Search - The Battles :: Tomorrow's Eager Hands

Pumice has returned with another set of stirring & shambolic downer hymns. With songs nestled halfway between XpresswayÕs searing static and Flying NunÕs dark jangle, Stefan Neville has quietly created a unique brand of fractured pop since 1991. Despite (or because of) his activity in New ZealandÕs cassette underground for the past 15 years, Neville has only recently begun to crawl into the consciousness of outsider music fans. Both the second widely available Pumice release, and the proper follow-up to 2003Õs acclaimed Raft CD on Last Visible Dog. Conceived and recorded during an artist residency in Vienna in 2004. The resulting recordings are indebted to Austrian beer, unspeakable horror and wild dogs. NevilleÕs precariously arranged arsenal of cassettes, chord organ, vocals, drums and guitar has yielded a fragile and fractured masterwork. A stark and melancholic affair, calling to mind Alastair Galbraith, Sun City Girls and Supreme Dicks. Through NevilleÕs layers of hiss and murk lie harrowing and beautiful songs. AucklandÕs Pumice is part of a New Zealand musical lineage that includes Dead C, Tall Dwarfs, The Pin Group, This Kind of Punishment, and contemporary acts like Armpit, Birchville Cat Motel, Witcyst, Antony Milton & Lovely Midget. His ballads & experiments encompass the aural oeuvre of the aforementioned acts delivered with a truly distinct vision