Fishrider Records is based in Dunedin, New Zealand and is dedicated to releasing occasional albums of literate melodic underground psych-pop, no wave and whatever else takes our fancy.
New Zealand’s Fishrider Records and UK-based Occultation Recordings (Wild Swans, Distractions, June Brides, Factory Star etc.), are pleased to announce a trans-global alliance for the UK release of the self-titled debut album by Opposite Sex, available on 180g vinyl and CD from www.occultation.co.uk and distributed in the UK and Europe by Proper Distribution from 23rd April 2012.
The album has already attracted heavy radio airplay from the likes of Marc Riley and Gideon Coe on BBC6Music, and is winning admirers wherever it goes. Now it is getting a full UK release, bringing it to a whole new audience.
The Puddle’s 7th album, Secret Holiday/Victory Blues, is the sum of two proposed 5-track 10” EPs recorded a year apart and pulled together as a complete unit.
This collection is Henderson’s response to 30 years of under-appreciation for their urgent psychedelia, sweet pop sentiments and garage rock undertones. A more commercial offering than previous albums, Secret Holiday/Victory Blues burns with a quiet fury.
Pitched somewhere between Julian Cope’s fried krautrock and pop, The Clean’s wayward tunes and Orange Juice’s oblique vision of a new pop future, this album features Graeme Humphreys (Able Tasmans, Humphreys & Keen) on keyboards and multi-instrumentalist Alan Starrett (Pop Art Toasters, The Bats, Mink etc.)
No could ever accuse The Puddle of making the same album twice. With Secret Holiday/Victory Blues, they’ve made two different EPs and then released them as one coherent album. What was it that John Peel said about The Fall? “They are always different, they are always the same.” Read The Puddle for that ideal, too.
If there’s a constant in The Puddle’s unique, expansive outlook, it’s Henderson’s idea that “there were a few bands like Microdisney or The Smiths or Orange Juice ... I thought, `why aren't people doing this? It's great'. So I had to do it. No-one else was going to."
No one else is doing what The Puddle do: the mixture of T-Rex stomp and Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd on Oh Hayley (You’re Right), for instance. Or the sadness of The Go-Betweens’ Before Hollywood and the fire of Television’s Adventure on Secret Holiday.
Whether or not Henderson’s glorious attempt at reaching for the skies and grabbing stars will give them a well-deserved 2012 hit is one thing; these songs will last. People will come round eventually.
To order the LP or CD or get a free/ set your own price album download go to: http://thepuddle.bandcamp.com/album/secret-holiday-victory-blues. Watch their video for “Decline to Fall” video at: http://vimeo.com/36450028
Mike (Alpha State) McLeod’s new group delivers an album with an all-star guest list, updating the fictional “Dunedin Sound” jangling guitar-pop template with synths and sitars (!) – Out 2 April 2012
The subversive pop of Opposite Sex will warm the heart of anyone who viewed the heady years of 1978-1982 (Rough Trade Records, No Wave, NME's C81 Cassette and the start of Flying Nun Records in New Zealand) as a watershed period in alternative music - a time when there were no rules and anything seemed possible.
The sound of the 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.
Listen to and buy the album on their bandcamp page: http://oppositesex.bandcamp.com
Fishrider Records are also excited to release a split 7” single which features Robert Scott (The Clean, The Bats, Magick Heads) and Adalita Srsen (Magic Dirt) (“That’s What I Heard”) on one side and The Puddle (“The Average Sensual Man”) on the other side. Neither of these song is available anywhere else.