For roughly three decades -- between 1979 and 2009 -- the New Zealand duo of
Alec Bathgate and
Chris Knox poured endless creativity and strangeness into their songs together as
Tall Dwarfs, informing multiple generations of indie rock in the process.
Tall Dwarfs took
Beatles harmonies and the jangly melodic approach of their Kiwi pop peers, applied an experimental weirdness to their songs, and recorded everything at home on a reel-to-reel four-track. The band burned strong through the '80s, '90s, and into the 2000s, eventually graduating to more modernized recording methods but keeping their off-center charm and analog-informed production style until
Knox suffered a stroke in 2009 that effectively ended the band.
Unravelled: 1981-2002 is a massive (but not exhaustive) anthology that takes highlights from every phase of the band's recorded output, from a run of EPs in the '80s to the frequently delivered full-lengths that followed. With 55 songs,
Unravelled covers a lot of ground. The duo's homespun recording style is well exemplified on their earliest material, with catchy songs like "All My Hollowness to You," "Maybe," and "The Brain That Wouldn't Die" offering up distorted guitars and attitude-heavy,
Velvet Underground-inspired vocals, but replacing traditional drums with hand claps or pots-and-pans percussion. Songs like "Beauty" forego drums altogether, with acoustic guitars and electric bass sounding like they're plugged directly into the mixing console. The
Tall Dwarfs' approach evolved on later recordings but didn't merely acquiesce to the times, with household percussion replaced by dingy Casio keyboard drum machine rhythms on '90s tracks like "Bee to Honey." Even songs from 2002's
The Sky Above the Mud Below stick to single-drum rhythms on the momentous "Baby It's Over," and electronic timekeeping from preset rhythm tracks or experimental synths. The band's formula throughout combines risk-taking production with pop-centered songwriting, resulting in hummable songs doused in ear-catching weirdness. One of the most striking aspects of
Unravelled is the way it illuminates just how profound an influence
Tall Dwarfs had on much of the indie rock that followed them. It's hard not to hear
Guided by Voices in the enthusiastic but damaged "Pictures on the Floor,"
Pavement's early lo-fi college rock in songs like "Life Is Strange," and
Yo La Tengo's mellow shredding in the soft distortion of "Crush." Regardless of context, the collection offers a non-stop flow of one great tune after another, exemplifying just how much amazing music
Tall Dwarfs quietly created over the years, and how singular a band they truly were. ~ Fred Thomas
