Difference between revisions of "Luna spark"

Latest revision as of 23:52, 14 February 2013

Scud Of Freedom - July 2007

Bio

luna spark (always spelt in all lower or all upper case) was an indietronic group/solo project originally based in Hamilton, New Zealand. The 'group' was formed in late 2000 by Dan Duran, going under the pseudonym tracey exenola (once again, always lower/upper case).

The project grew out of a previous group called Planet Claire with rop movie and Scott Howard (later of the Natalies). They only played only one gig, at the UFM Battle of the Bands in 2000, and broke up on its completion. The group's sound was unique to the competition, utilising a drum machine and no live drummer or bass player. Later that year, still without a band, using a similar setup, the recordings that would become the first luna spark EP began to take form.

Flyer handed out at the only Planet Claire gig, 2000

luna spark's first recording, an EP called Sarah, came out in early 2001. Some basic mastering had been provided by Fran from the group Tweeter, who was living in the same building at the time.

luna spark's second EP, Media, came out in May 2002. Two others appeared on this release, rop movie and the 'Catatonic Spacette'. The six track EP spawned a minor local radio 'hit' in Over the Rainbow, a quirky and offbeat rendition of the Wizard of Oz classic (complete with a rap from rop movie), which eventually found its way onto the Zeropointone compilation CD.

Dan Duran c.2003

luna spark's debut full length album Panic followed in July 2003; it featured a re-recorded version of Media's Moving Target and songs previously played live such as Still and 129 Die, expanding on the sound developed over the initial EPs. rop movie played guitar on 129 Die, a song he and Dan Duran had originally written way back in 1997.

The next luna spark move would be the album Simcerity, released in October 2004. A dramatic shift from the previous releases, Simcerity was covered in acoustic guitars and live keyboards, and half the album was sung by Roz, who also contributed musically to a couple of the tracks (most notably Get Off Of My Case). The standout track from the album, Sleepless, received airplay on the Generator and several podcasts, and even a spot on a tsunami charity album, Reconstruction. Electro-punk-noise band the Clerics covered it at the first annual Circle Jerk in 2005. Repair and Get Off Of My Case also got some airplay locally.

Countdown To Meltdown - 2006

Next, the album Countdown To Meltdown was written and recorded, inside three weeks, as part of the February Album Writing Month, and released in March 2006.

In February 2007, the albums The Siren and Trigger Happy Little Finger were released simultaneously. lulu returned to do vocals on the largely acoustic Trigger..., while The Siren, two years in the making, was an indietronic concept album detailing the story of a young boy who found success in the political arena as a result of his technological enhancements.

July of the same year saw Scud Of Freedom, a loud, shiny 'rock' oriented album layered in guitars and lasting just under half an hour. The Waikato Times gave the album 3 1/2 stars, commenting "synth and drum programming are mixed brilliantly with ferociously driven guitars".

To date there have only been three live luna spark performances - one at the Band Experiments in mid 2002, one at Soundproof in late 2002 (a show which included a cover of the Talking Heads' Road To Nowhere, and the Circle Jerk 2006 (performing songs by Stadium and Rose Petals and Confetti).

In early 2008 luna spark began releasing re-recordings of the Panic tracks, one song per month, beginning with Spin, Crash & Burn. Four tracks were released before a robbery left Dan without the complex musical notation that was the backbone of the next track due, 'Patterns'. As a result, the re-recording project was canned, and a short EP of largely acoustic material, Steady State EP, was released instead.

In March 2009 Dan retired the luna spark moniker, saying he wanted to give his new material (recorded under the alias Radio Over Moscow) a fresh, baggage-free start. A best of collection was prepared and released via zip file and torrent.

Releases

Albums/EPs

• Sarah (EP) - 2001
• Media (EP) - 2002
• Panic (LP) - 2003
• Simcerity (LP) - 2004
• Countdown To Meltdown (LP) - 2006
• Trigger Happy Little Finger (LP) - 2007
• The Siren (LP) - 2007
• Scud Of Freedom (LP) - 2007
• Steady State EP (EP) - 2008
• luna spark - The Best Of 2001-2008 (LP - zip/torrent) - 2009
• luna spark - The Second Best Of and Bits & Pieces 1998-2008 (zip) - 2009

MP3 singles only

• Guns Of Brixton (Clash cover) - 2003
• Sleepless (demo) - 2004
• Repair (remix) - 2004
• Media Whore (remix) - 2004
• Sound of the Crowd (Human League cover) - 2005
• Run Like Hell (Pink Floyd cover) - 2005
• Scully's Theme - 2008
• David Watts - 2008
• Copywrong (remix feat. Disasteradio and Mike Corb) - 2009

Miscellaneous

• Over the Rainbow appeared on the compilation Zeropointone
• All Your Rights Are Belong To Us appeared on the compilation Area 07
• Sleepless appeared on the compilation Reconstruction
• Copywrong, an mp3-only release in early 2009 was a remix of a track put together by Disasteradio and Mike Corb

Members

• tracey exenola/Dan Duran - guitar, bass, keys, programming, vocals, songwriting

with:

• lulu - vocals
• rop movie - guitar, bass, rap
• catatonic spacette - vocals
• camille - vocals

See also

• Vetox
• Big Elephants
• R William Murphy
• Roz Case

External links

• luna spark official website
• luna spark in outer myspace
• luna spark on last fm
• luna spark on virb