Biography
The British singer/songwriter Vinny Miller adopted Starry Smooth Hound as his artistic pseudonym, drawing the name from a houndshark species inhabiting waters from the British Isles down to the Iberian Peninsula. In that guise, he contributed tracks to several 4AD and 4AD-affiliated compilations that appeared in 1998, among them Anakin, Dust Distorts, and Kiddy's Got Four Fingers. Laika member Guy Fixsen joined the project as a collaborator, receiving tapes from Miller and layering on experimental electronic touches. Once those pieces came out, Miller set the Starry Smooth Hound moniker aside, only to reemerge in 2003 via the single Breaking Out of Your Arms, followed the next year by his debut full-length On the Block.