''Down at the End of the Garden'' is the debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by New Zealand band

Cloudboy Cloudboy was an electronic music group from Dunedin, New Zealand, that recorded and performed between 1995 and 2003. Their music is described as dark and introspective, mixed with occasionally upbeat songs. The band had three main members, Dema ...

, released in April 2001.

Production

Lead vocalist

Demarnia Lloyd Demarnia Lloyd is a New Zealand musician, known for her work with the group Cloudboy. She has also produced comics. Lloyd was the inaugural artist in residence at Smith's Grainstore, Oamaru Oamaru (; mi, Te Oha-a-Maru) is the largest town in ...

of the band Mink first worked on Cloudboy as a side project in 1995, releasing a seven-track

extended play An extended play record, usually referred to as an EP, is a musical recording that contains more tracks than a single but fewer than an album or LP record.

. Work began on ''Down at the End of the Garden'' in 1997, while Lloyd continued to be an active member of Mink. When Mink disbanded in 1999, Lloyd relocated from Dunedin to Wellington to finish recording the album. The record was created by Craig Monk, Demarnia Lloyd of Mink and Johannes Contag of the band the Golden Awesome, and was recorded at home studios. The band felt free to experiment with new home studio technology, and attempted to create lush soundscapes to frame Lloyd's voice in compelling and unusual ways, while avoiding established genre sounds. The album is in part inspired by the serenity Lloyd felt among the hills above Wellington.

Release and promotion

The album was released in April 2001, through Arclife in the

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

and Loop in the

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

. Cloudboy held three performances at the

BATS Theatre BATS Theatre is a theatre venue in Wellington, New Zealand. Initially founded as the Bats Theatre Company in 1976, then established in its current form in 1989. BATS Theatre has seen the development of many performing arts talents of New Zeala ...

in March and April 2001 to celebrate the release of the album. After the album saw increased sales and radio play during the bNet NZ Music Week, the band returned to Wellington to perform a one-off show at the Paramount Theatre on 20 May. This was followed by a European tour in September. The band planned to create a remix album based on the tracks of ''Down at the End of the Garden'' to gain entry into the world of dance music, but this project never eventuated. On 22 April 2023, the album was re-released with a revised track listing for

Record Store Day Record Store Day is an annual event inaugurated in 2007 and held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". The day brings together fa ...

through

Flying Nun Records Flying Nun Records is a New Zealand independent record label formed in Christchurch in 1981 by music store manager Roger Shepherd. Described by ''The Guardian'' as "one of the world's great independent labels", Flying Nun is notable for bringin ...

. A remastered version of the music video for "(You're So) Pretty" was released a week earlier on 14 April.

Critical reception

Russell Baillie of ''

The New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspapers ...

'' gave the album four stars out of five, describing ''Down at the End of the Garden'' as "an album of foggy atmospheres infused with beguiling melodies care of the breathy vocals of frontwoman Demarnia Lloyd", praising the album as "imaginative pop of just-so poise with a hint of darkness". Russell and Graham Reid from ''The New Zealand Herald'' rated it number 12 on their list of top 20 albums of the year.

Track listing

Credits and personnel

*Johannes Contag – arranger, mixing, recording *

– arranger, recording, writing, vocals *Craig Monk – arranger, recording *Heath Te Au – recording

Charts

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Down at the End of the Garden 2001 debut albums Dream pop albums by New Zealand artists Flying Nun Records albums