Various Artists - Kiwi Animals: Future/Primitive Aotearoa (StrangeLove)

WHAT THE COVER LOOKS LIKE:

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WHAT WE SAY:

Rejoice, another StrangeLove compilation is here. Check out their deep dug collection of NZ eighties oddities. From joyous proto house (extended edit someone please!), eclectic electro funkiness, deviant digi dub, Kiwi & Pacific folk freakiness & all sorts of post punk experimentation to rival anything from the UK or US at the same time. Essential.

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WHAT YOUR EARS SAY:

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WHAT THE RELEASE NOTES SAY:

‘Kiwi Animals’ is a personal catalog of local oddities; affectionately recasting the 1980’s New Zealand Top 40 in a parallel universe of misfit pop, gonzo-tronics & voodoo-waves.

Channeling South Pacific gothic sensibilities and edge of world melancholia, the album highlights unexpected electronic tangents from iconic NZ groups Blam Blam Blam & Headless Chickens.

It dredges the C-90 revelations of art avante-gardists’ Drone & Kim Blackburn, along with the bittersweet pop of Rupert & Norma O’Malley. There’s the infectious minimal wave of Ballare and a reprised dance suite from Tom Ludvigson & Graeme Gash.

The furthest depths of Flying Nun’s catalog are also plundered- a brilliant earworm from Stiff Herbert and a mysterious Roger Knox birthday promo. Mining the various disparate seams of a local indie label awakening, ‘Kiwi Animals’ congeals with future/primitive ingenuity and an underlying Antipodean pop mischievousness…