New Zealand psych-pop pioneers The Puddle have been around, in one form or another, since 1984. Three albums and a 7" single on Flying Nun between 1986 and 1993 attracted critical appreciation and notoriety in equal measures for pop as shambling and sweet as you could possibly imagine. In 1993 The Puddle toughened up and recorded the brainy outsider rock album, ‘Songs for Emily Valentine’, but, apart from a 1995 single on a french label, the ‘Songs for Emily Valentine’ recordings were not released until 2005 when, by chance, The Puddle also found their way back into a studio to record their masterwork, “Playboys in the Bush”, which (this being The Puddle), has yet to be released. Meanwhile George continued to write even more new songs, recording these at his brother's home studio in Dunedin. the resulting album is ‘No Love – No Hate’ George thought that “No Love – No Hate” was a bicycle with a basket and bell that rings compared to Ferrari that was the now-mythical and as-yet still unreleased “Playboys in the Bush” recordings The Puddle did a few years ago. To continue this ridiculous analogy then “The Shakespeare Monkey” is a turbo-charged ice-cream truck.
