Tall Dwarfs were one of the fundamental groups for the development of New Zealand �lo-fi� rock. Their repertoire, almost entirely recorded at Chris Knox�s home, contains few truly memorable songs, but the strictly independent and anti-commercial spirit of their work intoxicated an entire generation of musicians.

Their story began in Dunedin, where singer Chris Knox and guitarist Alex Bathgate, inspired by the Sex Pistols, formed a punk-rock band, the Enemy, in 1977. When they moved to Auckland, they added bassist Paul Kean and changed their name to Toy Love. They managed to record two singles (Rebel and Don't Ask Me), among the most popular of the local new wave, and a mini-album, Tall Dwarfs (WEA, 1980), before splitting up at the end of 1980. (Kean would later join the Bats.)

In 1982, Knox and Bathgate finally launched Tall Dwarfs, who quickly became the leading figures of New Zealand �nouveau pop.� Without a drummer, Tall Dwarfs performed ingenious and playful harmonic paradoxes centered on slightly off-kilter choruses and characterized by arrangements as sparse as they were complex and unusual. Their debut EP, Three Songs (Furtive, 1981), testifies both to their eccentricity and melodic talent. In Nothing's Going To Happen, twenty musicians alternate on all kinds of instruments, starting as a Hawaiian ballad and ending as a small, picturesque town-band concert. All My Hollowness To You is instead a delicate folk ballad.

On the second EP, Louis Likes His Daily Dip (Flying Nun, 1982), standout tracks include Paul's Place, where the singer chants in an Eastern-flavored style over a lively synthesizer melody, counterpointed by a shrill female voice, with rhythm played on household objects, and Song Of The Silents, whose guitar crescendo chords define a Sister Ray-style boogie-trance � la Velvet Underground, with a cadence punctuated by Native American drums. The soft-spoken blues of Clover rises magically into a circular melody reminiscent of a Renaissance song.

The band continued inventing quirky harmonies on the mini-album Canned Music (Flying Nun, 1983): the dreamy ballad Turning Brown And Torn In Two, the comic anthem Beauty, and Walking Home are masterpieces of sparse, homemade arrangements.

At the same time, Chris Knox released his first solo work, Songs For Cleaning Guppies (Flying Nun, 1983), full of novelties like Sand Fly and Jesus Loves You.

The semi-serious saga of Tall Dwarfs continued with the EP Slugbucket Hairybreath Monster (Flying Nun, 1984) and tracks like The Brain That Wouldn't Die, a spectacular boogie built entirely on crazy timbres, the chant of Phil's Disease, and the long psychedelic song Crush.

The last albums of the decade continued the playful spirit with unchanged serenity, but gradually added new elements. That's The Short And Long Of It (Flying Nun, 1985) is a mediocre collection of odds and ends. Throw A Sickie (Flying Nun, 1986), on the other hand, is one of their masterpieces, featuring a manic trio of tracks: Attack of The Munchies, The Universality Of Neighbourliness, and No Place. Dogma (Flying Nun, 1988) is perhaps the most musical, thanks to Can't and Waltz Of The Good Husband.

Two anthologies compile all the material released up to 1986: Hello Cruel World (Flying Nun, 1987) and The Short And Sick Of It (Flying Nun, 1992).

Although they had invented one of the decade�s fundamental genres, �lo-fi pop,� Tall Dwarfs gained only minimal fame in the following decade. Weeville (Flying Nun, 1990 � Homestead, 1992 � Cloud Recordings, 2005) moved toward social themes and especially demonstrated the duo�s maturation in composition, with increasingly catchy and elegant songs (Log, Mr Brocoili, Lie).

Slightly less compelling, Fork Songs (Flying Nun, 1991 � Cloud Recordings, 2005) still offers sublime melodies (We Bleed Love, LIfe Is Strange). However, the exuberant madness of their early days seems to have dried up, and, as often happens with age, the duo ends up repeating the same joke endlessly: by the fifth time you hear it, it�s no longer fun. Oddities abound, but it is always the same oddity (the oddity of using oddities in a pop song) being repeated. (The CD also includes Dogma.)

Meanwhile, Chris Knox also recorded a second solo album, Seizure (Flying Nun, 1990). The album is much more �normal� than the Tall Dwarfs releases and contains at least two Knox classics: The Face Of Fashion and Not Given Lightly. Other songs of his that became classics include Not Given Lightly and Song For 1990 (on the eponymous EP).

Knox�s third solo album, Croaker (Flying Nun, 1991), again focused on an even more conventional rock-song format, presents him as a Robyn Hitchcock figure�prolific yet amateurish�frantically publishing home-recorded material while genuinely engaging with important social issues (Liberal Backlash Angst). Bits of David Bowie (Lapse) and shards of Lou Reed (A Sonf Of The Only Child) complete the package. These two solo albums were later summarized on Meat (Communion, 1993).

Knox thus arrived at a sprawling, 70-minute opus-solo rant, Polyphoto, Duck Shaped Pain and Gum (Flying Nun, 1993), containing (respectively) recordings from a few years prior, an album of new material (including the catchy Under The Influence and the quirky Trim Milk), and the EP Gum.

The more than twenty sketches of Songs For You And Me (Flying Nun, 1995), another solo album by Knox, cannot really be called songs; they can only suggest what Rust and Hubba Hubba Has Been Hoot might have become in the hands of a real musician. Yet in some cases (One Fell Swoop, Young Female Caucasian), they reaffirm his personal primacy in the �lo-fi� movement.

In parallel, more Tall Dwarfs were released. 3 EPs (1994) collects A Question Of Medical Ethics, Up The Down Staircase and Sam's Spaniel. A few of the sermons (Postmodern Deconstructivist Blues) and of the pop vignettes (Starry Eyed and Wally Brained) are noteworthy, but overall the routine is beginning to hurt the band. Almost (Dark Beloved Cloud, 1999) collects leftovers from the period 1990-1993.

Chris Knox's Yes!! (Flying Nun, 1997) is a pleasant collection but nothing that his fans hadn't heard before. Brilliant creations include The Joy Of Sex, Backstab Boogie, Tantamount To Treasury.

Alex Bathgate, the other Tall Dwarf, launched his solo career at the end of 1996 with a wonderful single, later included in the first album, Gold Lame (Flying Nun, 1997). While a humble home recording, Bathgate managed to sculpt and layer sounds until Happy Hound, as well as Your Heavy Dream and Carl's Arrows, sound like the Church. Pet Hates, as well as Slow Parade and Life Ain't Easy, display a remarkable talent for catchy refrains.

The Tall Dwarfs resumed joint operations with Stumpy (Flying Nun, 1997), a joke of an album composed on the basis of ideas mailed them from fans around the world. The duo's original compositions are few but do include a 20-minute jam, Up, that breaks with any of their long-held lo-fi beliefs.

The duo recovered some ground with Fifty Flavours Of Glue (Flying Nun, 1999), a collection of melodic gems like Gluey Gluey. While not the most profound of rock albums, and not the best played, and certainly not the most original, it contributed to solidify the duo's fame as forefathers of lo-fi pop.

Beat (Thirsty Ear, 2000) shows the aging Chris Knox in his quest for moral peace. It's Love and Everyone's Cool try to lift the mood, but Becoming Something Other, The Pulse Below The Ear and Ghost (written under the shock of his father's death) dig deep into the human soul searching for more than a refrain. The arrangement is odd at best, especially when the New Orleans horn section jumps in.

The Sky Above The Mud Below (Carrot Top, 2003), their first digital recording, is a relatively calm and streamlined affair that hardly sounds like classic Tall Dwarfs. Meet the Beatle, Room to Breathe and (best of all) Baby It's Over are catchy and cordial, but also non-intrusive in a way that suggests mainstream (not lo-fi) music.

Alec Bathgate's The Indifferent Velvet Void (Lil' Chief, 2005) simply enhances the retro element.

Chris Knox released Chris Knox and the Nothing (2006) and A Warm Gun (2008).