jon zellweger
This has serious vintage 4D vibes while still holding its own as a unique artistic statement from the late 90s/early 00s. "(you're so) pretty" is so unstoppable; recalls the sugary goodness of Julian Cope's Beautiful Love -- not literally, but in what gave that song power to put it on repeat indefinitely.
Favorite track: (you're so) pretty.
musicspls
Boy am I slow to know this really interesting album. Its fantastic and really am grateful, thanks Music101! There's echos of early SJD and some tracks remind me of a slow burn version of Bachelorette which I also enjoy. I think I must have been in the wilderness to have only now listened to this great album.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
$12NZD or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Pressed in NZ at Holiday Records
Includes unlimited streaming of Down at the End of the Garden (20th Anniversary)
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 3 days
$48NZDor more
Limited Edition Transparent Blue Vinyl LP
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Pressed in NZ at Holiday Records. Limited to 200 copies.
Includes unlimited streaming of Down at the End of the Garden (20th Anniversary)
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Dunedin’s dream pop originators, Cloudboy, have announced a newly remastered vinyl and digital reissue of their 2001 album, Down at the End of the Garden. This is the first time the album is available on vinyl LP, and is out via Flying Nun Records on Record Store Day — Saturday 22nd April, 2023.
Formed in 1995, Cloudboy — a creative tangent of select members culled from nineties’ electro-pop cult group Mink — write and perform lushly orchestrated dream pop of stunning beauty and originality. The core trio of Demarnia Lloyd, Craig Monk and Johannes Contag occasionally draw in guest specialists where required. Demarnia sings, writes, sequences and samples; Johannes records, mixes and plays guitar, flute and synth fx; Craig writes orchestral arrangements and plays guitar, violin and electric piano. The result of their carefully curated lineups was an intimate, fragile vocal blended with electro-acoustic instruments, synthetic soundscapes and amplified rhythms.
"The main aim of Cloudboy was to frame Demarnia's songs and intimate voice in compelling, unusual and evocative ways. Broadcast-quality home recording was still quite new then, and one of our main instruments was the sampler; digital technology had only just become affordable to poor student musicians. Recording the album was like being in a huge playground of sonic possibilities, putting together some really unique combinations to create the lushest soundscapes we could, and trying to avoid any established rock or dance styles." — Johannes Contag
The band’s first full length release, Down at the End of the Garden, originally released on CD in April 2001 through Arclife and Loop, is a concept album tour-de-force evoking a technicolor netherworld of epic proportions. A long time in “the works” it was recorded in Dunedin and Wellington during 1997-2001. This Creative New Zealand funded album is an organic work of art that thrived in the digital domain.
On Down at the End of the Garden, Demarnia’s songs are bound together by an instrumentation ranging from the exotic (tablas, whistle, prayer bells) to the familiar (drums, bass, guitar, organ) and the traditional (violin, double bass, flute, accordion, vibraphone), with the arrangements glued together by cutting-edge soundscapes and crackling yesteryear sample loops.
"It is to me a very full album, when I hear the songs the musicianship of the band really stands out to me, and the layers, complexities, the vocal depths (added by John and Jef Mitchell) it feels like a world is hidden inside it." — Demarnia Lloyd
Down at the End of the Garden is out via Flying Nun Records on Saturday 22nd April [Record Store Day] on limited edition transparent blue vinyl, and standard black vinyl. Vinyl pre-orders of Down at the End of the Garden will not be available; it will be “first in first served” at your local record store.
Online and bandcamp vinyl orders will commence from Sunday 23rd April, 2023.
supported by 10 fans who also own “Down at the End of the Garden (20th Anniversary)”
Intimate and unique. This album plays well with a bottle of Syrah crunched up in your finest pair of headphones with candles lit in a steamy bubble bath. sig
supported by 10 fans who also own “Down at the End of the Garden (20th Anniversary)”
Powerful vocals and affecting lyrics, this is magnificent stuff. Thank you for sharing your art with us Reb!
Clearly, I am late to the party, but happy to be here now and will listen quietly from my corner so as not to break the spell. theUtmost