If you’ve been following JOVM for a while now, you may remember that I’ve mentioned that I frequently multitask while listening to Soundcloud links – usually, I’m watching a ballgame and eating and I get so caught up that Soundcloud plays a playlist of related artists and songs. But in many ways, this allows for some rather serendipitous discoveries. 

Named after the fictional organization which appears in MacGyver, the founding members of The Phoenix Foundation, Conrad Wedde, Samuel Flynn Scott and Luke Buda formed the band while the trio were students in Wellington High School, located in Wellington, New Zealand. And by 2001, the band expanded to a sextet when they added Tim Hansen (bass), Richie Singleton (drums) and Will Rickets (percussion). 

As a newly formed sextet, the band’s 2003 debut effort, Horsepower was released through Capitol Recordings to critical praise and was a moderate commercial success as a couple of singles received airplay on two of New Zealand’s biggest and most renowned indie rock stations. The band released a few more albums after that but their most recent effort, Fandango was released as a double album and was released through Memphis Industries throughout the UK, US and the rest of the world in 2013. And album single “Black Mould” is a breezy and subtly psychedelic bit of synth pop that reminds me a bit of Violens impressive Amoral but brooding.