O/PUS are a four piece puzzle of deep eclectic experience. A band sewn together from a rich history of peripheral scene indie pop & the rich Aotearoan noise collective of joyous dismantle & deconstruct. Beth Dawson cut serious time in cult Dunedin combo the Futurians as well as Murdering Monsters, It Hurts & her own continuing solo quest into overdriven sonic space as Ducklingmonster. Stefan Neville hits a near three decade role in Pumice, a brittle, broken lo-fi pop skitter chime, as well as having provided singular percussive weave & whack in the Aesthetics, Ho’ Dogs & Chris Knox & the Nothing, and colabs in possibly 100+ magically crazed other combos, too many to name. Liz Matthews, also the smiling assassin of the beat, betrays yet more wealth of experience, having helmed the beating backbone in EVIL, the Hair-Dos, the Cloven Hearts & Goldifox. Jade Farley scored indie pop fame in the Glad Eyes, then focussed her skills in more offbeat & off-hand combos such as NT Honey & in creative cahoots w/Stefan in Pumice.
Put all that creative juice into O/PUS. Hear it all on their recently birthed LP “Out at Sea the Water is Deep”. It’s a sprawling magnificent minefield of reverb, dirge, echo & fuzz, anchored in themes of the stormy seas & the mysterious deep. Sea shanty rhythms, melting electronics, melancholic & howling violin strings. Relentless lo-fi kraut rock grooves, albeit willingly broken. The looped weirdo pop noodlings of solo Chris Knox extend an influence. The gaily demented female pop vocals of early UK punk/post punk outfits the Slits & the Raincoats could be a reference. The bent beatnik venting of late 1960s NYC freaks the Fugs might well be in the mix too. It’s all that, but all delightfully their own mired down & fired up creative musings too. It writhes & weaves, creaks & rolls, howls & mumbles, sizzles & oozes. Like an abandoned wrecked ship in uncharted waters, drenched in thick & heavy mists. A one way ticket to an unknown land of musical madness & mystery.
Out at sea, the water is deep was recorded at Stefan’s We Can Listen Back To It studio on 8 Track and computer over 2023/24. This album brings together ten of the band's songs, rolling from deep sea riffing to folk dirges and manu splashes of jumping-in punk joy.
Tracklist:
1) Ancient, Ancient
2) Cult Of The Octopus
3) Sensless Cargo
4) Misty Maunga
5) Scaly Wiggler
6) To The SeaBlack Ink
7) Kiss The Sea
8) Taken
