MarineVille - Ready for the Dance

Oak Park Records

lassy debut from this Wellington outfit, which combines ringing guitars with oddball and occasionally striking melodies, and an intriguing stylistic range.

If you start somewhere around the Go Betweens and end up around ambient guitar heroes Mogwai, the territory in between and operlapping the edges, is where MarineVille call home.

They sing when they want to and instrumentalise when it makes more sense, as on the sprawling 13-minute album closer Yoko Ono.

They play with a freedom that defies any marketing ploy, and for the most part this is well-executed, atmospheric and brooding, serious without being sullen. Corporate whore hounds take note ~ this is what's possible with a bit of imagination.

POSTED BY Mark ON 01 July 2002