Thee Ideal Gus began in Hamilton, New Zealand in the early 90’s and sprung from the same gene pool and time as Armpit, Gfrenzy and Pumice. Its participants include Sugar Jon Arcus, Clayton Noone, Indira Neville, Kaatarama “Motty” Morehu, Stefan Neville, Witcyst, Dan “Eemonk” Powell and Rachel Garbott but membership has never been settled or defined. The band have released numerous cassettes and lathe cut records on cult labels such as Plop, Root Don Lonie For Cash, Extemporaneous and Stabbies And The Rocket Recordings.
Thee Ideal Gus love double barrelled year numbers so during the year 1999 daily recordings were conducted in Whangarei and Wellsford in the far north of New Zealand, and Dunedin in the far south. Diaries were kept, artwork was assembled and tapes were posted up and down the country. The resulting material was released in an edition of 20 lathe cut 2 LP’s as “1999” by Stabbies And The Rocket Recordings.
This “99” LP is a selection of material compiled from that ridiculous obscurity by Clayton Noone & Stefan Neville. The music Thee Ideal Gus made that year documented the days as they happened. It charted weather patterns, prophesized the future and celebrated team sports. Eddie Murphy and Yoko Ono are held in equal high regard. Nude drunk partying and the New Zealand general election of 1999 are all there in this record where a rusted clothes line is played alongside a primary school xylophone, sampled techno records and ukulele through a heavy metal pedal. It is mundane and marvelous.
Edition of 200 copies in very elaborate packaging, including prints on acetate, xerox inserts and several hand-drawn original artworks.