The Black Wood reviewed in The Wire

The Stumps (myspace) are very pleased to have received a reasonably jolly review for their The Black Wood in the latest issue of flash British music magazine The Wire:

The Stumps The Black Wood
LAST VISIBLE DOG link CD

After a series of releases in various formats (from their 2003 EP If I Gave You Some Concrete Slippers, Would You Wear Them When You Jump Off The Pier? link to their more recent LP Split Fleet Dodge link), The Black Wood is New Zealand trio The Stumps' first full length CD, a culmination of all the energy and ideas packed into their back catalogue.

Comprising guitarist Antony Milton, bass guitarist Stephen Clover and former Black Boned Angel drummer James Kirk, The Stumps have still managed to build up a subterranean reputation that has compared them to Acid Mothers Temple, Fushitsusha, Les Rallizes Dénudés and The Velvet Underground, Guru Guru and even Sun Ra -- despite rarely appearing outside their homeland. Although comparisons to such dissimilar sounding artists can make one suspicious, The Black Wood reveals trace elements of all the groups mentioned (with the notable exception of Sun Ra), only slowed down, with a deliberately dirty and distant psychedelic garage band sound revving up in places. Sections also suggest the live portion of Pink Floyd's Ummagumma link, where vast amplified constellations suddenly take the listener into the heart of some decaying sun, a sonic hallucination incorporated into The Stumps' crackling cosmos of fragmented, beat enhanced drone and eclipsing electric guitar interludes.

-- EDWIN POUNCEY link, The Wire September 2007

This somewhat trumps the previous review by a guy called Dave link -- which wasn't particularly positive.

The mark-up is all mine -- the bits in strikeout are factual errors; and noone's quite sure where the Sun Ra reference came from, either.