New Zealand indie rock/pop duo Tall Dwarfs may be the most important band in the lo-fi genre that you’ve never heard of. Formed in 1981, Chris Knox and Alex Bathgate combined acoustic and electric guitars, an organ, and homemade percussive sounds with pop sensibilities. This would go on to create the blueprint for aspiring lo-fi musicians over the next three decades.

Lo-fi music as a genre takes some getting used to. It is unpolished, off-kilter, and atonal at times.  Lo-fi pop and rock music emulates the best beats of the mainstream while maintaining and independent DIY attitude. This creates an interesting sonic dissonance for the listener. It vacillates between fly by the seat of your pants recording and well-crafted pop songs.  

The bar to entry for lo-fi is not very high. You just need a four-track recorder, a halfway tuned instrument, and some quirk. Despite what seems to be an easy creative route, it takes skill and talent to turn something unpolished, against the mainstream, seemingly unfinished at times, into an earwormy pop masterpiece.

Tall Dwarfs are the prototype lo-fi band. Their work influenced some incredible artists including The Mountain Goats, Pavement and Guided By Voices. Jeff Magnum of Neutral Milk Hotel stated that Tall Dwarfs have recorded, “some of the catchiest and most intelligent songwriting ever conceived. acoustic outsider poetry punk, mixed with a ‘studio as instrument’ artfulness. what more could you want?”

In their twenty-one-year tenure, Tall Dwarfs released six full-length albums and seven EPs. Now for the first time ever, Merge Records have collected the 55 of the most important tracks spanning their career into one collection: Unravelled: 1981-2002.

The songs range from indie-folk rock to jangle-pop, to everything in between. “Dog” has a psychedelic dance sound that would’ve fit nicely on Factory Records in their heyday. “Burning Blue” sounds like a Guided by Voices song minus the obvious pounding drums. Which brings up an important point. Across the 55 tracks, there are no drums to speak of. But using hand claps, household objects, and anything else they could get their hands on, Alex and Chris create enough percussion that the music does not feel lacking.

Admittedly, this collection is a lot to get through. It would be a hefty project to listen to this much music in succession for any artist. But don’t let the weight or length deter you from this incredibly talented and important band. My suggestion would be to proceed through the compilation in segments. Take time to savor and really take in the genius of their art.

Unravelled: 1981-2002 is available August 19^th for streaming everywhere. You can order a beautiful physical copy on 2 CD’s or 4 LP’s (which includes a 20-page collector’s book) through Merge Records. Follow Tall Dwarfs and stream Unravelled on Bandcamp.