Name: Selected Songs 1997-2003
Brand: Hydroplane

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

WOE011LP

Colour

Black

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2023-09-01

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Cargo

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

5055869550154

Total Cap

Black LPx2

Artist

Hydroplane

Genre GB

Indie Pop / Shoegaze

Label GB

World of Echo

World of Echo is an independent record label based in London, UK. It is closely connected to a record shop with the same name. With a strong presence in the music industry, World of Echo offers a diverse range of music genres and artists.

The label has established itself as a reputable platform for emerging talent, showcasing unique and innovative sounds. Their commitment to supporting independent artists sets them apart from other labels, providing a space for creativity and artistic expression.

With their extensive knowledge and expertise in the industry, World of Echo curates an impressive collection of vinyl records that cater to all music enthusiasts. Whether you're searching for rare finds or contemporary releases, this label guarantees quality and authenticity.

Hydroplane is an Australian band hailing from Melbourne. With their unique blend of genres and captivating performances, they have quickly gained a loyal following in the music scene. Their infectious melodies and thought-provoking lyrics make them stand out among their peers. Whether you're a fan of indie rock or alternative pop, Hydroplane's music will leave you wanting more.
Formed in [year], Hydroplane consists of [band members' names]. They draw inspiration from various musical influences, resulting in a sound that is both familiar and refreshing. Their dynamic live shows have earned them praise for their energetic stage presence and tight musicianship.
Since their debut album release, Hydroplane has been making waves in the industry. Their songs have received airplay on radio stations across Australia and beyond. With each new release, they continue to push boundaries and explore new sonic territories while staying true to their signature sound.

Newest Listed Items

Selected Songs 1997-2003 compiles some of the finest moments in the recording history of Hydroplane, 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 Songs ’94-’98, 2022), or in the case of The Shapiros (Gone By Fall, 2023), while traversing the International Pop Underground.

Hydroplane 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, Hydroplane’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.

They may have only planned to release one seven-inch single, but the sound Hydroplane 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.

This loose coalition with dance music, and the quiet experimentalism at the heart of Hydroplane, 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.

It 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, Hydroplane felt core to that scene, a quietly driving force.

Compiling material from across their brief but mercurial career, this double album perfectly captures the magic and mystery of Hydroplane’s dreamlike, perfect pop songs.

Selected Songs 1997-2003 

Music GB