Hydroplane – Selected Songs 1997–2003
WOE011
190 lei
A total doozy for Slowdive, Carla dal Forno, HTRK fiends - Naarm’s late ‘90s indie-pop darlings Hydroplane are subject of a crucial retrospective with London’s World of Echo, following a reissue of their s/t debut via Efficient Space.
Harvested from a clutch of 7”s and trio of albums, ‘Selected Songs 1997-2003’ runs an immaculate sequence of deceptively loose but perfect lo-fi pop, shoegaze, early electronic blips and billowing drift songs, puckered up by Andrew Withycombe, Bart Cummings and Kerrie Bolton’s Hydroplane in various Naarm (Melbourne) sharehouses during an era of creatively fertile cross-pollination. While operating at a distance from the international pop scene, the trio were also a key node with The Cat’s Miaow, whose acclaimed run of records from 1990 would neatly overlap and effectively mutate into Hydroplane with the departure of drummer Cameron Smith. The two projects clearly share a knack of ohrwurming hooks and emotional register between indie-poptimism and melancholy, but with Hydroplane they loosened up in a way that saw them porous to krautrock as much as the sort of ambient dance-pop that’s recently resurfaced via Efficient Space and Left Ear compilations, and the prevailing influence of folk and DIY electronics. For a long time their music remained the preserve of ardent diggers but, like the reissue of their eponymous debut LP, this anthology places them firmly on the treasure map of vintage, timeless indie pop music. The set ideally kicks off with a cover of fellow Aussie outsider Pip Proud in ‘We Crossed the Atlantic’, a John peel favourite that ended up as no.13 on his festive top 50 of 1997 and perfectly epitomises a fine touch for haunting dream-pop and umbilical links to contemporary types such as Carla dal Forno. ‘The Love You Bring’, uses the ubiquitous funky drummer sample, swaddled in Kerrie’s vocals and shimmering guitar. We can point to loping gem ‘City Terminus’ and the punk-funk and synth noise of ‘Radios Appear’ to illustrate their range, but for the most it’s all about their bucolic strums and feel for genteel psychedelia, with standouts such as the lo-slung creep of ‘You Were There’ or the zonked spectre ‘Failed Adventure’ which best highlight them as uncanny precedents for HTRK and a whole scene emerging from Naarm years later.
Harvested from a clutch of 7”s and trio of albums, ‘Selected Songs 1997-2003’ runs an immaculate sequence of deceptively loose but perfect lo-fi pop, shoegaze, early electronic blips and billowing drift songs, puckered up by Andrew Withycombe, Bart Cummings and Kerrie Bolton’s Hydroplane in various Naarm (Melbourne) sharehouses during an era of creatively fertile cross-pollination. While operating at a distance from the international pop scene, the trio were also a key node with The Cat’s Miaow, whose acclaimed run of records from 1990 would neatly overlap and effectively mutate into Hydroplane with the departure of drummer Cameron Smith. The two projects clearly share a knack of ohrwurming hooks and emotional register between indie-poptimism and melancholy, but with Hydroplane they loosened up in a way that saw them porous to krautrock as much as the sort of ambient dance-pop that’s recently resurfaced via Efficient Space and Left Ear compilations, and the prevailing influence of folk and DIY electronics. For a long time their music remained the preserve of ardent diggers but, like the reissue of their eponymous debut LP, this anthology places them firmly on the treasure map of vintage, timeless indie pop music. The set ideally kicks off with a cover of fellow Aussie outsider Pip Proud in ‘We Crossed the Atlantic’, a John peel favourite that ended up as no.13 on his festive top 50 of 1997 and perfectly epitomises a fine touch for haunting dream-pop and umbilical links to contemporary types such as Carla dal Forno. ‘The Love You Bring’, uses the ubiquitous funky drummer sample, swaddled in Kerrie’s vocals and shimmering guitar. We can point to loping gem ‘City Terminus’ and the punk-funk and synth noise of ‘Radios Appear’ to illustrate their range, but for the most it’s all about their bucolic strums and feel for genteel psychedelia, with standouts such as the lo-slung creep of ‘You Were There’ or the zonked spectre ‘Failed Adventure’ which best highlight them as uncanny precedents for HTRK and a whole scene emerging from Naarm years later.
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