It's rather too predictable that after leaving New Zealand I'm finding myself reading lots of Janet Frame, planning the perfect imaginary road trip, eagerly awaiting the new The Puddle album arriving in the post and looking forward to Minisnap's show later next month. The whole leaving home only to realise how much it means to you is one of the most well cliches around. Furthermore I have to admit I kind of planned on this happening after reading about Frank Sargeson experiencing the same thing on his European journeys in the 1920s. So over the last couple of weeks, as well as spending a reasonable amount of time meditating in Google maps satellite images of my parents house, I have also found myself listening to Snapper a hell of a lot.
Snapper is basically Peter Gutteridge. A founding member of The Clean and sometime member of The Chills, Gutteridge was a pretty recognisable figure by the time their self titled EP (sometimes referred to as 'Buddy') was released in 1988. Their sound was largely based around the heavy feedback and organ drone that Stereolab would later build a career on; though Gutteridge and fellow vocalist Christine Voice's singing style was a soft purr that blends in with the drone, rather than the contrasting sweet foreign vocals employed by Stereolab. The closest thing they had to a hit, Buddy, probably displays this better than anything else. The album 'Shotgun Blossom' was released in 1991, it was still based around a focused drone, though every so often would completely contradict itself with massive soloing or, with 'Dead Pictures', the kind of Byrd-sian jangle their lablemates where famous for. It's a brilliant and diverse album, though their greatest moment to come with the 1994 single 'Vader'. 'Vader' is a great song, in many ways typical Snapper, but the b-side 'Gentle Hour' is probably my favourite song to ever come out of Flying Nun. The organ drone is replaced with a delicate, hypnotic keyboard line and is surrounded by the softest, warmest feedback I've ever heard in my life. It's the song that introduced me to Snapper (through the excellent rarities compilation 'Where In The World Is Wendy Broccoli') and I can still remember the first time I heard it and all that shit. In 1996 they recorded their second album ADM which went too far into the 'Doom Rock' style for my liking. Some people seem to rate it as their best so maybe I just need to give it more time, but for the meantime it comes without my seal of approval.
Technically Snapper are still together (usually the case when I band is basically one guy) and my friend Calum saw them in Dunedin at the end of 2005. He described it basically as an hour of solid feedback, with Gutteridge waiting for the applause to end before leaving the stage in silence. In 2002 they released a single through the label of the greatly missed Crawlspace record shop, but unfortunately I haven't heard it to be able to comment.
Snapper is basically Peter Gutteridge. A founding member of The Clean and sometime member of The Chills, Gutteridge was a pretty recognisable figure by the time their self titled EP (sometimes referred to as 'Buddy') was released in 1988. Their sound was largely based around the heavy feedback and organ drone that Stereolab would later build a career on; though Gutteridge and fellow vocalist Christine Voice's singing style was a soft purr that blends in with the drone, rather than the contrasting sweet foreign vocals employed by Stereolab. The closest thing they had to a hit, Buddy, probably displays this better than anything else. The album 'Shotgun Blossom' was released in 1991, it was still based around a focused drone, though every so often would completely contradict itself with massive soloing or, with 'Dead Pictures', the kind of Byrd-sian jangle their lablemates where famous for. It's a brilliant and diverse album, though their greatest moment to come with the 1994 single 'Vader'. 'Vader' is a great song, in many ways typical Snapper, but the b-side 'Gentle Hour' is probably my favourite song to ever come out of Flying Nun. The organ drone is replaced with a delicate, hypnotic keyboard line and is surrounded by the softest, warmest feedback I've ever heard in my life. It's the song that introduced me to Snapper (through the excellent rarities compilation 'Where In The World Is Wendy Broccoli') and I can still remember the first time I heard it and all that shit. In 1996 they recorded their second album ADM which went too far into the 'Doom Rock' style for my liking. Some people seem to rate it as their best so maybe I just need to give it more time, but for the meantime it comes without my seal of approval.
Technically Snapper are still together (usually the case when I band is basically one guy) and my friend Calum saw them in Dunedin at the end of 2005. He described it basically as an hour of solid feedback, with Gutteridge waiting for the applause to end before leaving the stage in silence. In 2002 they released a single through the label of the greatly missed Crawlspace record shop, but unfortunately I haven't heard it to be able to comment.
Neither Gentle Hour or Buddy are commercially available anymore, so here they are. Enjoy.
[mp3] Gentle Hour
[mp3] Buddy
Also I'm not sure if I'm uploading these right, so if anyone downloads them could you let me know if it happens okay.
2 comments:
Thanks for uploading 'Buddy'. I have a copy of it on a mixtape Alex J made for me years ago and really, really liked it, but never heard any of their other stuff. My interest has been piqued again, that's for sure.
Thanks for the Buddy track.
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