Top Gear, by Stef Animal

Top Gear

by Stef Animal

supported by

christholmz Evocative Instrumentals made with an eclectic collection of classic synths and home computers, with each short track billed as showcasing one particular piece of kit.

Which could either be quite cerebral -- a geek-purist's take on synth sounds, or it could be off-beat and tongue-in-cheek like the car program it references -- Top Gear.

Except it's neither. What it is, is music that's emotionally affecting and sometimes achingly pretty.

Favorite track: Adventure (Yamaha VSS-200).

Tulekahju Renartus A masterpiece of nostalgia. Our Spanish Dream literally made me cry, no joke Favorite track: Ducks (Cass Creek Electronic NZ Waterfowl Call).

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
By popular demand here's a very Limited Edition (only 200 pressed) 12" vinyl version of "Top Gear" in a full colour sleeve with updated artwork and inner, audio re-mastered for vinyl by Tom Bell (Port Chalmers Recording Service).
If you want to get the LP + The CD just add $10 to your payment and a note to say you want the CD too.

Includes unlimited streaming of Top Gear via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 2 days

edition of 200

$37.50 NZD or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
The only way to present an album celebrating the obsolete computer technology of the 80s is the futuristic digital time capsule of the Compact Disc. Stef Animal’ s “Top Gear” reclaims the future as imagined 30 years ago. The CD is in a heavy card gatefold sleeve with inner sleeve.

Includes unlimited streaming of Top Gear via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 2 days

$16.50 NZD or more
Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

$10 NZD or more

1.	Loading (Casio CA-100) 01:01	buy track
2.	In The Pines (Casio SK-1) 03:29	buy track
3.	Ducks (Cass Creek Electronic NZ Waterfowl Call) 01:28	buy track
4.	You Have Powers! (Casiotone MT-800) 02:40	buy track
5.	Cave Story (Acorn BBC Micro) 00:52	buy track
6.	The TGV (Roland U-220) 02:03	buy track
7.	The Ghost (Jaycar Waveform Generator) 00:31	buy track
8.	Adventure (Yamaha VSS-200) 02:01	buy track
9.	The Golden Condor (Commodore Amiga 500) 02:17	buy track
10.	Dragon Swirl (Ploytec PL2) 02:17	buy track
11.	Owl (Roland MT-32) 02:12	buy track
12.	The City (Yamaha TX81Z) 01:31	buy track
13.	Running Music (Atari 2600) 00:46	buy track
14.	End Credits (Letron MC-38) 02:18	buy track
15.	Our Spanish Dream (Roland U-110) 03:56	buy track

about

Stef Animal (The Golden Awesome) presents her debut solo release “Top Gear” again – now on limited edition LP for the first time since the album’s 2018 release.

“Top Gear” is a paean to obsolete, entry-level, mostly 1980s synth, computer and electronic music technology. It’s a concept album of fifteen compositions, each conceived and recorded in one session. Each track was made using a different piece of obsolete or unfashionable music equipment, and the result is a collection of lo-fi epic miniatures.

Even if you didn’t grow up with Atari video games, have no idea what Acorn and Commodore computers are or what acronyms like PCM and MIDI mean, you’ll still find the intricate universe of sound represented on “Top Gear” to be full of adventure, wonder, human emotion and melancholic weight.

But there’s a playfulness here too. Not only in the “Top Gear” title, but also in the way an electronic duck caller is hacked to produce a track, and childrens’ Casio keyboards and entry-level MIDI synth modules are used to deliver dark, sophisticated progressive experimental dream-pop mini-symphonies.

At the time of the technology used on “Top Gear”, Compact Disc technology was being hailed by classic rock musicians as the future of audio formats. However there’s something intangible and magic about the way those analog microgrooves cut into a spiral groove on vinyl transform the sound into something warm and even more wonderful.

“Pure and immense nostalgia” - debaser (Italy)

“A leading example of Oceanic Vaporwave” - Bandcamp Daily

“So damn good” - Ryan McPhun

“Emotionally affecting…achingly pretty” - Chris Holme

"A journey through electronic dream-pop and lo-tech cinematic synthscape” - UnderTheRadar NZ

“Gen-X catnip” - Radioactive.FM

“Creepy and soothing, calm and disjointed, measured and wild” - Blog on the Tracks

“Like the soundtrack of a forgotten childhood console game” - Wellington City Libraries

“A superbly executed concept album…an exercise in life-affirming wonderment” - NZ Musician

"A glorious collision of fantasy game soundtrack and Enya-style baroque ambience” - Electronic North

“Cinematic…ambient…playful. A unique sonic adventure!” - When You Motor Away

“Beautifully intriguing” - Dudley Benson

“Top Gear is genius and you should all listen to it” - Brannavan Gnanalingam

“An adventure through digital kingdoms of pulse-code modulated wonder” Otago Daily Times

“A really great album” - Karyn Hay

credits

released February 7, 2018

Written & recorded by Stef Animal in Wellington and Dunedin
(c) & (p) Stef Animal
Re-mastered for LP release 2022 by Tom Bell, Port Chalmers Recording Services

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about

Fishrider Records Dunedin, New Zealand

Dunedin, NZ 'arts & crafts' record label, since 2006. Bandcamp Daily said "a swath of bands with new wave and post-punk tendencies have dominated the label’s roster".

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Top Gear

by Stef Animal

Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

$37.50 NZD or more

Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

$16.50 NZD or more

Streaming + Download

$10 NZD or more

about

credits

license

tags

Tags

about

discography

contact / help

Top Gear

by Stef Animal

Limited edition 12" vinyl Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

Buy Record/Vinyl $37.50 NZD or more

Send as Gift

Compact Disc in gatefold sleeve Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

Buy Compact Disc $16.50 NZD or more

Send as Gift

Digital Album Streaming + Download

Buy Digital Album $10 NZD or more

Send as Gift

Share / Embed

about

credits

license

tags

Tags

about

discography

contact / help

Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

$37.50 NZD or more

Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

$16.50 NZD or more

Streaming + Download

$10 NZD or more