Since the early 1990’s, Aotearoa / New Zealander, Stefan Neville has recorded and performed iconoclastic pieces of broken & repurposed pop song as Pumice. He delicately smears together droning NZ folk, jangly Pakeha blues & scorched Pacific skiffle. Usually performed on multiple instruments at once, with a security blanket of grot & tape saturation through crumbling shitty speakers.
Stefan is an active participant in NZ underground music communities. He has collaborated with Kraus, Chris Knox / Tall Dwarfs, Coolies, Hermione Johnson, The Renderers, C.J.A, Ducklingmonster, Antony Milton, Campbell Kneale, Greg Malcolm, Gfrenzy & Witcyst, as well as international contemporaries like Jandek, Anla Courtis, Richard Youngs & Les Harrys. Stefans music has been released on Soft Abuse Records, Feeding Tube Records, Fordamning Arkiv, Planam, Horn Of Plenty, Root Don Lonie For Cash, Ultra Eczema & his own Stabbies Etc label. He facilitates an experiential & spontaneous music making program for people with disabilities in Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland called Māpura Music. His visual art practice is just as rotten & playful as his music.
“Everything Pumice owns is broken. Virgin audience members at his shows might think he is fucking up till half-way through when it becomes clear they are witnessing a perfect solo ballet of mini-cassettes, modified guitar, foot-pedal drum-kit & short-circuiting spring reverb croon. Deep into a genius career, Pumice still surprises with his subtle mastery of broke-down sounds, slowed-down Magic Band rhythms, crumbling chord organ hymns & tragic ballads that reach deep into the very soul of Aotearoa / New Zealand anti-pop pop music.”– Glenn Donaldson
Born in Cambridge and raised in the Fens, Richard Youngs began making music at the start of the seventies. His early work centred on the family piano. When this was sold in the late seventies, however, the classical guitar and cassette recorder became his instruments of choice, along with anything at hand that made a sound. From then on he has played any number of roles with bands such as Astral Social Club, Concrete Hedge, No Deserts, Jandek and Future Pilot A.K.A. Recent collaborative work with Andrew Paine, Heatsick, Kawabata Makoto and John Clyde-Evans also show him as a highly social musician. His catalogue of releases wanders into all kinds of zones over a vast array of albums on various labels including his No Fans imprint: they include accapella, guitars, pipes or electronics and come out of solitude and in partnership with atmospheres that range from fragmental folk to all-out fuzz.
“THE iconic figure of the modern UK underground … Richard Youngs evolves in the shadows where most won’t look, but those who do will forever be dazzled and amazed” – The Quietus
Christopher Thomas Failure is the nom de plume of Dancer guitarist Christopher Taylor.
Living outside of reality as much as is decent and humanly possible due to how consistently disappointing it is, Chris writes songs about waiting, dead parents, Dave Mustaine, and the artist’s fight with art while experiencing everything in its totality, among other concepts lifted from David Berman’s blog.
Backed up live by double bassist Ari Loughlin, whose ability and demure stage presence legitimise things a bit, the pair hope to provide the same light relief from life that they seek, through angular-meets-ragtime electric guitar, deep bass and baritone vocals.
