Fishrider Records is a tiny label based in Dunedin, New Zealand. It is a labour of love for Fishrider's earthly representative, Ian Henderson. Fishrider, like its inspiration, the original Mk1 Flying Nun Records, is dedicated to releasing occasional albums by local artists who play unfashionable melodic jangling pop songs with little commercial potential and don't care that Fishrider Records doesn't have a business plan.

The new album "the Shakespeare Monkey" by The Puddle is now available. It's only a year since "No Love - No Hate" was released but Fishrider Records doesn't believe in hanging around when it comes to releasing new recordings.

These are difficult times for business generally and the music business specifically. But business is one of the things Fishrider Records doesn't stand for (it really is all about the music for us) so we've responded to these challenges by making sure "The Shakespeare Monkey" is the most lavishly packaged album we've released.

It's a 63 minute CD packaged in a 6 panel cardboard sleeve with lyric book. It is very good, a huge advance in songs and sounds from "No Love - No hate", but of course we would say that.

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 Wellington "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.

You'll be able to get it direct from us by mailing fishrider [dot] records [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] nz or from amplifier.co.nz or in the US from cdbaby.com or in Europe from Thomas at powertoolrecords.de