Released on World Of Echo, the album draws from the groups string of excellent seven-inch singles, a small clutch of compilation contributions, and features one previously unreleased song, I Take It That Were Through, recorded in 1998. Part of the burgeoning international pop underground of the nineties, The Cats Miaows legend has only built over subsequent decades, as more people discover this most quixotic and curious of groups: a recent appearance on A Colourful Storms compilation of Australian indie-pop, I Wont Have To Think About You, is testament to their enduring influence. In part emulating the selection of tracks on the 1997 CD-only compilation, Songs For Girls To Sing. Songs 94-98 is also the groups first ever full-length 12 vinyl collection.

The Cats Miaow started out in 1992 as a home-recording duo, Bart Cummings (guitar, bass, vocals) and Andrew Withycombe (bass, guitar) taking time out from duties with Girl Of The World and The Ampersands (respectively), knocking out songs on Withycombes four-track. Soon joined by Kerrie Bolton (vocals) and Cam Smith (drums), the quartet spent the next five years quietly, slowly working away in the suburbs of Melbourne, recording gem after gem of independent pop. Like many of their Australian precursors or peers The Particles, Even As We Speak, The Cannanes The Cats Miaow were more successful overseas, a sadly typical phenomenon within the Australian musical landscape.

The Cats Miaow were always worldly and stylish, anyway, each seven-inch single a refined artifact, each song a peaceable jewel. You could hear some relationships with other music someone (if not everyone) in The Cats Miaow was a Galaxie 500 fan; theres a minimalism to the playing and melodies that recalls Young Marble Giants, Marine Girls, Beat Happening but the spirit in these songs is endearingly individualised, the result of a hermetic vision, an ideal of what a simple, unadorned pop song could be. They had a winning way with simplicity, songs like Autumn, Crying and I Cant Sleep Thinking You Hate Me passing by in the blink of a moistened eye, and when they stretched out, as on Firefly, you can hear hints of the drifting ambience theyd perfect in their other band, Hydroplane. Its not much of a surprise that The Cats Miaow found a receptive audience, and no small amount of support, from the networked communities of indie-pop labels and fanatics that developed in the nineties they released records on imprints like Drive-In, Darla, Bus Stop and Quiddity, shared a flexi-disc with Stereolab, and appeared on countless compilations over the years. But they also understood the importance of the local: their first few cassettes reached the worlds mail routes via Wayne Davidsons legendary Melbourne tape label, Toytown; they turned up on a split single with Davidsons group, Stinky Fire Engine; they appeared on a tribute cassette for one of Australias finest, The Sugargliders, and indeed thats Josh Meadows of said group playing wah guitar on Stay.

The Cats Miaow also rarely played live one launch gig, for the Munch video compilation, and a few parties which is a great way to maintain mystique. Cosmopolitan yet homely, dedicated to their craft, The Cats Miaow always felt a little like a group moving in slow motion, using that pace and focus fully to embrace the art of the perfectly stated pop song every element in place, no flash and no fuss, no excess, just the core of the thing. Few managed to tease such fierce poetry from such understated, elegant means. From Australia or anywhere.

A1. Hollow Inside
A2. Light The Beacon
A3. Not Like I Was Doing Anything
A4. Note On The Table
A5. You Know It’s True
A6. What Time Is It There?
A7. I Can’t Sleep Thinking You Hate Me
A8. Smitten
A9. Portland, Oregon
A10. Let Me Brush The Hair From Your Face
B1. Stay
B2. Shoot The Moon
B3. Barney & Me
B4. Firefly
B5. LA International Airport
B6. Crying
B7. If Things Had Been Different
B8. I Take It That We’re Through