Marianne Funke PIECES OF DRIFTWOOD Vinyl LP Record NEW

Marianne Funke PIECES OF DRIFTWOOD Vinyl LP Record NEW.

New Zealand outsider Maxine Funke returns with an odds-and-sods anthology that spotlights her versatility with quirky drum machine workouts and DIY tape chop-ups alongside the usual tangled folk.

Described in the past as "Vashti Bunyan grow[ing] up on the Flying Nun catalog", Maxine Funke inhabits a particularly delicate corner of the New Zealand DIY scene. Releasing music since the mid 2000s, with Alastair Galbraith and Mike Dooley in $100 Band, and then solo, she's amassed a vast catalogue of low-key essentials, many of which appeared on a variety of random compilations, 7"s and lathe cuts. "Pieces of Driftwood" pulls a handful of Funke's rarest material together for the first time, bundling it with a couple of unreleased tracks just for good measure, and it shows how casually experimental she's been since the beginning.

'Rearview', a collaboration with Alastair Galbraith, was recorded for a 99-track benefit comp for Charalambides' Tom Carter and sparks the album to life with distorted Arab Strap-like drum machine cycles and moody guitar noodles. But by 'First in Spring' - snipped from Independent Woman Records' "Strange Eden" compilation - Funke is leaning into cheery lo-fi folk again, singing over tape hiss so dominant it practically needs a songwriting credit. 2018's "I Dischi Del Barone" 7" is included in full, and features the genius drum machine improvisation 'Sandhopper', that cuts frenetic hi-BPM rhythm blasts with tape-recorded waves for a short and sharp distraction from Funke's quaint Linda Perhacs-inspired songs.

Funke's unreleased material might be the album's greatest revelation. 'Old Lady Blues' is wonky as fuck, marrying off-kilter cello dissonance with throbbing oscillations and stifled bleeps, while 'South Dunedin' and 'Room in the City' are two of the record's most moving songs, the former sounding like a hushed, dictaphone-dubbed Elliott Smith and the latter dissolving into Broadcast-style prog-folk in its final act.