Psychosis - (2019) Mandatory Acid Trips For Problematic Toddlers

 

Self Released – none

Enigmatic Whanganui recording artist Psychosis has been enthralling open-eared listeners with a hypnotic trickle of tunes emanating from his home studio HQ. He's now thrown open the doors of perception with a mind-shattering seven track debut album, the snappily titled Mandatory Acid Trips For Problematic Toddlers. Collecting together such previously released bangers as 'Show Me The Receipts', 'Vanilla Isis', 'I Refuse To Be Cursed', and the logic-defying 'Hedgehog On The Beach', there should be enough material here to keep fans buzzing for a while. While all tracks go uncredited, it seems clear the album is likely the work of a key member of super catchy Dunedin group Coyote, get stuck into Mandatory Acid Trips For Problematic Toddlers

Claypipe - (2021) Sky Wells

 

C/Site Recordings – C/S041

After seven years New Zealand’s Claypipe return with a new full-length album, Sky Wells. Claypipe was formed in the early 2000s when, after years of record trading, North Islander Antony Milton and South Islander Clayton Noone came together. Their musical chemistry was immediate and a slew of excellent cassettes, CDs and lathe cuts followed. They carved out a niche with a sort of pastoral psychedelia that brought to mind the forest as much the sea, the acoustic guitar as much the battery powered amplifier This earlier work culminated with their debut album A Daylight Blessing being released on MIE Music in 2014.

Work for Sky Wells began back in 2015 at the kitchen table of Noone’s home in Dunedin, his daughter Olive and her cartoons can be heard bleeding into these tracks, giving them a dreamy and surreal feel. Much of Sky Wells contains this quality; tactile percussive croaks find equal space with pulsing drones, haunted vocal moans and tape hiss saturated psychedelics. The album is harnessed in a sort of delicate balance. Despite the other worldliness of most sounds on songs like “Jericho” and “I Want To Run With The Trees,” reality remains intact with the simple pluck of an acoustic guitar or the definitive human-ness of repetitious spoken vocals. Even further balance is struck with the incorporation of utterly catchy songwriting. Sky Wells is bookended by “Colours, Dreams and Food” and “Bomb Lover,” which along with “Ultimate Violence” help to draw a connection to their homelands’ Flying Nun lineage - through a truly experimental lens, of course.

The Clean - (1981) Boodle Boodle Boodle 12''

 

Merge Records – MRG779

Featuring classics like “Anything Could Happen” and “Point That Thing Somewhere Else,” The Clean's Boodle Boodle Boodle EP arrived two months after the “Tally Ho!” single, peaking at #5 and staying in the NZ Top 20 for nearly six months. Recorded on four-track by The Clean’s childhood friends Chris Knox and Doug Hood, its five hugely influential songs provided a roadmap for the “Dunedin sound” that would soon follow. Boodle Boodle Boodle was awarded the Classic Record distinction by New Zealand’s Taite Music Prize in 2017.

Maxine Funke - (2013) Lace

 

Not On Label – none

For a decade, Maxine Funke has cut an idiosyncratic path as a singer-songwriter, all the while avoiding the parochial retreads of that worn-out label. Funke's music is intimate and deeply intelligent, buoyed by a sense of effortlessness that belies a scrupulous attention to the smallest of details.

Lace was originally released as a CDr in 2008 on Alastair Galbraith's Next Best Way label. Imagine the just-so arrangements of Josephine Foster and the knowing quotidian eye of Sibylle Baier meeting the realism of Funke's compatriots Turiiya or the acoustic textures of the Kiwi Animal and you're nearly there – but in that gap lies the undeniable pull of Funke's music. Short songs for nylon string guitar, violin, piano, incidental snippets of bird song and furniture creaks, brief instrumental interludes in the vein of Funke's regular collaborator Galbraith: this is the realest of deals.

The metaphysic of Second Hand Store cuts to the uncompromised heart of this record, a rejection of the idea of ownership in favor of communal chance, the ragged comfort of things lived-in and passed on, a searching with no need to find, let alone possess.

Indeed, as much as these recordings suggest the close quarters and warmth of a small home, Maxine Funke makes music for traveling, providing accompaniment through the rough, unfeeling vectors of a disenchanted world and, as she does on the last song of Felt, imagining it differently. As the titles of these albums suggest, Funke's is a tactile art, as warm and tangible as the tape hiss bathing it, her words and music rescuing everyday moments from traps of distraction and defeat. Following limited edition vinyl reissues in 2016 - a swansong for Nemo Bidstrup's sorely missed Time-Lag Recordings imprint - we're happy to make Felt and Lace widely available.

Maxine Funke's music, immediate and entirely unpretentious, suggests a world in which Katherine Mansfield rubs shoulders with Liz Harris, or Vashti Bunyan grows up on the Flying Nun catalog. Absolutely essential.

Alastair Galbraith - - (2021) Loss

 

Self Released – none

Alastair Galbraith is a musician and sound artist from Dunedin, New Zealand.
Galbraith's first band was The Rip, which he formed with Robbie Muir, and Mathew Ransome and later Jeff Harford (of Bored Games). They released two EPs on the Flying Nun label. Later he formed Plagal Grind, with Robbie Muir and David Mitchell (of Goblin Mix and 3Ds) and Peter Jefferies of This Kind Of Punishment and Nocturnal Projections.
Galbraith's solo career has included numerous early cassettes and 7"s on Bruce Russell's Xpressway label, as well as albums on labels such as Siltbreeze, Emperor Jones, Time Lag Feel Good All Over and Table Of The Elements. He has also recorded ten albums with Bruce Russell under the name A Handful of Dust. In 1999 he began a collaboration with Matt De Gennaro, where the two toured New Zealand Public Art Galleries converting them into giant soundboxes by stroking tensioned wires fixed to the buildings' structural supports.

Mermaidens - (2019) Look Me In The Eye

 

Flying Nun Records – none

This Wellington band's previous album Perfect Body in 2017 was a canny blend of vibrant and melodic indie-rock, shiny but fuzzed-up pop and some dreamy vocals by Gussie Larkin and Lily West over the chiming, ambient guitars.

This, their third album, pushes the envelope just that little bit further on cleverly constructed songs such as She's Running which comes with a layering of synths, shifts shape and dynamics but never loses direction in its economic 3.45 running time.

And the dialed right down and moody Bastards afterwards sung by West – comes with a stalking bass part and at the end a small group of backing vocalists billed as the Girl Gang act like some distant chorus after the claustrophobic guitar and synth passages.

This is all smart and crafted stuff on an album which is delivered in a crisp and yet warm production by James Goldsmith (check the opening of Best to Hate the Man for its clarity, space and moodiness, or Sleeptalker).

There is hypnotic indie-pop here (the opener Crying in the Office is like an ambitious indie-rock Cardigans filtered through the prism of the PopFrenzy label) and the thoughtful Millennia alerts you to the keen intelligence behind these lyrics which sometimes address the roles and expectations of women, the world of oversharing and more.

Factor in serious pop smarts in these tightly framed songs and you've got a strong third album right through to the five minute, prog-folk rocker Priorities at the end which almost sounds like the stepping off point into a different studio direction again.

The Dum Dum Boys - (2019) Let There Be Noise

 

In The Red Records – ITR318 Often obscured by the ascent of Flying Nun's legendary roster is New Zealand's late 1970s / early 1980s punk scene. Based in Auckland, a cadre of acts influenced by The Ramones and Stooges briefly thrived. The Dum Dum Boys -- the first NZ punk band to record and release a full-length in their native country -- were hooked on the Ann Arbor sounds of Iggy Pop. The Dum Dum Boys' Let There Be Noise (1981) is chock-full of James Williamson and Deniz Tek riffage; it also contains elements of Iggy Pop's nihilism. Take the lyrics to 'Something To Say' -- it's refrain repeatedly asking 'What am I living for?'-- and juxtapose them to the band's namesake track from Pop's The Idiot (1977): 'What happened to Zeke? He's dead on jones, man.' 'Stalking The Streets' taps into the meaninglessness of James Taylor and Dennis Wilson's Two-Lane Blacktop journey through the American Southwest. The Dum Dum Boys understood the proto-punk sounds of 1970s Ann Arbor and Cleveland. More importantly, they also got the vibe. Life stinks -- sometimes in the places (Auckland) you'd least expect it. As the title suggests, Let There Be Noise is anything but a record incessantly focused on introspective doom and gloom. 'Don't Be A Bitch' rivals Radio Birdman's 'I-94' for lyrical thick-headedness -- like sticking a hot 454 in a Ford Falcon gasser, the song's simultaneously awesome and dumb. That's a difficult balance to strike. Let There Be Noise (1981) was self-released and copies quickly became damn near unobtanium, even in New Zealand. (I should know: I lived there.) In The Red has performed a major service by reissuing this obscure and outstanding record. Independent New Zealand releases from the early 1980s didn't get their due; distribution out of the country was essentially non-existent. It's nice to see that finally getting corrected

Various Artists - (1989) In Love With These Times: A Flying Nun Compilation

 

Flying Nun Europe – FNE 28

Little Skull - (2020) How We Used To Laugh 7''

 

Horn of Plenty <O – hop2

For a few years I had been listening to Little Skull LP’s unaware that Dean’s own brand of NZ underground music was in fact being recorded a short distance from my London home. Furthermore, Dean’s intricate homemade sleeves were crafted in London, shipped to Italy, then back to London where I was buying them.
This release reduces the air miles while expanding the Little Skull story. Two tracks, two different moods. It’s as if some unknown event takes place as you flip the record.
While the music of Little Skull is rooted in the NZ underground, references also extend far beyond that. Think Bruce Langhorne’s ‘The Hired Hand’, AMMMusic, Egisto Macchi’s ‘Il Deserto’, Anner Bylsma, and Elodie.

Guardian Singles - (2021) Self Titled

 

Trouble In Mind – TIM161

Guardian Singles hail from Auckland, New Zealand, home to (among many things) storied label Flying Nun & just about every great indie band of the last century. After seeing the band’s livestream from Auckland for Gonerfest 17 in fall of 2020, Trouble In Mind is honored to welcome the band to the roster & reissue their excellent 2020 self-titled album outside of New Zealand for the first time.
Formed in 2015, by Thom Burton on guitar (SoccerPractise, Moppy) and Fiona Campbell on drums (Vivian Girls, Coolies), the band hit the ground running, supporting touring bands in New Zealand like METZ, slots on the Chronophonium festival & tours in Australia. The band had recorded what would become their debut album in early 2018, simply as Campbell puts it “We just wanted good versions of the songs in our live set we were playing at the time.” The addition of Yolanda Fagan on bass (Na Noise, Echo Ohs) and Durham Fenwick on lead guitar (Green Grove) solidified the current lineup in late-2018, and Auckland label Moral Support released it in a micro-edition of 150 copies in the spring of 2020.
The debut album packs a wallop; driving guitar lines dance across the rhythm sections propulsive throb hearkening back to greats like Mission of Burma, The Wipers & The Sound. Opener “Tea Lights Exploding” does just that, with an instantly memorable hook & sticky guitar line written as Burton explains as “a sort of "Fuck you" to a certain kind of pervasive rape culture and culturally lobotomized idea of masculinity that I was seeing too much of”, followed by the moody “Being Alone”. “Roll Undead” is next, with its persistent shuffle springing forth over a synth-siren before breaking open into an anthemic howl of a chorus. Side one closes with the crunchy stutter-step of “Never Gonna See The Rain Again”. Side two doesn’t let up, with aptly-titled opener “Can’t Stop Moving”s ragged guitar sting hanging in the air before the band launches in with Campbell’s drums skipping underneath like an arrhythmic heartbeat. Their vital cover of The Sound’s “Heartland” (from 1980’s “Jeopardy”) is next, injecting a nouveau sense of modern urgency into Adrian Borland’s post-punk rager. “Gold Plated Cars”s razor-wire sway comes next, with Burton & Fenwick’s guitar squall waltzing over a robust bassline. Album closer “Midnight Swim” is the album’s moody anthem, ratcheting up tension the old-fashioned way balancing jangle and drone with one guitar’s persistent strum and the other’s strategic punches, all while the rhythm section holds down a steady forward motion. “Guardian Singles” is a vital document of a band breaking out of the chrysalis near-fully formed; melodic, urgent and on the verge of greatness. Look for more from the band soon as they head into the studio in 2021 to record the follow-up.

Various Artists - (1991) Getting Older: Flying Nun 1981-1991

 

Flying Nun Records – FN 209

A household without at least one release from New Zealand's Flying Nun can only be considered woefully inadequate. An exaggeration, perhaps -- but only slightly. The Auckland-based independent pop label has been around for over two decades, and this 20-track retrospective collects singles and album tracks from the first ten years. It includes such highly regarded acts as the Chills, Verlaines, and the Clean, whose 1983 single "Getting Older" provides the title. The best songs, however, are saved for last: Jean-Paul Sartre Experience's shimmering "Elemental" (from 1990's The Size of Food) and Chris Knox's chiming "Not Given Lightly" (from 1989's Seizure). Letting Knox have the last word only seems appropriate as he just happens to be one of the label's -- if not the country's -- foremost musical figures. He is also represented by "Crush" from Tall Dwarfs, his long-running lo-fi partnership with Alec Bathgate (both from legendary punk bands the Enemy and Toy Love), and even recorded several of the tracks on the compilation. 
1. (4:21) The Clean - Getting Older
2. (3:58) Shayne Carter & Peter Jefferies - Randolph's Going Home
3. (2:58) The Stones - Something New
4. (1:51) Headless Chickens - Totalling Dad's Car
5. (5:59) Tall Dwarfs - Crush
6. (2:16) The Gordons - Adults and Children
7. (3:29) The Verlaines - Pyromaniac
8. (3:52) The Chills - Rolling Moon
9. (3:50) Bird Nest Roys - Alien
10. (2:31) The Terminals - Batwing
11. (3:29) Goblin Mix - Travelling Grave
12. (3:52) Able Tasmans - Sour Queen
13. (3:27) The Bats - Candidate
14. (2:51) Look Blue Go Purple - I Don't Want You Anyway
15. (2:38) Stephen - Don't Know Why
16. (3:52) Straitjacket Fits - Dialling a Prayer
17. (3:41) Snapper - Buddy
18. (4:27) Bailter Space - Skin
19. (4:11) The Jean-Paul Sartre Experience - Elemental
20. (5:07) Chris Knox - Not Given Lightly

Various Artists - (2020) Four Stars (****) LP

 

Swineken Recordings – WURST-001

Holy moly, if it isn’t a reissue of the super legendary Four Stars comp! This terrific artifact documenting Wellington New Zealand’s postpunk scene was originally released in 1980 (in an edition of 250) & copies have been as rare as a chook’s tooth ever since. Four ultra obscure bands-Life In The Fridge Exists, Wallsockets, Naked Spots Dance & Beat Rhythm Fashion-comprise these two sides & offer a fantastic snapshot of a radical DIY scene that played out in a vacuum at the bottom of the world. A great bookend to the excellent AK79 comp released at roughly the same time, this is a one-time reissue edition of 250 & a must-own for any fevered collector of New Zealand’s enigmatic, pre Flying Nun underground. Leave no stone unturned!

The Bats - (2020) Foothills

 

Flying Nun Records – FN593

Spanning the last 38 years, The Bats have clocked nine incredible albums; each one seeing the band evolve with new material from the prolific songwriting hand of Robert Scott. Add to that tally the extra singles, b-sides, EPs, compilations and tribute songs they’ve recorded, creating a succinct setlist is a nearly impossible task.
Their 10th full-length, Foothills, was recorded in Spring 2018 at a country retreat pop-up studio. At that time, 15 songs were captured and immortalised in the Canterbury foothills of the Southern Alps, Aotearoa (New Zealand). Only too well, The Bats know the possibilities, potentialities and sonic vistas that arise when one takes the reins for the recording process in a beautiful place that’s on home turf.
Robert Scott, on the making of Foothills has said “Time marches on... finally, we found a gap in our busy lives and chose a week to convene. We found a house that is usually inhabited by ski field workers — Kowai Bush, near Springfield about an hour west of Christchurch and of course nestled in the foothills of the mighty Southern Alps. The songs had been written, demo’d and arranged for some time, but still with a little room for trying things out in the studio. Many carloads arrived at the house, full of amps guitars and recording gear, we set up camp and soon made it feel like home; coloured lights, a log fire, and home cooked meals in the kitchen. We worked fast, and within a few days had all the basic backing tracks done, live together in one room, the way we like to do it - it’s all about ‘the feel’ for songs like ours.”
The Bats must hold a record in New Zealand (perhaps the whole world, once The Rolling Stones throw in the towel) as a band that has survived with the same line-up for 38 years. No split ups, no reforming for nostalgia’s sake.
So far, half the band have spots in The New Zealand Music Hall Of Fame, vocalist/ guitarist Robert Scott (The Clean) and bassist/producer Paul Kean (Toy Love), and it’s only a matter of time before lead guitarist Kaye Woodward and drummer Malcolm Grant find themselves in there too. The four-piece has created twisted wistful folk, psychedelic rock, bouncy twee pop, and everything in between, but whatever the genre, their sound is always distinctively, unmistakably The Bats.

Various Artists - (2007) Flying Nun 25th Anniversary Boxset 4xCD

Flying Nun Records – FNCD500 Limited edition four CD boxset celebrating the 25th Anniversary of New Zealand's finest (and longest running) independent label. Jam packed with long out-of-print rarities this set will have fans of the iconic label salivating. The four discs are sequenced in a roughly chronological order with the tracks hand-picked by Shepherd himself. The first disc covers the label's early years, with flagship band The Clean aptly getting things started with the epic 'Point That Thing Somewhere Else'. Other obvious names like The Chills, The Verlaines and The Gordons are present but this multi-disc format affords them the luxury of including some obscurities and lost gems from the likes of The Rip and Victor Dimisch Band, not to mention the label's first release - 'Ambivalence' by Pin Group. The second disc covers the mid-to-late 80's, the years many consider the label's heyday, where second generation Nun bands like The Bats and Straitjacket Fits took the label to the world. Again more rare treats are to be had with Stephen, The Weeds, Alpaca Brothers and This Kind Of Punishment. Disc three continues from the late 80s to mid 90s where the music really hit it's stride with great bands like Skeptics, JPSE, 3Ds and the mighty Bailter Space and the final disc takes us from the mid 90s to the present day where we witness some of the label's key original players going solo (David Kilgour, Martin Phillips, Graeme Downes) and a new generation of fresh and exciting talent like HDU, The Subliminals and The Mint Chicks. Fittingly ending with the pre-Nun band many consider to be one of the label's catalysts - Toy Love.

Kool Aid - (2019) Family Portrait 7''

Melted Ice Cream – none 

‘Family Portrait’ is the new EP by Kool Aid (featuring members of BnP, Wurld Series, The Dance Asthmatics, Dogfish, etc). Heavy doses of potent zone-out-pop collide with acid washed psychedelia in this freshly cooked batch of songs from Christchurch’s premiere cult pub-rock supergroup.
This EP had a long gestation period and is a truly collaborative effort between some primo members of MIC’s roster. ‘Family Portrait’ veers wildly between mutant post-punk (Snooker with Svetlana), lopsided swamp rock (Family Portrait Revisited) and darkly humorous psych (Dead Me and Tunnel Vision).
RIYL: Black Angels, Snapper, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Th’Dudes, Thee Oh Sees
'Is the Christchurch music scene only about a dozen musicians who are all interchangeably members of a vast multitude of fine fuzz & jangle guitar bands sprouting regularly from the South Island’s largest city? ... On the strength of “Family Portrait Revisited” Kool Aid may well be the best of the bunch.' - Pop Lib NZ
'“Family Portrait Revisited” sways in the breeze, lays in the cool parched meadow and squints at the sun for a spell. The songs got a built in breeziness and a touch of summer sweat on the surface. Hoping this is a lead up to a full album because this one is too good to just leave us all hanging.' - Raven Sings The Blues

Brilliant Swords - (2021) Everything Anywhere Anytime

Self Rleased – none

New Zealand’s Campbell Kneale is, I believe, one of the relatively unheralded musical geniuses of our time. I first became familiar with his work as Birchville Cat Motel in the early 2000s (later Our Love Will Destroy the World), drone work that felt monumental and all-encompassing, capable of blistering noise and crafty subtlety. He’s part of drone-metal trio Black Boned Angel and experimental outfit Ohm, among many other collaborations, and his personal aliases, Brilliant Swords among them, are legion. Most artists who are as prolific as he is suffer for quality; Kneale applies a thoroughness, richness, and precision to everything he does. Brilliant Swords is pure Hüsker Dü worship, executed with that Kneale flair (he plays all the instruments!)—taut, punky indie rock shot through with nervous energy and packed with hooks. Everything Anywhere Anytime is his latest under that project, arriving with zero fanfare this week, and it contains five sublime gruff, blown-out punk-pop tunes cut separately and also mixed the way they would be as a 12-inch. They’re all so good it’s hard to pick favorites, though I’m partial to the title track and “Imaginary.” It’s hard not to listen to this alone and be stunned by how good it is (what one-man band sounds like this?) but viewed as a part of Kneale’s enormous and incredible oeuvre, that argument for how special he is and how worthy of praise only grows.

Cavemen - (2020) Euthanise Me 7''

 

Slovenly Recordings – 702-252

New Zealand’s stank beacons of irresponsibility THE CAVEMEN are back in the Slovenly saddle with four new merciless hits to the chin, as if 2020 hasn’t been painful enough! Like, who doesn’t wanna get euthanized, right? Only time will tell if this year’s NZ ‘End of Life Choice Act’ to legalise euthanasia passes. If not, at least you get three square meals a day in the clink!
Seems like the ‘Men would have already tackled a tune titled “Eat Your Heart Out” on one of their hundred previous releases, but cannibalism is only the tip of the iceberg here - these guys want to “Eat Your Heart and Wear Your Face.”
HOW DISGUSTING(LY ROMANTICAL).
But don’t flatter yourself, baby. They’re fine with going to see a shrink to get “Over You” while you’re twisting with your new squeeze. So enjoy yourselves, because as they say, it’s later than you think.

Surf Friends - (2019) Doing Your Thing

 

Flying Nun Records – none

Tāmaki Makaurau guitar / electronic pop pals Surf Friends have finally lifted the lid on Doing Your Thing, their first long player since 2013's Endorphins. Living up to the promise of singles 'Outdoors' and 'New Wheels', Doing Your Thing layers chiming guitars and pulsing electronics over an insistent rhythm section for a collection of tracks that fizz and bounce like a big ol’ wave. Making a virtue of minimalism, duo Brad Coley (vocals, guitar, drum machine / sampling / programming) and Peter Westmoreland (vocals, bass, and longtime 95bFM Drive surf reporter) are at their best on tracks like 'Let’s Go Out Tonight', telling a whole story with just two chords and the words “Let’s go out tonight, feels like the first time I met you”. Earnest, optimistic, and straight-up, Doing Your Thing (Mixed, Mastered and Produced by Mark Howden) sounds like cracking a few beers with your best mate and is out now on Flying Nun Records

Dick Move - (2020) Chop! LP

 

1:12 Records – LP012

Energized by a strong community fighting for important social change and a need to turn late night political chat into action, Dick Move was formed in the depths of Karangahape Road’s Whammy! Bar and has become an essential party punk voice for women, working people, and for all those that are fired up to make change in the world.

Made up of Aotearoa punk stalwart Justin Rendell (PCP Eagles, Shitripper), prolific harmonizer Hariet Ellis (Na Noise, BOZO) and long-time moshers, first time shredders Lucy Suttor, Luke Boyes and Lulu Macrae, Dick Move spit out short sharp hot takes that call to the increasingly fucked up world around them. Notorious already for their pumping live shows, Dick Move’s catalogue of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it punk anthems are cutting, confronting, empowering and dripping with brash cheekiness and political angst.

Their album ‘Chop!’ was a 5-way collaboration over New Zealand’s 2019/2020 summer. ‘Chop!’ draws on shared experiences to pair weighty and spitting lyrics with bright and relentless hooks. The 13 tracks were lovingly produced, recorded and mixed by Peter Ruddell (Wax Chattels, Sulfate) at his home on Karangahape Road in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.