Cat's Miaow: Skipping Stones: The Cassette Years '92-'93 LP

World of Echo follow 2022's essential 'Songs '94-'98' set with a deeper dive into the archives of cult Aussie DIY heroes The Cat's Miaow, assembling 35 tracks from the band's earliest, rarest tape releases. Absolutely crucial gear for anyone into Black Tambourine, The Pastels or Galaxie 500.

While the last compilation represented The Cat's Miaow's later period, collecting up the four-piece's 7" highlights and loosies, 'Skipping Stones' zeroes in on their early tape releases: 'Little Baby Sour Puss', 'Pet Sounds', 'From My Window' and 'How Did Everything Get So Fucked Up', all issued or overseen by Melbourne's Toytown imprint. This is rougher, more stripped-down material, with early versions of 'Songs '94-'98' highlights like 'Hollow Inside', 'Note on the Table' and 'Not Like I Was Doing Anything' alongside rarer, more powdery material, some of which made it to Daydream Records' 'Climb My Stairs' comp from last year.

There's a lot to digest here, but these songs are miniatures, often only clocking in at a minute or less. Kerrie Bolton's voice shimmers over Bart Cummings' muted strums on the gorgeous 'Disappointed', but it's over before its even started, and on the the aptly-titled 'Little and Small', the entire band get a look-in, with Cameron Smith's featherlight drums and Andrew Withycombe's Hook-y basslines emerging for seconds before it winds to a close. We get to hear The Cat's Miaow's writing process here, and they were knocking out material at an astonishing rate: four albums in two years. And although their songs aren't as well canonized as those from the C86 set or Belle and Sebastian, they highlight a transitional period in jangle-pop history, as four-track rigs were traded for studio time.

On 'A 50s Ballad', they unveil their love of vintage girl group material, and on 'Saviours for the Hurrying Man' nudge at the dizzy experimental flavors they'd investigate once the band evolved into Hydraplane in 1996. This is an inspiring early diary entry, that shows off the loves and processes of one of Australia's most underrated DIY acts - if you've managed to miss them up until this point, then we can't think of a better intro.