Noonday Underground

The duo of DJ Simon Dine and vocalist Daisy Martey threw their hats into the ever-growing ring of record-collector rock as Noonday Underground. After Dine's departure from Adventures in Stereo around 1997, the duo hooked up after allegedly bumping into each other at a Clapham pizza restaurant. Culling their influences from all things late '60s -- from exotic film music to West Coast pop to the production techniques of Jack Nitzche -- they quietly issued their debut LP, Self-Assembly, in 2000. Setanta reissued the record the following year. Paul Weller was an early supporter of the duo; in a poll for the NME, he rather bizarrely listed them as "Most Influential Band of All Time." ~ Andy Kellman, All Music Guide