Pumice - Pebbles [Soft Abuse - 2007]Pebbles is a haphazard & rough around the edges mix of punky avant guitars, droning wish washy-ness, folk with the odd hit’s at outsider pop, and interesting yet rudimentary rhythmic work–outs. The whole album is soaked in this wonderful lazy and quirky vibe, seemly bleary eyed and out of focus though out its playing time, one track slides, shudders or stumbles into the next. As various instrumental textures are thrown in at often jarring yet enjoyable situations, as the only person behind this New Zealand Project Stefan Geoffrey Neville mummers, spouts odd dialogue and rants in the back ground. All the tracks have a wonderful feeling of just holding together, seemly tied rough and shoddy together, but often showing great drunken and haphazard beauty along their often ambling paths. Guitars chug and nip here, keyboard wheel about and whine out wonky melodies there. A ramshackle and loose but feeling collection of varied tracks. So if you enjoy lo-fi creative and distinctive guitar music, with quirky and playful edges and instrumentation- Pebbles will be right up your street. Roger Batty
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