Cloudboy: Down at the End of the Garden

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * * *)

Cloudboy are another outfit of arty Dunedin origins, but there's not a tortured guitar within earshot on their delightful latest offering.

A collection of deadpan and downbeat electronic pop enriched with many an organic instrument, Down at the End of the Garden suggests the result of the city's lo-fi creativity blooming in a digital setting.

It's an album of foggy atmospheres infused with beguiling melodies care of the breathy vocals of frontwoman Demarnia Lloyd.

Her singing and the semi-electronic arrangements can prompt a Bjork echo or two (especially on Feudal and Ahoy), but Lloyd and co don't pale in the comparison.

Mostly, it's sad, sweet pop gone weird and dreamy, right from the tabla and violins opener of Teaboy, through the lava-lamp Latin of Red Rubicon, and on past the dubby throb of Cup Of Roses and the cool sweet-nothings of (You're So) Pretty.

It's imaginative pop of just-so poise with a hint of darkness which maintains its grip throughout its 15 tracks. And while mildly unconventional, at least for this country, Down At the End of the Garden actually manages to give "quirky" a good name.

It's a heady album that deserves to drag Cloudboy out of southern obscurity.

(Cloud)