Pumice

A collection of Pumice recordings from 1993-99, when teenagers Sugar Jon Arcus and Stefan Neville learned about music by doing it. The album covers the earliest days of the band recording on ghetto blasters with untuneable guitars at home in Whatawhata and Hamilton, NZ. There are a couple of recordings from their first public performance with drummer Ugly Dog Davies where their friends yelled at them relentlessly. There is material from the years living in Dunedin, NZ with cassette 4 track machines. Living cheaply in a cheap city with pet dogs and all the time in the world. Finally the album includes music from the move back north to Hamilton and Auckland. Material that was released in microscopic editions as lathe cut 7 inches and cassettes and the last times Jon participated in Pumice activities. The LP features trio, duo and solo recordings by both Jon and Stefan. The basic multi-directional creative impulse that Pumice is known for today is there from the beginning. One chord pop songs, crumbling folk music and smeared organ sound sculptures. Small speakers shitting themselves with distortion and tape saturation. Acoustic guitars twanging and Stefan and Jon clearly learning to write songs of real quality. This music making manages to be bold, reckless and stupid, as well as delicate, sad and instinctive. Pumice has always done whatever the fuck it wants to.

Poise Etc is a testament to the enduring spirit of DIY creativity, a record that is as heartfelt as it is unconventional. For fans of outsider pop, experimental rock, and the New Zealand underground, this LP is a vital document of a scene that continues to inspire.