The Bats and Show Of Hands Movie Soundtrack Albums - Out Today
The Bats - The Guilty Office
For their seventh studio album – The Guilty Office – the band continue to refine and develop their own idiosyncratic
path, whilst also adding fresh sparkle and new ideas. The strings and additional instruments come to the fore, such as
on the first single Castle Lights, and Robert Scott’s songwriting has become particularly strong on tracks such as
Countersign and Crimson Enemy. It could have been pentagonal room they recorded in at John Kelcher’s studio, or the
proximity to the Heathcote river, but either way, the band have come up with an album that shines among their best.
The Bats have amassed plenty of fans at home and offshore, particularly in US. There they toured four times between
1986 and 1993 - when they took to the road with Belly and Radiohead. They also scored very well with front cover of
benchmark US industry magazine Billboard featuring glowing reviews for their releases through Communion and Mammoth
Records. The Bats also achieved Single of the Week in British magazine NME, high placing on the CMJ charts and use of
their songs in several movies and on MTV. Currently, classic Bats track North By North features as the theme song to
successful Australian political satire, The Hollowmen.
Their 2006 album The Bats At The National Grid saw a global release including distribution through Magic Marker Records
in the USA, Little Teddy in Europe, Egg Records in UK, and Reverberation in Australia. The album received excellent
reviews from influential media including Spin, Magnet Magazine, All Music Guide and College Music Journal and achieved
places on playlists on close to 200 of the CMJ radio stations. In 2006 they returned to the US for a 15 date tour
including a sold out show at SXSW.
The Bats were formed in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1982 by Robert Scott, bassist for the massively influential The
Clean, as an outlet for his songs when he thought The Clean had split for good. He became guitarist and prime vocalist,
while ex-Toy Love member Paul Kean took on bass. Malcolm Grant became drummer and guitarist Kaye Woodward’s gleaming
harmony vocals would come to be a defining presence in the band. Signing to New Zealand's hottest at the time indie
label, Flying Nun, The Bats went on to release three EP’s, six albums and two compilations as well as numerous singles
and videos.
Show of Hands Movie Soundtrack - Out Today
Don McGlashan composed and oversaw the Show of Hands soundtrack featuring performances by himself and his band The Seven
Sisters with guests including Anika Moa, Reb Fountain, Voom, James Ioelu, Sean Donnelly and more. The soundtrack was
recorded at Roundhead Studios in Auckland and mixed by Tom Miskin.
Show of Hands is an off-beat love story centered on a car yard in an everyday suburb, where an endurance competition
with a difference is being staged. The competition requires entrants to place a hand on a new Land Rover Discovery and
keep it there. The winner of the car will be the person who keeps their hand continuously on it the longest. The world
record for such a competition is over 5 days.
The film has so far received excellent reviews, no doubt helped by the prominence and quality of the music! It features
the actors Melanie Lynskey, Craig Hall and Stephen Lovatt, was produced by Angela Littlejohn and is based on the a novel
by Anthony McCarten.
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