Miserable Poison

People might call the early music of Pumice lo-fi, or something similarly dismissive or reductive. It’s never felt that way to me; like other great artists from New Zealand, Neville’s simply working with material to hand, the sound of the music reflecting both his creative interests and his mode of everyday living. Miserable Poison, a double CD set compiled from cassettes, compilations, lathe-cut records, singles, would feel bitty if that deeply personal sound wasn’t its unifying force. But it is, and if you pay more attention to Neville’s writing, what Miserable Poison reveals is two things: Neville always had melodic nous; with time, he learned how to hone and harness that capacity, but if you listen closely, you realise he never really smoothed out the rough edges, as that’s where a lot of the character resides. I jumped on board in the early noughties, so the biggest revelation here is material from very early Pumice, when they were a duo, Neville making music with friend Sugar Jon Arcus. It’s scruffy stuff, sure, but it’s often startling, with overloaded guitars and vocals, rhythms bobbing in hiss, buzzing and burring acoustic guitars that remind, surprisingly, of the unhinged ‘sea shanty’ melodies that guitarist David Mitchell brought out of groups like Plagal Grind and 3D’s. And underneath it all, a string of pop gems.