Pebbles

Island living affords absolute polarities in both geography and the psyche - tranquility & isolation. This duality is present in the music of Pumice - the eccentric, flummoxing and oft-gloomy one-man band helmed by Stefan Geoffrey Neville, a resident of the cultural hamlet of Auckland, New Zealand. Though Pumice’s skewed take on experimental folk and pop songwriting is firmly rooted in the outsider vibes of downunder stalwarts like Pip Proud and Alastair Galbraith, the fruits of his labor are singular in scope as Neville weaves his own personal mythology mired with comedy, melancholy, humility and tragedy and delivered with vivid clarity. Pumice’s pesky brand of loner Kiwi DIY - precariously devoid of fatuous pose - is a colorful, desolate soundworld unto itself.

On Pebbles, the umpteenth Pumice full-length outing, Stefan Neville excavates the mutant rock of Simply Saucer & the idiosyncratic, rhythmic compositions of Moondog (at his most playfully abstract), and re-contextualizes those touchstones via the pages of a mid-70s Incredible Hulk comic book. Pebbles offers the unlikely marriage of astute refinement and wild abandon, with songs uplifting & sincere, yet dark, with oddball substance to spare. Featuring some of Pumice's best makeshift pop songs to date, Pebbles even manages a few excellently fractured instrumentals that harkens to The Clean circa Oddities.