Selected Songs 1997-2003 (Vinyl 2LP)

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.

Tracklist

1. We Crossed the Atlantic
2. The Love You Bring
3. When I Was Howard Hughes
4. Failed Adventure
5. Stars (Twilight Mix)
6. Grand Central
7. International Exiles
8. Merry-Go-Round
9. Radios Appear
10. City Terminus
11. Min Min Light
12. Oregon Snow
13. Cherry Lake
14. Blackout
15. Please Don’t Say Goodbye
16. Museum Station
17. Blue Train
18. You Were There
19. Something Better Beginning