Mid city team (The Bats) (LP 4147 - 4150)

The Bats  Daddy's Highway (CD, Flying Nun Records, 1987) ****  

The Bats  Couchmaster (CD, Flying Nun Records, 1995) ***** 

The Bats  Thousands of Tiny Luminous Spheres (CD, Flying Nun Records, 2000) **** 

The Bats  Foothills (CD, Flying Nun Records, 2020) **** 

Genre: NZ Music, alt rock

Places I remember: Slow Boat Records, JB Hi Fi, Electric City Music

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Made Up in Blue (Daddy's Highway) via YouTube

Gear costume: Afternoon in Bed (Couchmaster) via YouTube

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6

Active compensatory factors: The Bats are a band from the mainland of Nu Zild - associated with 'the Dunedin sound'. At the time of their debut album, Daddy's Highway, they were: Robert Scott – lead vocals, guitars, Kaye Woodward – vocals, guitars; 
Paul Kean – vocals, bass guitar; Malcolm Grant – drums. The band has remained unchanged since then, which is fairly remarkable.

That male/female vocal combo of Robert and Kaye and the jangly guitars help create The Bats sound which is very infectious. It gets a little samey over the course of the album which is why I prefer Couchmaster - their fifth album.

I like its variety of pace and sound, and the drone like fuzz they generate at times. They are also quite experimental on Couchmaster - trying different things - pretty much everything works. It's also the first Bats album that I bought and so there's that connection - it often happens that my favourite album by an artist is the first one I buy.

I bought their compilation Thousands of Tiny Luminous Spheres because I couldn't find the albums in between their first and Couchmaster. The bonus comes in a couple of unreleased outtakes and the fact that it does collect their best songs to this point - i.e. 2000.

Foothills (2020) is their tenth album since 1987. That's something to be proud of, right? It's hard to sustain a musical career over that many years with the same members, but The Bats are still a going concern.

Foothills is much mellower than other Bats' albums - there's a lovely pastoral pop approach to the sound. Nearly 40 years on and the band have produced another classy album.

Where do they all belong? Always keen to find more of their albums. I managed to even get another one today - a compilation of their first three CDs called Compiletely Bats. Thanks to Kevy's help and love for all things batty, I also have one of Robert Scott's solo albums and Minisnap's album.