Listen/purchase via Smoke CDs: http://www.smokecds.com/cd/37976

The word “supergroup” is bandied around a lot with regards to Wellington’s infamous cough-incestous-cough music scene these days. Mostly, it must be noted, by music writers and TV presenters.
On the other hand, how else could you describe a band comprising members of Fat Freddy’s Drop, Twinset, and Shapeshifter and former members of Trinity Roots and Police Lucifer?
The band known as iLLphonics came about in response to the need for a Sunday night resident combo at Cuba Street’s famed Matterhorn bar & restaurant. To put in rough, almost blatantly incorrect, press-release terms it starts with a (dirty-rotten) core of drummer Otis Chamberlain aka artist/producer Mephisto Jones and his longtime friend and collaborator bassist Tyrone McCarthy, both formerly of the infamous Police Lucifer.
Around their cat-gut & cow-hide centre, coalesced two musicians and a singer with two things in common: a bottomless depth of talent and f*ck all better to do on a Sunday night… Tehimana Kerr aka Jetlag Johnson of (moderately successful, you-may-have-heard-of-them) Fat Freddy’s Drop on guitar; Chris Yeabsley of Wellington’s hardest working band Twinset on keyboards; and the inimitable Hollie Smith on vocals, a solo star in her own right as well as a former part of Trinity Roots live band and guest singer on the forth-coming Recloose album “Hiatus on the Horizon”.
Many many many others were added as needed to the live set-up, but three more in particular joined in the recording of the four tracks on this EP at Mike Gibson’s respected Inca Studios in early 2005… Toby aka Tony Chang of Fat Freddy’s Drop and the multi-talented Devin from Shapeshifter on horns and singer P.Digsss, formerly of Police Lucifer and currently of Shapeshifter.
The resulting four tracks (plus nifty radio-friendly edit) display a laid-back approach that belies the heartfelt craft of the musicianship underpinning it all. That and the insane amount of wrangling it took to get this many busy people in the one place to record it all!