This came out in 2000 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Trendy capitalization notwithstanding, the name southpacific makes you think of lushly warm, tropically earthy musical delights, doesn’t it?
Well, as Alanis would say, isn’t it ironic? This trio of Ottawa-born, Toronto-based shoegazers practise a style of somnambulant space-rock that’s anything but steamy and cozy — although it certainly does qualify as lush. Like kindred spirits SIANspheric and labelmates Bailter Space, southpacific don’t so much play songs as set off on instrumental, interplanetary flights of fancy, dreamily gliding along on glistening solar-flare guitars and waves of radiating feedback, all elegantly powered by the gentle thrust of sombre progressions and languid backbeats. Take your protein pill and put your helmet on …
