By some strange coincidence, the UK Neil Campbell's mirror image from the other side of the planet is New Zealands Campbell Kneale of The Birchville Cat Motel . So naturally, they're gonna collaborate aren't they? Throw in Ashtray Navigations Phil Todd to keep the two Neils, or Kneales, apart to prevent them from cancelling each other out, and we have a noise super groop to end all sooper groops......yes even eclipsing Blind Faith.
In the world of particle physics, or even supernatural German mythology, one should never meet ones Doppleganger, or anti-particle, or you face the danger of the stronger self taking your place, or your anti-matter self cancelling you out to leave ........nothing.
I don't know wether this happened on these nights in Leeds in 2003, but the evidence that something creative occured rather than anything destructive is here to...er...hear?. I suppose, if you make a recording of yourself to prove that you existed, then the power of the Doppleganger would be negated? Can't say the same for Matter/Anti-matter scenarios, as the recording becomes a space/time event rather than proof that something will exist in future time.In fact its difficult to prove that future time will exist at all. This is, however, proof that we all definitely exist in the present.So while one plays these drones,the sound may change, but its only evolving in the moment......the next moment we may not even be alive to hear it.......so get listening to some 'British Steel', preferably not the album by Judas Priest, but this one with the two Neil Campbells on it, before its too late. Not that the concept of 'Lateness' exists in the space time continum,but you know what I mean, because I certainly fucking don't!
Tracklisting:
1 Untitled 15:56
2 Untitled 28:13
3 Untitled 18:45
I don't post much on here from the nineties, but The Birchville Cat Motel is an exception.Especially for his prolific DIY-ness, and the fact that he fits in nicely to conclude our brief visit to the shores of New Zealand.
Campbell Kneale, aka BCM, started churning out his special brand of ambient drone noise based post-industrial soundscapes in '97, on the then futurist medium of CD-r...early versions of which are highly likely to have self-destructed by now. He has hundreds of releases strecthed over the last 20 years,but this was the first, to my knowledge anyway.Its a kind of mellow version of Merzbow, and therefore infinitly more listenable.
Tracklist:
1 Cast Iron Teether 8:07
2 So Sad Doll 10:52
3 Rimrider 11:54
4 Allandale Triple Culvert 10:36
5 Twelve Roses High 14:44
6 Transparent Soul Fragment 6:54
I was searching the internet to try and find my first Kiwi new wave album, "The Citizen Band" (1978), but couldn't find bugger all!?...but there were two tracks from it included on this monster compilation.
There's lots of crap on here, but also some long lost gems from the punk rock era.
Tracklist:
01-Screaming Meemees - Till I Die
02-Rank & File - Welcome to the World
03-The Crocodiles - Hello Girl
04-The Ainsworths - Danger Man
05-Techtones - That Girl
06-Th' Dudes Walking In Light
07-Blam Blam Blam-Don't Fight It Marsha,It's Bigger Than Both Of Us
08-Citizen Band - Feel Good
09-The Swingers - One Good Reason
10-Broken Dolls - Serenade
11-Car Crash Set - Fall From Grace
12-The Body Electric - Pulsing
13-Toy Love - Pull Down the Shades
14-Suburban Reptiles - Coup D'etat
15-No Tag - Mistaken Identity
16-Newmatics - Walkie Talkies
17-Spelling Mistakes - Feel So Good
18-Dum Dum Boys - Idiot Boy
19-Rebel Truce - The Man Inside
20-No Tag - Legalised Dogs
21-Blam Blam Blam - There Is No Depression In New Zealand
22-Children's Hour - The Mongolian Bros
23-Bombers - Dance
24-Danse Macabre - Between The Lines
25-Desperate Measures - Generation Gap
26-Scavengers - Routine
27-Screaming Meemees - Sunday Boys
28-Newmatics - Riot Squad
29-Penknife Glides - Taking the Weight Off
30-Spelling Mistakes - Hate Me Hate Me
31-Pedestrians - Saturday Night
32-Mi Sex - Computer Games
33-Pop Mechanics - Jumping Out A Window
34-Coup D'etat - Dr I Like Your Medicine
35-Newmatics - Five Miseries
36-Prime Movers - Crying Again
37-The Clean - Beatnik
38-The Dabs - Love The Army
39-Citizen Band - No Stereo
40-The Androidss - Auckland Tonight
41-Danse Macabre - ECG
42-Dum Dum Boys - Running Scared
43-Flesh D-Vice - Kill That Girl
44-The Gordons - Sometimes
45-The Herco Pilots - Essential Services
46-The Johnnies - Who Killed Johnny
47-Proud Scum - I Am a Rabbit
48-Suburban Reptiles - Saturday Night Stay At Home
49-Terrorways - Never Been to Borstal
50-The Scavengers - Mysterex (click here for missing track)
51-Marching Girls - True Love
52-Sheerlux - Lonely Heart
53-Coconut Rough - Sierra Leone
54-Split Enz - Shark Attack
55-Dave Mcartney - Virginia
56-Th' Dudes Bliss
57-The Knobz - Culture
58-Mi-Sex - People
59-Dance Exponents - All I Can Do
60-Blam Blam Blam - Luxury Length
61-This Sporting Life - Total Loss
62-The Henchmen - Metro Blues
63-The Steroids - Out of Control
64-Toy Love -Squeeze
65-The Verlaines - Death and The Maiden
66-The Clean - Anything Could Happen
67-Spelling Mistakes - Reena
68-The Features - City Scenes
69-DD Smash - The Gambler
70-The Swingers - Counting The Beat
71-The Tall Dwarfs - Nothing's Gonna Happen
72-Proud Scum - Suicide
73-Alms for Children - Danny Boy
74-Toy Love - Rebel
75-Valentinos - Yesterday's Girl
76-Newmatics - Square One
77-The Spine - It's All Inane
78-No Tag - Oi Oi Oi
79-Spaces - Just Like Clockwork
80-The Clean - Tally Ho!
81-Dance Exponents - Victoria
82-Penknife Glides - Pleasure Through Tears
83-Screaming Meemees - All Dressed Up
84-The Instigators - Hope She's Alright
85-Graham Brazier – 1%a
86-Split Enz - What's The Matter With You
87-Dance Exponents - Know Your Own Heart
88-Shoes This High - Nothing
89-Primmers - You're Gonna Get Done
90-Russ Le Roq (Crowe) - I Just Want To Be Like Marlon Brando
91-Suburban Reptiles - 45 Single
92-Screaming Meemees - See Me Go
93-The Mockers - Good Old Days
94-Car Crash Set - Imagination
95-Ballare -Dancing
96-The Body Electric - Dreaming In A Life
97-Childrens Hour - Carolines Dream
98-Peking Man - Plastic Head
99-The Dabs - Remember When (Click Here for this missing track!)
100-Danse Macabre - Web
From the more conventional post-punk/proto-Indie end of the New Zealand ghetto are The Clean.
They make proper pop songs, melodic ,strummy, hooky with rhyming lyrics and a hint of jangle.
This is an early self-released cassette that hints of greater things.
Tracklist:
A1 Odditty
A2 Success Story
A3 Thumbs Off
A4 Yellowman
A5 Getting Older
A6 End Of My Dream
A7 Platypus
A8 This Guy
A9 David Bowie
A10 Mudchucker Blues
B1 At The Bottom
B2 Hold Onto The Rail
B3 Fats Domino
B4 Sad Eyed Lady
B5 Tell Me Why
B6 In The Back
B7 Band That Never Was
B8 Wheels Of Industry
B9 Point That Thing Dub
B10 Safety At Home
The prolific Peter Jefferies was in nearly every group on Xpressway, which is expected as it was partly his own label.So a solo album was not a surprise.
It contains all the experimental Pop trademarks as displayed on the 'This Kind Of Punishment' albums. Lots of upright piano bashing, circuit fried guitars,and funny fuzzy noises, with Peters New Zealand accented crooning sitting atop, like a glacé cherry on a spontaneously combusting cake.
Tracklist :
Chain Or Reaction 3:20
Domestica 2:18
On An Unknown Beach 4:34
Guided Tour Of A Well Known Street 2:37
The House Of Weariness 3:53
Cold View 2:08
Likewise 2:40
The Last Great Challenge In A Dull World 3:16
While I've Been Waiting 2:52
Neither Do I 2:15
The Other Side Of Reason 5:59
Listening In 3:10
As it says on the package...another Xpressway compilation!?
Yep, you guessed it, its got The Dead C, Peter Jefferies, and Alistair Galbraith on it again.
And its yer normal lo-fi New Zealand style guitar abusing noise.
Tracklist :
Here:
1–The Terminals- Something Dark 3:34
2–The Dead C. - Tränenbeutel 1:10
There:
3–Jefferies / Carter / Bull - Guided Tour (Live) 2:37
4–Alastair Galbraith- Screaming E 3:04
12 one minute length sorties in the traditional Lo-Fi New Zealand Avant Rock genre, provided by the usual suspects from everyones second favourite musical island (the other being Japan......ok maybe the |UK too?).
Of the new (in 1991) acts on here, Cyclops and The Queen Meanie Puss made my ears tingle more than the others.
DOWNLOAD from devils island HERE!
Thank Christ(church) for the oasis that New Zealand had become for modern intelligent music in 1988-91. While I was busy projectile vomiting at Happy Mondays concerts, the non-musicians of these isolated Islands were more concerned with taking down the rock'n'pop bohemoth,by forsaking any advancement in sound quality or technology;and more to the point not trying to rob the blackman of his funky dance beats. NZ, although blessed with an indigenous population, seemingly well integrated into post colonial society, is not renowned for having a particularly large black population. As a result this music is very very 'White'.
This collection for Beta-males and women, is drawn from the early singles that were released on the legendary Xpressway Records from 88-91.A bunch of Lo-Fi, sometimes folky forays into the dark world of Avant pop and Rock, expectorated forth with a modicum of unapologetic intelligence.
Its made this Loser very happy anyway.
DOWNLOAD HERE LOSERS!
An essential compilation of the essential parts of the New Zealand underground,featuring all the usual suspects, Dead C, TKP, and the Jefferies brothers in various guises.Almost faultless.
1988, was a dodgy year for music in the UK, where MDMA had turned any decent group into tambourine shaking idiots.
Living in the arse end of the planet has its advantages sometimes,so no stripy tops, maraccas and idiot dancing on show on this tape.
By the way, the file is from the second edition, so its got more tracks on it.
Tracklist:
A1 –Plagal Grind- Midnight Blue Vision
A2 –Victor Dimisich Band- Native Waiter
A3 –Wreck Small Speakers On Expensive Stereos- Rain
A4 –The 3D's- Meluzina Man
A5 –Dead C.- 3 Years
A6 –Shayne Carter & Peter Jefferies- Randolph's Going Home
A7 –Peter Jefferies- On An Unknown Beach
A8 –Snapper- Emmanual
B1 –The Cake Kitchen- Airships
B2 –Double Happys- Big Fat Elvis
B3 –Snapper- Death & Weirdness In The Surfing Zone
B4 –Stephen Kilroy- 45 Degrees Below Frozen
B5 –Double Happys- I Don't Wanna See You Again
B6 –Nocturnal Projections- Walk In A Straight Line
B7 –The Terminals- Uncoffined
B8 –Shayne Carter- Hooked, Lined & Sunken
A more minimal version of TKP existed for the eponymous debut, consisting of the Jefferies brothers only, plus the occasional guest.
Largely drumless experimental ditties,drawn mostly from the 'down' section of the bi-polar depression cycle, with a nod towards modern folk. Less accesable than future releases, but its indeed a grower.
Tracklist:
A1 After The Fact 4:43
A2 Instrumental 3:33
A3 Don't Take Those 3:38
A4 In View Of The Circumstances 5:02
B1 Two Minutes Drowning 3:51
B2 If An Axe Is An Arm 4:41
B3 Just Another Funeral
B4 Some More Than Others 3:13
B5 Ahead Of Their Time 4:24
The jolly excellent TKP in concert, in a venue that sounds almost empty......probably the effect of a few cardoid microphones pointing in the wrong direction. A bit of crowd noise would have improved this tape somewhat; but the quality of the music shines through. The minimal aspect of thisrather dry recording adds to its power,especially in the odd screamy discordant section and in its noisy crescendo on side B.
Tracklist:
A1 The Sleepwalker 3:39
A2 Mr. Tic Toc 3:28
A3 The Men By The Pool 2:59
A4 Don't Take Those 3:02
A5 After The Fact 4:46
A6 Ahead Of Their Time 3:31
B1 Two Minutes Drowning 4:03
B2 Radio Silence 2:53
B3 From The Diary Of Hermann Doubt 2:54
B4 Just Another Funeral 1:49
B5 Flipper Go Home 1:41
B6 Some More Than Others 3:03
If only one had a trained beard of bees that could attack hipsters? The sad thing is that I think Hipsters would actually like, and not pretend to like, this rather excellent experimental pop record by Xpressway Records' in house muso's 'This Kind Of Punishment'.
I actually enjoyed listening to this again for the sake of these words.Intelligent,and interestingly well constructed songs with a hint of melancholy that rarely rely on making funny noises to stand out.
Could easily have been Midlake if they were around in the 'noughties'and american.......but who wants to be around in the noughties and/or american?.....that certainly is some kind of horrible punishment.or are you insane?
Tracklist:
A1 Prelude 2:07
A2 From The Diary Of Hermann Doubt 3:18
A3 The Horrible Tango 4:34
A4 Trepidation 3:50
A5 East Meets West 3:55
B1 Turning To Stone 4:27
B2 Although They Appear 3:49
B3 The Sleepwalker 3:32
B4 An Open Denial 7:03
More lo-fi guitar fuck-uppery from Michael Morley of The Dead C.
Parts of this sounds like an amped up Jandek if he was 'cool'.
Fizzing fried amplifier transistors rasp and burp at the behest of the main guitar abuser from the 'C'.
It in fact sounds like his main group but without the other two, but thats what this is...isn't it?
The object of the 'Solo' record is to do something different to your principle project, so this is only 'Solo' because the rest of the band aren't on it.
Tracklist:
A1 Openingmyarms
A2 Hope
A3 Callconstellations
A4 Forcedsight
B1 Yourface
B2 Selfhate
B3 Freedomchild
B4 Evidence
Michael Morley of The Dead C, also know as 'Gate', decided to call his debut solo cassette appearence the same title as one of the greatest Albums ever made; "Fear Of Music" by Talking Heads. A tenth anniversary tribute this is not, its also not as great as its namesake, but still rather marvellous in its own way.
Whether Mr Morley can actually play his guitar in a proper fashion is open to conjecture, but if he can, he does a very good impression of 'somebody who has no concept of the instrument;...he was blowing into it' (Take The Money And Run,Woody Allen,1968).
At times this record makes Jandek sound like Robert Fripp....who also worked with Talking Heads coincidentally....Fripp, not Jandek,which would have been one of Eno's braver Ideas methinks?
Its not so much a noise/drone album, but a car accident of an album.A harsh lesson in 'unlearning',getting back to year Zero with as little bloodshed as possible.Careful with that axe eugene....or in this case,Michael.
Tracklisting:
A1 Love
A2 Hell
A3 Faith
A4 Gallons
A5 Smoke
A6 Animals
A7 Drugs
A8 Head
A9 Buildings
B1 Electric Guitar
B2 Air
B3 Hey
B4 No Lists (Faith)
B5 Wartime
B6 Shitvice
Hmmm a classic example of the 'difficult' second album, up there with The Adverts and The Damned,whose follow up albums destroyed their careers. Whereas, those two records are now thought of as rather good, The Gordons second ,isn't. Mainly because they lost their main man Alister Parker, and replaced him with someone called Pinker, whose singing style stinks of rock orthadoxy,and whose guitar playing was far too considered. This record wanted to be liked, and thats what makes it unlikeable.....this ain't no Adverts 'Cast Of Thousands', this is The Dead Boys', terrible, "We Have Come For Your Children" standard, but without the hits.
Tracklist:
A1 Quality Control 3:04
A2 Reactor 5:41
A3 Lead Room 5:29
A4 Red Line 3:42
B1 Identity 3:48
B2 Mono Flo 3:26
B3 Gone Machine 4:19
B4 Joker 2:26
B5 Mentus Fugit 2:12
I may have mentioned that I reckon these are probably the greatest couple of records to come out of New Zealand. Somehow The Gordons managed to sound like a US Post-Hardcore band several years before stuff like The Phantom Tollbooth, Bitch Magnet and other such Homestead style groups flooded the market;they even outflanked early Sonic Youth.
In some ways the isolation of being trapped on an island in the arse of the planet serves the creative process in the same way that the Galapogos Islands developed weird and wonderful beasts found nowhere else. A bit like West Germany in the seventies, and Japan in the nineties. The fact that this LP+EP evolved independantly of direct american/uk influence is a testament to that sweet isolation.
Tracklisting:
Spik And Span
Right On Time
Coalminers Song
Future Shock
Sometimes
I Just Can't Stop
Growing Up
Laughing Now
Machine Song
Adults And Children
The Dead C are Dead good ain't dey?
On their second C-30 of 1987, each member seems to be playing in isolation inside their own cardboard box. Scraping their instruments as if the definition of music was left blank in the dictionary, replaced by a description of what a song might be, written in the blood of a deaf mute.Filling the vacuum with toxic primordial gases.
Its Pol Pot Pop,a Khymer Rouge version of rock, stripped back to a single cell organism playing dead underneath the corpse of Punk Rock in the Killing Fields of Rock'n'Roll.Thats what this is.
Tracklist:
A1 Crazy I Know
A2 3 Years
A3 Polio
B1 Retune
B2 Light My Fire
B3 3 Years
B4 Crazy I Know
Comfortably the best band from New Zealand are, obviously, The Dead C. Roundly disliked by musicians everywhere, they perfected the art of sounding incredibly awful, which isn't as easy as it sounds.
I remember,possibly inaccurately, a Dead C member responding to a question about why their records were so badly recorded; to which he replied, "They're not,they are extremely professional and accurate recordings of what we actually sound like."
This C-30 of live rehearsals from early in 1987, is a typical scratchy improvised deconstruction of rock music into somekind of musical no-mans land,strewn with bomb craters full of dirty water,bone fragments and rusty barbed wire. The vocals are inaudible, the guitars sound like they replaced their plectrums with hacksaws,and it all sounds like they were playing in the next room.Perfect.
Tracklist:
A With Help From Max Harris
B Beyond Help From Max Harris
Another AK:79 band, The Terrorways, were a kind of Pub Rock/Punk Covers Band hybrid.
Heavily reliant on Chuck Berry riffs, and covers of UK punk bands,(The Boys, and ATV seem favourites).They were the kind of band that, if they existed today, could make a healthy living playing at 'Old Folks Homes'.
They also have a good line in doing cover versions of cover versions;eg The Saints "lipstick on your collar" and "River deep Mountain High",The Drones "Be My Baby" and The Rezillo's doing Fleetwood Mac's "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight" being prime examples of this illusive genre.
They also dabbled in writing some rather Iffy original songs too,like the title track; but its their amped up cover versions that make this a jolly good wheeze for any septagerian Punk Rock Party.
One especially likes the 100Mph version of 'Borstal Breakout', that one could even get me pogoing ?......but only when me mums gone out.
Tracklist:
1 Short Haired Rock And Roll (1980)
2 Never Been To Borstal (1979)
3 She's A Mod (1979)
4 Love Lies Limp (1980)
5 Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In (1978 Bedroom Demo)
6 Be My Baby
7 Things Go Wrong
8 Lipstick On Your Collar
9 Some Kind Of Fun
10 Why Don't You Do Me Right
11 Sick On You
12 First Time
13 Leave Off
14 Love Lies Limp
15 She's A Mod
16 Short Haired Rock And Roll
17 Get Outta My Pagoda
18 I Don't Care
19 Walk The Plank
20 Ask About You
21 Never Been To Borstal
22 River Deep Mountain High
23 Suspect Device
24 Borstal Breakout
Also from the AK:79 album comes this posthumous album from The Scavengers, recorded in 1978.
Its that pubrock/original Punk Rock template of speeded up Chuck Berry riffs.....a style I can't get enough of. It also has that sweet whiff of those Outsider Punk groups from the arse-end of the UK, which gives it some much needed authenticity.
Things went downhill terminally for at least one member (Ronnie Recent/Brendon Perry), as he joined Dead Can Dance!!!!? As Ronnie was born in Whitechapel,London, he was probably responsible for the cockney inflections heard in the vocals.
A rather amusing addition to this album are the excerpts from a TV report on Punk Rock from the New Zealand media.Pure Gold.
Tracklist:
A1 Mysterex
A2 Born To Bullshit
A3 True Love
A4 Twentyone
A5 Brick In The Wall
B1 Money In The Bank
B2 Routine
B3 Supported By The State
B4 Violence
B5 Mysterex (Alternate Version)
