Greatsouth Releases Debut Album Hellhole of the Pacific

Two years ago, Payton Taplin made the decision to stop using the moniker FABLE and began using the name Greatsouth instead. In 2024, the artist released a self-titled EP, which functioned as a bridge between these two identities and musical styles. Following that transitional project, the artist released the debut album titled Hellhole of the Pacific last month.

The opening track of Hellhole of the Pacific features an intimate conversation between Payton Taplin and Silas Futura. The title track of the album is written from the perspective of a 28th Māori Battalion soldier who has recently returned home from war. In shaping the record, a short story collection by Witi Ihimaera and Whiti Hereaka served as an inspiration for the album and its process of recontextualizing the past.

Throughout the album, Taplin gathered field recordings directly from those specific locations for every song on the tracklist connected to a landmark. The percussive sounds of an instrument named Tumutumu Kōhatu are heard on the track titled Held My Own. In addition, the penultimate track of the album, Not One More Acre, takes its title from a slogan by Dame Whina Cooper.