Pioneers of the lo-fi aesthetic and towering figures of the New Zealand pop music scene, the Tall Dwarfs were formed in 1979 by singers/songwriters Chris Knox and Alec Bathgate following the demise of their previous band, the legendary Toy Love. Recording on Knox's four-track machine, the duo debuted with the 1981 EP Three Songs, highlighted by... [+] Read More

Pioneers of the lo-fi aesthetic and towering figures of the New Zealand pop music scene, the Tall Dwarfs were formed in 1979 by singers/songwriters Chris Knox and Alec Bathgate following the demise of their previous band, the legendary Toy Love. Recording on Knox's four-track machine, the duo debuted with the 1981 EP Three Songs, highlighted by the classic "Nothing's Going to Happen." The record was a hit, although it left many Toy Love fans baffled by the pair's new musical direction: Tall Dwarfs' releases were deliberately primitive, the D.I.Y. ethic at its purest -- songs were all recorded at home (performed in bedrooms, hallways and the like) and defiantly experimental in nature, presaging the rise of what was ultimately dubbed "lo-fi" as the sound began to grow in prominence and influence over the course of the decades to follow.

In 1982, Bathgate relocated from Dunedin to Christchurch; with the distance between him and Knox now totalling some 750 kilometers, Tall Dwarfs was relegated to a side project, with both men meeting once or twice annually to record and perform the occasional live date. The first product of their long-distance union was the EP Louis Likes His Daily Dip, issued in 1982 on the fledgling Flying Nun label; Canned Music followed a year later. With 1984's SlugBucketHairyBreathMonster, Tall Dwarfs scored their most successful record to date; the track "The Brain That Wouldn't Die" was a cult hit across New Zealand, and with its inclusion on the Flying Nun compilation Tuatara, it received significant international exposure as well. After recording 1985's That's the Short and Long of It, Bathgate moved to the U.K.; many predicted the duo's demise, but he returned after a year, and the Tall Dwarfs reunited for 1986's Throw a Sickie (so named because both Bathgate and Knox were suffering from colds during production).

With 1988's Dogma, the duo finally graduated to a proper studio; the EP featured "The Slide," a tale of euthanasia which became one of their most controversial and best-known efforts. The long out-of-print first four Tall Dwarfs EPs were mined for the subsequent Hello Cruel World best-of collection; the first of their records to earn proper worldwide release, it won them considerable global media coverage. In 1990 they reconvened in the studio, emerging with so much material that the longstanding EP format was finally forsaken to release a full-length LP, dubbed Weeville; a year later another album, Fork Songs, appeared. A tour of America followed in 1992, and in 1994 Tall Dwarfs issued the 3 EPs LP, a collection of 18 new tracks sequenced to resemble a trio of mini-albums. Though Knox had long maintained a solo career, Bathgate waited until 1996 to make his solo debut with Gold Lamé; still, Tall Dwarfs remained intact, issuing Stumpy a year later. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Led by former Gordons guitarist Alister Parker, noise-rock unit Bailter Space emerged from Christchurch, New Zealand in 1987. Originally joined by former Clean and Great Unwashed drummer Hamish Kilgour, Pin Group alum Ross Humphries on bass, and Glenda Bills on drums, the group issued their debut EP, Nelsh Bailter Space, on the famed Flying Nun... [+] Read More

Led by former Gordons guitarist Alister Parker, noise-rock unit Bailter Space emerged from Christchurch, New Zealand in 1987. Originally joined by former Clean and Great Unwashed drummer Hamish Kilgour, Pin Group alum Ross Humphries on bass, and Glenda Bills on drums, the group issued their debut EP, Nelsh Bailter Space, on the famed Flying Nun label later that year; both Humphries and Bills departed soon after, resulting in the addition of former Gordons bassist John Halvorsen in time to record the 1988 full-length Tanker. A tour followed, but when the Clean re-formed, Kilgour joined them on a permanent basis; his replacement in Bailter Space was Brent McLachlan, also the drummer in the Gordons. Despite the restoration of the Gordons' core roster, however, Bailter Space was a clearly distinct entity, their sound more dense and imposing than in their previous incarnation; the trio resurfaced in 1990 with Thermos, mounting a tour of the Northern Hemisphere the following year. An EP, The Aim, appeared in 1992, and in 1993 Bailter Space released Robot World, their most acclaimed outing to date. Their prolific output continued in 1994 with Vortura; Wammo followed in 1995, although a brief hiatus preceded the release of Solar.3 and Capsul. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Graeme Jefferies (vocals, guitar, piano, viola) is a cult icon in New Zealand, and his band Cakekitchen helped to solidify his high-ranking status in the country's underground scene. After the breakup of This Kind of Punishment, Jefferies formed Cakekitchen in the late '80s. Taking their name from Jefferies' 1988 solo LP Messages for the... [+] Read More

Graeme Jefferies (vocals, guitar, piano, viola) is a cult icon in New Zealand, and his band Cakekitchen helped to solidify his high-ranking status in the country's underground scene. After the breakup of This Kind of Punishment, Jefferies formed Cakekitchen in the late '80s. Taking their name from Jefferies' 1988 solo LP Messages for the Cakekitchen, Cakekitchen is basically a revolving set of musicians, all of whom are led by Jefferies. Expressing the similarly gloomy Velvet Underground-styled narratives and post-punk raggedness of Jefferies' previous groups, Cakekitchen released their first album, Time Flowing Backwards, in 1991. The band was a trio back then featuring Jefferies, Rachael King (bass), and Robert Key (drums). By 1993's Far From the Sun, King and Key were gone, replaced by bassist Keith McLean and drummer Huw Dainow. On 1995's Stompin' Thru the Boneyard, Cakekitchen became a duo consisting of Jefferies (playing a multitude of instruments) and drummer Jean-Yves Douet. ~ Michael Sutton, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Possibly the most important figure in New Zealand alternative/indie/post-punk rock, Chris Knox has been an integral figure of three of the country's more important rock bands (Tall Dwarfs, Toy Love, the Enemy), as well as recording prolifically as a solo artist. He sang with one of the country's very first punk acts, the Enemy, in the late '70s.... [+] Read More

Possibly the most important figure in New Zealand alternative/indie/post-punk rock, Chris Knox has been an integral figure of three of the country's more important rock bands (Tall Dwarfs, Toy Love, the Enemy), as well as recording prolifically as a solo artist. He sang with one of the country's very first punk acts, the Enemy, in the late '70s. The Enemy didn't record, but his next group, the more new wave-poppish Toy Love, had hit singles in New Zealand. However, they broke up in 1980 after an attempt to crack a more international market by moving to Australia proved fruitless.

By this time, Knox, notorious for Iggy Pop-style onstage self-laceration, wished to move from punk/new wave into more subtle, experimental underground rock. Sharing this desire was guitarist Alec Bathgate, who had played with Knox in the Enemy and Toy Love. Together they formed the duo Tall Dwarfs, lo-fi experimentalists with a penchant for both pop and psychedelia. Tall Dwarfs (whose activities are detailed in a separate entry) were instrumental in developing the quirky aesthetic picked up by most artists on the Flying Nun label, the top New Zealand indie that counted Tall Dwarfs as one of its first signees.

Although Knox has worked with Bathgate on Tall Dwarfs records since the early '80s, he has also maintained a less active, but ongoing, solo career in which he writes, performs, and records without Bathgate's assistance. Knox has had an ample opportunity to work alone given that he and Bathgate, because of their different living circumstances, are usually only able to record together for short, infrequent bursts of time. Undoubtedly Knox's solo albums are more personal in nature than his group projects, yet in all honesty it can be difficult to find much difference between them and the Tall Dwarfs records. Working independently, Knox also staunchly adheres to a lo-fi, home recording ethic; he also favors songs which alternate between acoustic pop, post-psychedelia, and bursts of fuzzy garage noise, just as Tall Dwarfs do.

Consequently, Tall Dwarfs fans will undoubtedly find Knox's records worth checking out, though on the whole the best of Tall Dwarfs is a better place to start investigating Knox's music. Within each Knox solo record there is a great deal of diversity, although it must be cautioned that there isn't a notable difference in approach from recording to recording. This can make his extensive discography less rewarding than those of pop auteurs who take greater care to vary their palette from release to release, such as England's Martin Newell. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide [-] Hide

The Chills were one of New Zealand's best and most popular bands of the '80s, making a small but consistent series of chiming, hook-laden guitar pop. Both the songs and the arrangements were constructed with interweaving guitar hooks and vocal harmonies, creating a pretty, almost lush, sound that never fell into cloying sentimentality.... [+] Read More

The Chills were one of New Zealand's best and most popular bands of the '80s, making a small but consistent series of chiming, hook-laden guitar pop. Both the songs and the arrangements were constructed with interweaving guitar hooks and vocal harmonies, creating a pretty, almost lush, sound that never fell into cloying sentimentality. Throughout their existence, the band's personnel changed frequently -- there were more than ten different lineups -- with the only constant member being guitarist Martin Phillipps, the band's founder.

Phillipps began playing music with the New Zealand punk band the Same in 1978. Following in the footsteps of the Clean and the Enemy, the Same played mostly covers, creating a raw fusion of British Invasion and garage rock. However, the group never recorded. Phillipps applied the same approach for the Chills, the band he formed in 1980 with his sister Rachel and Jane Dodd (bass) after the Same fell apart.

In 1982, the Chills signed with Flying Nun, the influential New Zealand independent record label, and released several singles that were never widely distributed in America and Europe. During this time, the group went through an enormous amount of members: future-Great Unwashed bassist Peter Gutteridge, the Clean's David Kilgour, keyboardist Faser Batts, bassist Terry Moore, guitarist Martin Kean, keyboardist Peter Allison, drummer Martyn Bull, and drummer Alan Haig. While these incarnations of the Chills recorded plenty of singles, they never made an album. Released on the U.K. record label Creation, the group's first album, Kaleidoscope World (1986), was a collection of their early singles; it was later released in the U.S. on Homestead.

With the lineup of Phillipps, bassist Justin Harwood, keyboardist Andrew Todd, and drummer Caroline Easther -- the group's tenth lineup -- the Chills recorded their first proper album, Brave Worlds, in 1987. Produced by Mayo Thompson, the leading figure of the cult band the Red Crayola and a former member of Pere Ubu, the band wasn't satisfied with the final result, claiming it was too loose and under-produced. The group, particularly Phillipps, was more satisfied with their second full-length album, 1990's Submarine Bells, their first record released on an American major label. Submarine Bells was recorded with yet another version of the band, with Jimmy Stephenson replacing Easther, who was suffering from tinnitus. The album was well received by critics and college radio, yet it failed to break the band into the mainstream in either America or Britain. Two years later, they released Soft Bomb, which suffered the same fate as Submarine Bells. The following year, Martin Phillipps broke up the Chills again, yet the group reconvened in 1996 to release Sunburnt. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide [-] Hide

As the liner notes proclaim, this is "the first straightforward LP by Tall Dwarfs...in terms of having the same number of tracks on each side -- both of which play at the same speed and which ain't a compilation." If Tall Dwarfs had only done one or two albums, this would have seemed like a more impressive document. But new ground isn't broken... [+] Read More

As the liner notes proclaim, this is "the first straightforward LP by Tall Dwarfs...in terms of having the same number of tracks on each side -- both of which play at the same speed and which ain't a compilation." If Tall Dwarfs had only done one or two albums, this would have seemed like a more impressive document. But new ground isn't broken here. It's more of the same eclectic melange of homespun, latter-day psychedelia. The converted will have no complaints. But for the money Weeville's much better when it abandons the arty noise for acoustic guitar driven and airy melodies, as it does here on a number of occasions. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Kaleidoscope World is the Chills' essential document, although it's not an album but a collection of tracks from early- and mid-'80s EPs, singles, and compilation cuts. Perhaps that's not surprising: the Chills are more skilled at crafting interesting odds and sods than sustaining interest over the course of an album, where their somewhat... [+] Read More

Kaleidoscope World is the Chills' essential document, although it's not an album but a collection of tracks from early- and mid-'80s EPs, singles, and compilation cuts. Perhaps that's not surprising: the Chills are more skilled at crafting interesting odds and sods than sustaining interest over the course of an album, where their somewhat monochromatic approach tends to drag things down. The influence of Syd Barrett/early Pink Floyd is stronger on these early tracks than it would be on subsequent releases, both on the easygoing singalong numbers and the more experimental outings. The highlight (of both the album and the Chills' career) is their New Zealand hit single, the haunting "Pink Frost." ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Leaving the bulk of their catalog to the Flying Nun label, Tall Dwarfs have found another friend in the Homstead imprint for releasing this excellent collection of tracks from a handful of the group's rare EP's. The New Zealand lo-fi innovators are certainly well-represented with these 22 varied and top-notch sides from the first half of the... [+] Read More

Leaving the bulk of their catalog to the Flying Nun label, Tall Dwarfs have found another friend in the Homstead imprint for releasing this excellent collection of tracks from a handful of the group's rare EP's. The New Zealand lo-fi innovators are certainly well-represented with these 22 varied and top-notch sides from the first half of the '80s. With plenty of deft guitar, organ, and handclapping work to go around, fans new to Hello Cruel World will soon understand why it gave the Dwarfs their widest audience after being released in the late '80s. ~ Stephen Cook, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Stripping the lineup down to just Kilgour on drums and old Gordons mate Halvorsen on bass, Parker and a revamped Bailter Space cooked up a full-length debut much closer in spirit to what '90s audiences were familiar with, while simultaneously distancing themselves from the ghost of the Gordons. The nervy, aggressive edge of the Gordons is still... [+] Read More

Stripping the lineup down to just Kilgour on drums and old Gordons mate Halvorsen on bass, Parker and a revamped Bailter Space cooked up a full-length debut much closer in spirit to what '90s audiences were familiar with, while simultaneously distancing themselves from the ghost of the Gordons. The nervy, aggressive edge of the Gordons is still there, but now it's tempered by a slightly less aggressive approach. The downbeat guitar chiming and squalling feedback of "Glass" and "The 'W' Song" give a good sense of this, as do Parker's vocals, which are buried deep in the mix on these tracks. "Your Invisible Life" has a great push to it and features a particularly inspired performance from Parker. "The Today Song" achieves almost inspirational heights in its own way, while "Grader Spader" fuses the spirit of old and new quite effectively, and was understandably chosen as a single. Parker continues to sing in his new, tenderer way, while the band kicks up a catchy storm. The trio work well together, and a few songs sound like they grew out of particularly productive jam sessions. The punchy instrumental "Titan" -- which features Parker and Halvorsen exchanging moody, ringing chords and notes before building into a false climax and an astonishing return -- and the equally fine title track are probably the best songs on the album for that reason alone. ~ Ned Raggett, All Music Guide [-] Hide

On a major label for the first time, Phillipps crafted a lovely record indeed, a mere thirty-six minutes and not a second wasted. Lead-off track and single "Heavenly Pop Hit" remains the most famous track and deservedly so -- over a rapturous keyboard/rhythm combination, Phillipps sings just that, an inspiring lyric with a soaring chorus, aided... [+] Read More

On a major label for the first time, Phillipps crafted a lovely record indeed, a mere thirty-six minutes and not a second wasted. Lead-off track and single "Heavenly Pop Hit" remains the most famous track and deservedly so -- over a rapturous keyboard/rhythm combination, Phillipps sings just that, an inspiring lyric with a soaring chorus, aided by additional backing vocals from guest Donna Savage. From there it's one high point after another, never losing the sense of elegance and drive that characterizes the band's work. Phillipps' at-once strong and amiably regular-guy vocals and astonishingly intelligent but never overly obtuse lyrics are both wonders, while Andrew Todd's excellent keyboard work provides both energy and lovely shading. Add to that a fine rhythm section in bassist Justin Harwood and drummer James Stephenson, and it's no wonder this version of the Chills succeeds as it does. One fantastic example of their work together is "Singing In My Sleep," with Phillipps giving heavy tremolo treatment to his guitar as everyone else creates something that's not too far from Neu!'s motorik throb, in a gentler pop vein. More such Krautrock-inspired chug has plenty of echoes on Bells, following in the same vein as "I Love My Leather Jacket" -- check out the brisk delivery on "The Oncoming Day" or the skipping intensity of "Dead Web." Otherwise, there're hints of the gentle folky/medieval touches they enjoy on "I SOAR" and "Don't Be--Memory" and more straightforward rocking out on the sharp "Familiarity Breeds Contempt," where Phillipps' New Zealand burr comes through with intensity. The title track, with serene orchestration filling out the grand arrangement, is a note-perfect way to conclude such a fantastic release. ~ Ned Raggett, All Music Guide [-] Hide