{"product_id":"hydroplane-selected-songs-1997-2004","title":"Hydroplane – Selected Songs 1997–2003","description":"\u003cp\u003eLabel: World Of Echo  – WOE011\u003cbr\u003eFormat: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Limited Edition\u003cbr\u003eCountry: UK\u003cbr\u003eReleased: 1 Sept 2023\u003cbr\u003eGenre: Electronic, Rock\u003cbr\u003eStyle: Indie Rock, Drone\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp id=\"m_5119669559364836599yiv1756507343docs-internal-guid-b11ccb6b-7fff-a689-bb24-bc19416caae7\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eSelected Songs 1997-2003 \u003c\/em\u003ecompiles some of the finest moments in the recording history of \u003cspan class=\"il\"\u003eHydroplane\u003c\/span\u003e, the Melbourne-based indie-pop three-piece that operated alongside The Cat’s Miaow through the second half of the nineties. It’s the third release in what feels, now, like a loosely planned series by World Of Echo, documenting the music made by this group of friends in Melbourne sharehouses (The Cat’s Miaow’s \u003cem\u003eSongs ’94-’98\u003c\/em\u003e, 2022), or in the case of The Shapiros (\u003cem\u003eGone By Fall\u003c\/em\u003e, 2023), while traversing the International Pop Underground.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan class=\"il\"\u003eHydroplane\u003c\/span\u003e would be familiar to anyone already following these breadcrumb trails – Andrew Withycombe, Bart Cummings and Kerrie Bolton were the group’s core, all members of The Cat’s Miaow. With Cat’s Miaow drummer Cameron Smith itinerant, having moved to London, the trio used this opportunity to expand their music. It’s a subtle, but important shift. If The Cat’s Miaow was about the perfect, minimalist, two-minute pop song, \u003cspan class=\"il\"\u003eHydroplane\u003c\/span\u003e’s music was far more open-ended, embracing the loops and drones, sampled house-y shuffle beats, the burbling of a Roland Jupiter-4 synth, all of which the trio joined, effortlessly, to their endless capacity for moving, elegant melodicism.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThey may have only planned to release one seven-inch single, but the sound \u003cspan class=\"il\"\u003eHydroplane\u003c\/span\u003e created was so bewitching, so compelling, that the project’s lifespan ran for around half a decade, and they ended up releasing three albums, including a self-titled debut recently reissued by Efficient Space, and seven singles. There are all kinds of compelling things happening in the music compiled here – the hazy repetition of the gentler side of Krautrock is in here, somewhere, which also suggests Stereolab at their most intimate and disarmed; the gently drifting guitars, gauzy and oneiric, set the songs adrift and floating, each one lost in its own imagined, distracted world. Songs like “The Love You Bring” set indistinct tonal floats across dance rhythms, in a way not quite heard since My Bloody Valentine’s “Instrumental” – but with the added gift of Bolton’s gorgeous voice.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis loose coalition with dance music, and the quiet experimentalism at the heart of \u003cspan class=\"il\"\u003eHydroplane\u003c\/span\u003e, also gestures towards peers like Hood, Acetate Zero and Other People’s Children, and releases on renegade labels like Wurlitzer Jukebox and Enraptured. Like those groups and labels, The Cat’s Miaow were reconciling independent pop music’s past – sweet melody and melancholy, chiming and droning guitars – with the futures promised by DIY electronics and nascent digitalia, the interface of indie and IDM that led to some of the underground’s most blissful, texturally swoonsome music. All that is here, but also, the poise of the melodies is pure Cat’s Miaow, though, with Bolton’s voice sailing, pacifically, over some of the most pared-down, gorgeous music made during their decade.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIt was a time, too, when such music could make waves – “We Crossed The Atlantic”, one of their early singles, was picked up by John Peel, who played it repeatedly on his legendary radio show, the song reaching #13 on his 1997 Festive 50. That the song itself was a cover of a tune by 1960s Australian beatnik-pop-poet Pip Proud felt even more perfect – a group of outsiders paying tribute to another outsider, played on the radio one of the few broadcasters brave and human enough to take a chance on this music. But it was a time where everything was up for grabs, and genres were flowing into each other: folk songs went drone; indie re-discovered noise; ambient pop floated, again, out onto the dancefloor. And while they may have been sequestered away in Melbourne, Australia, \u003cspan class=\"il\"\u003eHydroplane\u003c\/span\u003e felt core to that scene, a quietly driving force.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCompiling material from across their brief but mercurial career, this double album perfectly captures the magic and mystery of \u003cspan class=\"il\"\u003eHydroplane\u003c\/span\u003e’s dreamlike, perfect pop songs.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTracklist\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA1 We Crossed The Atlantic 3:53\u003cbr\u003eA2 The Love You Bring 7:00\u003cbr\u003eA3 When I Was Howard Hughes 2:48\u003cbr\u003eA4 Failed Adventure 3:38\u003cbr\u003eB1 Stars 1:55\u003cbr\u003eB2 Grand Central 4:26\u003cbr\u003eB3 International Exiles 4:53\u003cbr\u003eB4 Merry-Go-Round 3:54\u003cbr\u003eB5 Radios Appear 3:32\u003cbr\u003eC1 City Terminus 5:09\u003cbr\u003eC2 Min Min Light 4:03\u003cbr\u003eC3 Oregon Snow 3:39\u003cbr\u003eC4 Cherry Lake 2:08\u003cbr\u003eC5 Blackout 4:25\u003cbr\u003eD1 Please Don't Say Goodbye 3:04\u003cbr\u003eD2 Museum Station 4:29\u003cbr\u003eD3 Blue Train 2:54\u003cbr\u003eD4 You Were There 3:44\u003cbr\u003eD5 Something Better Beginning 2:59\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ciframe allow=\"autoplay *; encrypted-media *;\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"450\" style=\"width:100%;max-width:660px;overflow:hidden;background:transparent;\" sandbox=\"allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.music.apple.com\/gb\/album\/selected-songs-1997-2003\/1860405495\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"All Night Flight Records","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":58389899444606,"sku":"WOE011","price":32.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0020\/7755\/6791\/files\/IMG_8318_e3c73234-d11a-44ed-8cf5-9cd06da0d9d3.jpg?v=1793880627","url":"https:\/\/allnightflightrecords.com\/products\/hydroplane-selected-songs-1997-2004","provider":"All Night Flight Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}