Emma Peel Sessions

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"26 minutes of pure but purple listening pleasure."

            Drum Media (review of Emma Peel Sessions)

"Overdriven guitars, pop melodies and snippets of psychedelic, acid etched keyboards....relentless.....rocking....raw power."                                     

OTS (review of Emma Peel Sessions)

Having spent the last 12 months touring on the back of the Starlight's collection, and enjoying the support of their new record company Phantom, the band returned to the studio in early 1993 to record their next release - the Emma Peel Sessions EP.

avenger2.JPG (33296 bytes)While Starlight's Journey Home  continued to garner widespread critical acclaim, and be generally well-received by the denizens of the local oz rock dives, it had become increasingly obvious to the Avengers' that trying to reproduce the epic sounds of the debut record in small pubs with even smaller sound systems was fraught with aural danger. The band was definitely short of anything resembling a collection of 3 minute pop songs to compete with the (now ubiquitous) jangling temptations of bar room poker machines and the contra-melodious strains of the upstairs karaoke.

The answer to this dilemma was a collection of tracks hurriedly put together by the band in between (and sometimes during) some dangerously long kombie trips, and recorded in a week of frenetic activity at World Record Studios in the Avengers' hometown of Brisbane. More in keeping with the psych-punk traditions of bands like the Stooges, Redd Kross and the Modern Lovers than the prog-rock pretensions that fuelled Starlight's, the Emma Peel Sessions perfectly captured the raw, dynamic essences that made up the Avenger live experience.  

With a cover-art ode to the fabulous Diana Rigg and a cutesy word-play homage toavenger1.JPG (15789 bytes) John Peel in the title, the overall package was just what the doctor ordered for the band. Released in December 1993 the EP quickly found favour with the current batch of hip indie music writers and radio announcers in Australia, culminating in the high point of the Avengers' ever- fleeting flirtations with commercial rock success. Although not the most polished of the band's CD releases, the Emma Peel Sessions is nevertheless a brilliant little melodic nugget and a must-listen for afficionados of the psychedelic pop genre.

For a small sample of what all the fuss was about click on the hyperlinked song title below.

EMMA PEEL SESSIONS (1993) :

Goldfish Bowl MP3 4.4MB

Headdress

Freak show  

Describing Nowhere                        

Chasing Rainbows

Toy

Dewtide

Photographs  taken at Valley Fiesta April 1993

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