittingly’ on cassette because it was recorded on cassette, via a Tascam 424 4-track cassette recorder, staple of a generation of bedroom DIY artists in previous decades, and it seems again today.

As we’ve heard from previous tunes and EPs and songs like “Orkly Kid” and “Rabbit” which are both included here, the spirit of early rough-genius Pavement is undeniably strong in Wurld Series at times – twisting fuzzed out guitars and stream of unconscious life lyrical flights.  But so is the spirit of the 3-Ds from closer to home, who arguably influenced Pavement with their eccentric lead guitar shapes and angles atop lurching fuzzed out guitar skronk-pop.

If “Rip KF” – complete with shared lead vocal between guitarist/ vocalist Luke Towart and guest vocalist Tyne Gordon – represents the more middle-of-a-rough-road-to-nowhere melodic guitar pop side of “Air Goofy” then there’s much variety on either side of that median. Check out the thrilling “LT’s Struggle” for an alternative example.

Another great addition to both the Wurld Series and the Melted Ice Cream label catalogues. Don’t just take PopLib’s word for it. UK music blog Did Not Chart has also been singing the praises of this rough diamond.

 

 

“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”: