RESTOCK EXPECTED EARLY DECEMBER
I think it was F. Scott Fitzgerald who said "American lives don't have second acts". Well, this is Hydroplane. They do things differently. 24 years on since the release of what I'd honestly assumed would be their final record, the Melbourne trio are back with a collection of songs that suggest no diminishing of inspiration nor application. If anything, they sound more relevant than ever, concocting a kind of dream-laced, somnambulist pop that feels particularly akin to contemporary tastes. Not quite shoegaze, not quite electronica, but rippling with the lovelorn gloom both can be highly effective at articulating, their loop-based practice, replete with needle crackle wistfulness, allied with Kerry Bolton's still hugely affecting vocal seems to touch on a type of teenage romanticism that's perpetually in bloom. How they've managed to do this after so long out the game is revealing of just how underrated they were the first time around. Don't make that mistake again. A third act might not be so forthcoming. A huge honour to have them active and back in our world.
FFO: April Magazine, Insides, Movietone, Empress
