[{"id":211726106775,"handle":"alec-bathgate","title":"Alec Bathgate","updated_at":"2022-05-09T15:19:05+12:00","body_html":"\u003cspan\u003e\"50,000,000 Elvis fans can't be wrong, I guess they knew it all along\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIf you want to be a star, go today - buy a suit of gold lamé.\"\u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eIn 1956, Elvis Presley burst upon the music scene. Within two years he had produced 14 consecutive million-selling records. In the course of doing so he had changed the course of popular music and culture forever. His spectacular success, popularity amongst music fans and notorious sex appeal remain unparalleled in American entertainment history. Elvis's $2,500 gold lame suit was created by Nudie's of Hollywood, tailor to the stars. First worn by Elvis on his 1957 tour performances, the gold suit is one of the most famous costumes in rock'n'roll history.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlec Bathgate's musical career hasn't exactly led him to buy a suit from Nudie's, but 19 years after The Enemy burst onto the unsuspecting Dunedin music scene in 1977 (a spectacular and ground-breaking arrival in its own right, we might add) with young Alec on guitar, it is about bloody time that we had an album full of his songs and voice.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRight from the moment that Alec formed The Enemy with fellow art student Mick Dawson and talented misfit \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/19990225095814\/http:\/\/flyingnun.co.nz\/bands\/knox.html\"\u003eChris Knox\u003c\/a\u003e, he's been involved with Chris in one of this country's most enduring and original songwriting partnerships. Alec and Chris were the Enemy's songwriting core and after the group evolved into Toy Love in 1979, they were hammering out classic tunes for a band who were rapidly becoming the most highly-rated act in the land. Toy Love was over less than two years later, but Chris and Alec were straight into a new project, Tall Dwarfs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter one EP on the Furtive label, the Tall Dwarfs hooked up with Flying Nun and ten records later they remain creative stalwarts of the label. The duo are now legends in the world of four-track home-recording — they were invited to headline the inaugural Fast Forward home-recording festival in Holland where they were joined by the likes of Sebadoh. Of course, since Chris bought an eight-track, they're practically a regular studio band now....\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMost Tall Dwarfs recordings occur in Chris Knox's Auckland home, with Alec travelling up from Christchurch to work for a few days on songs which are built up from guitar riffs, vocal melodies or rhythm loops made from whatever is at hand and sounds interesting enough. Alec has brought that same attitude to the solo album that people have been bugging him to make for years.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe 16 songs that make up \u003cb\u003eGold Lamé \u003c\/b\u003ewere recorded onto a four-track over the space of a year by Alec alone in his garage. Away from Chris Knox, Alec still gives us many of the great stylistic touches at the core of the Tall Dwarfs on his own album, from crunching riffs over rhythm loop rumbles to fairground psychedelia. \u003cb\u003eGold Lamé \u003c\/b\u003eis stacked with good moods and undeniably sweet sixties melodies right from the moment its first track, \"Win Your Love\", descends into something like a Beach Boys' \u003ci\u003eSmile \u003c\/i\u003eout-take. Later we get Alec picking up the voice of Velvets-era Lou Reed on \"Ain't It Strange\" and the Knox-Bathgate Beatles touchstone appears nicely-done on \"Slow Parade\". As with the best of Tall Dwarfs' output, \u003cb\u003eGold Lamé \u003c\/b\u003eso often feels like a gem left out in the forest in 1969....\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlec's experienced recording hand is immediately evident in arrangements like \"Carl's Arrows\", where the four-track recording is not necessarily \"lo-fi\" and encompasses voice, guitars, toy xylophone and piano. There's extensive use of casio keyboard tones and rhythms on many songs including a cover of reggae classic, \"Train To Skaville\". Deft backwards sounds punctuate \"Run\" alongside a nice electric guitar melody. Elsewhere, songs make room for Alec's big guitaring — his fantastic strumming on acoustic at the heart of tunes like the title track and a burr of solid electrics on others like \"Pet Hates\".\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe latter is one of two \u003cb\u003eGold Lamé \u003c\/b\u003esongs released on a seven inch vinyl single late last year by Flying Nun. \"Pet Hates\" and \"Happy Hound\" drew an excellent critical response, no better than in Wellington's \u003ci\u003eSalient\u003c\/i\u003e, who said \u003ci\u003e\"This sweet slab sounds exactly like the Tall Dwarfs without Chris Knox. Surprisingly. And some would like that. His vox put him up as a chipper Bing Crosby to Knox's more croonful Frank Sinatra.\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor those of us who've loved the handful of tunes Alec has managed to get his tonsils round in the Tall Dwarfs, \u003cb\u003eGold Lamé \u003c\/b\u003eis an album full of White Christmases. We should add that it also cost less to make than Elvis's suit, which means that in recording craft and creativity value, Alec Bathgate is a home-recorded rock'n'roll king in our book. \u003cb\u003eGold Lamé \u003c\/b\u003eis a long overdue item and all us Tall Dwarfs fans can't be wrong — Alec Bathgate is the star.\u003c\/p\u003e","published_at":"2020-08-09T18:39:24+12:00","sort_order":"best-selling","template_suffix":"","disjunctive":false,"rules":[{"column":"tag","relation":"equals","condition":"Alec Bathgate"}],"published_scope":"global","image":{"created_at":"2020-08-23T22:27:34+12:00","alt":null,"width":1333,"height":1333,"src":"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0450\/3165\/3527\/collections\/0012660518_10.jpg?v=1598178454"}},{"id":399393226996,"handle":"all-products-1","title":"All Products","updated_at":"2022-05-20T12:15:09+12:00","body_html":"","published_at":"2022-05-07T21:11:10+12:00","sort_order":"best-selling","template_suffix":"","disjunctive":false,"rules":[{"column":"variant_inventory","relation":"greater_than","condition":"0"}],"published_scope":"global"},{"id":261181112471,"handle":"new-zealand-music-bands","title":"Aotearoa | New Zealand","updated_at":"2022-05-20T11:30:05+12:00","body_html":"\u003cp\u003eFind a curated selection of the best indie, alternative and interesting \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAotearoa New Zealand Music\u003c\/strong\u003e, bands and artists\u003cstrong\u003e, \u003c\/strong\u003eincluding vinyl LPs, CDs, cassettes. 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Many of these albums are out of print or no longer available, while others have been re-pressed and can be bought in our record store. If you find one of these going cheap in your local junk shop - snap it up!","published_at":"2021-12-04T16:32:39+13:00","sort_order":"created","template_suffix":"","disjunctive":true,"rules":[{"column":"tag","relation":"equals","condition":"Flying Nun Catalog"},{"column":"tag","relation":"equals","condition":"Flying Nun"}],"published_scope":"global"},{"id":211579109527,"handle":"flying-nun","title":"Flying Nun | Related","updated_at":"2022-05-20T12:15:09+12:00","body_html":"This collection of music is for bands and artists that are or were released on \u003cstrong\u003eFlying Nun Records\u003c\/strong\u003e, or are somehow related to \u003cstrong\u003eFlying Nun Records\u003c\/strong\u003e - even if they weren't or aren't actually released on the label. 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The Indifferent Velvet Void is only the second full-length solo album by AlecBathgate, despite a long career as one half of Tall Dwarfs and co-founder of the legendary New Zealand punk bands The Enemy and Toy Love. The Indifferent Velvet Void was originally released in 2004 by legendary label, Lil' Chief Records.
The album was recorded at Alec's home over 18 months, working mostly on weekends in the family's tiny spare room. “The room was completely red and had a nice womb-like quality. I had all my records in there, so I would play music and drink coffee then get down to recording. It took a long time to make - 18 months - because I could only record on weekends.”
Despite working with an “improved” digital recording medium (since Gold Lamé’s 4-track), Alec still worked with fairly limited equipment - two microphones, a smattering of guitars, a cheap keyboard and a few simple percussion instruments. Alec is responsible for all of the instrumentation, engineering and production — with the exception of some additional handclaps and backing vocals supplied by his family. All but one of the songs on the album were written by Bathgate — the remaining track "Overundersidewaysdown" is a cover of a track by The Yardbirds.
“I had to construct the songs from the ground up. I enjoyed arranging them and messing around with different sounds. Obsessively so. I had a list with places for 16 songs. Once it started taking shape I would write songs to fit the gaps. I was very conscious of how it would all fit together as a whole. There are a few tracks that reference T.Rex.”
The result is an album that shows both strength as a songwriter and musician, from the psychedelic overtones of "Slow Fuzz", to the aforementioned T-Rexisms of "In The Shadows".
This new vinyl version of The Indifferent Velvet Void was remixed with Tom Havard at Sublime Studio in 2020, and mastered for vinyl by Mikey Young, in Melbourne.
This 2021 The Indifferent Velvet Void reissue is out on 19th November, on transparent purple vinyl, via Alec’s own label Long Short Short and is limited to 200 copies — pressed locally at HolidayRecords in Auckland, New Zealand.
TRACKLIST
SIDE A
In The Shadows Ebb and Flow We’re All Babies Should I Wake Up? Out Of My Head Vitriol Slow Fuzz Slight Return
SIDE B
Faked Overundersidewaysdown Broken Cup The Indifferent Velvet Void Fear and Loathing New Day Closing Down
RIYL: Tall Dwarfs, Toy Love, Chris Knox, The Enemy, T-Rex, Lou Reed Originally released on 11 November, 2004 on Lil' Chief Records.
