Listen To Cat Venom's Singles 'Bats In The Belfry / Old Meat'

Expat New Zealand independent imprint MUZAI Records have started a wave of re-issues in celebration of their tenth anniversary, kicking off with a reanimated pair of tunes from Auckland duo Cat Venom, aka the team of Maeve Munro and Zina Gladiadis (you can read a vintage Q & A with the band here). A doomy intersection of cold wave and minimal post-punk, 'Bats In The Belfry' sounds suitably vampiric, while 'Old Meat' fattens the groove and adds feelings of urgency with fuzzed-out guitars – both songs sounding fresh despite nearly ten years of sonic dormancy. Now based in the UK with MUZAI helmsman Benjii Jackson, Munro currently plays with "stoner-witch-doom" group Faux Machismo who are hard at work on a debut EP. Jackson states the aim of the relaunched songs was to get them onto streaming services for the first time, and lifted the lid on the circumstances surrounding the recording of 'Bats In The Belfry / Old Meat'...

"'Bats In The Belfry' and 'Old Meat' were recorded at Dan, Maeve and my apartment on Symonds Street in 2009 before the subsequent leaky home syndrome ended up with those places being mere bare bones when I last visited the UK. It would mark Maeve's first foray into music since The Bengal Lights and I believe it was Zina's first band."

'Bats In The Belfry / Old Meat' is out now on all streaming platforms via MUZAI Records.