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BAND MEMBERS: JOHN WHITE
RELEASES: 2 EPs (Balloon Adventure & Mogwash)

JOHN WHITE also appears on:
The Gray Between Shadow and Shade by Trillion.

Press Release

BALLOON ADVENTURE by John White.

John White is a singer/songwriter, originally from Dunedin, now living in Wellington.

Balloon Adventure is the first solo departure from his band, Mestar. It was recorded over a day during the recording of a new Mestar album. Originally home-made cds were available for friends and family but now the album is publicly available.

It’s an adventurous and clever album. The songs seem complex in structured but the chords are simple. The melodies are easy to sing along to but the words are hard to grasp. The songs are twee accounts of strange fantastical dreams. It often sounds like nonsense, but suddenly all makes sense when you're eating your breakfast the next morning. As a response to accusations of complete gibberish, lyrics are now included in the packaging to satisfy confused listeners.

So crowd around kiddies, it's time to go for a Balloon Adventure!

More info:
www.mestar.co.nz

 

REVIEWS - BALLOON ADVENTURE

This is the remarkable solo album from John White, a member of the Dunedin-founded fuzzy, noisy pop band Mestar. Johns solo work is something else altogether: viola, cello and piano accordion take the place of guitar drums and bass. It sits on the acoustic side of pop, with odd little lyrical tales and vocal harmonies reminiscent of 'The Beatles 'across the universe). Balloon Adventure is the kind of album you don't want to share with anybody else. 5/5

Gemma Gracewwod - She and More Magazine


First solo album from John White, frontman of the criminally underrated Dunedin Fuzz-Popsters – Mestar. Originally released a couple of years ago as a CD-R for those in the know, White – now Wellington based - is a one of this country's great unsung talents, a situation that will hopefully soon be rectified thanks to the album finally getting the wider release it deserves care of Jody Lloyd's (of Darktower and Trillion fame) "She'll Be Right" Label. With 'Balloon Adventure' White takes the listener on a charming and fantastical journey, that leaves them feeling as if they've drifted off to sleep and awoken in a old children's story book or forgotten Nursery Rhyme and song titles - "Marigan Child", "Float on a Feather" and "Balloon Adventures" - as the albums artwork serve to reinforce that imagery. The song's are beautifully simple folk-tinged ditties, just White's sweet almost cherubic voice (double tracked in harmony) and a few simple chords strummed on acoustic guitar, with occasional accordion, cello or viola accompaniment. The album changes tack slightly with closing track "Instrumental" - a mammoth 23 minute sound scape built from delayed violin and viola. Absolutely stunning stuff!  Also look out for the release of John White's second album 'Mogwash' – again through She'll Be Right (good on ya Mr Lloyd!) - in the coming months.
Highly Recommended.

review from smokecds.com

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from: www.heathenharvest.com

Artist: John White 

Title: Mogwash & Balloon Adventure

Genre: Folk

01 Sailor’s Song
02 Mogwash
03 Little Boy Baker
04 Artemy
05 Goodbye to Rainy Days
06 Hearts on Fire
07 Memory Bells
08 Little Miss Rose
09 Balloon Adventure
10 Morning Dream
11 Marigan Child
12 As the Bomb Falls Down
13 Train Disaster
14 Float on a Feather
15 Darkest Day
16 End of the Road
17 Instrumental

John White is a musician currently playing in The Zoo Polluters, Sunsets on Acid, and Mëstar. He has toured Europe with noise-pop group Cloudboy, created live soundtracks to archival New Zealand footage, and traveled to South Korea with fellow New Zealanders Amalgam to take part in a performance in a Buddhist monastery. This release on Last Visible Dog Records brings together two previous John White solo albums, 2000’s Balloon Adventure and Mogwash from 2003. Balloon Adventure was said to be a reaction to an intense period of recording with Mëstar, while Mogwash was recorded with fellow members of Cloudboy in Berlin.

This release is 17 tracks of beautiful, dreamy folk. From the opening bars of Sailor’s Song the listener gets carried away on waves of gentle melody. Songs such as Little Boy Baker are informed by children’s songs and convey both the naiveté and strangeness of those tunes. There’s a darkness here too, particularly in the Balloon Adventure material. Most notably on my favourite track As The Bomb Falls Down. A slightly lazy comparison could be made with Syd Barrett’s work. The precision of the song-writing, the almost pop sensibilities actually make me think of Robert Smith, not so much in sound but just with his way of creating perfect nuggets of dream-pop folk. The whole experience of this CD is one of a drifting melancholy that is somehow relaxing.

On the strength of this CD I have no idea why John White isn’t huge yet. His songs are at once finely crafted examples of credible song-writing, while also being accessible enough to have the potential to become really popular. For those who enjoy the more gentle forms of dream-pop folk I couldn’t recommend this album enough. John White is one to watch.