The Pin Group - (2012) Ambivalence / Live At The Gladstone Hotel LP&CD

 

Flying Nun Records – FNLP520

“The Pin Group’s short career was the perfect escape act—they produced a small but peerless body of work in adverse circumstances and in almost complete obscurity, and then evaporated before anyone could get a hook into them. A doubly impressive trick, when you consider that they also made the first record for Flying Nun, a label that was to define underground rock music for an entire generation. For many of us the thing that made The Pin Group so unforgettable was that their genius had existed right beneath our noses—and we’d missed them.
“I can clearly remember hearing the black-on-black Ambivalence single when it came out in the midst of the 1981 Springbok Tour. I impatiently dismissed it as ‘too murky.’ It was not to be until early the following year that I heard the Go to Town EP... and then my mind split open. If ever I get my genie in a bottle I will be back in a flash to the Gladstone in December 1981 to see the five-piece Pin Group with Mary Heney covering ‘Lady Godiva’s Operation.’ For my money, that’s the absolute one plus ultra of Velvet Underground cover-version match-ups.
“A big part of their mysterious appeal—apart from their unparalleled understanding of the ultimate drone-rock magic trick of how to hold one chord just too long—was their masterly visual presentation. From that first blackest-ever single it was apparent that not only were they New Zealand’s ultimate VU-inspired band (a palm for which moreover the competition was unspeakably intense in those days)—but they even had their own Warhol, in the person of Ronnie van Hout. For that first delirious year he was a one-man design tsunami for Flying Nun, but it was his covers and posters for The Pin Group that represented his most perfectly-realized ‘total artwork.’
“A big part of my wanting to see Flying Nun get off the ground again in a new century was to get the chance to re-marry the sonics of The Pin Group with Ronnie’s ‘silver Factory’ visual vibe of Brillo boxes and black helicopters. And this is it: a legend that defies time. Now you too have the chance to experience The Pin Group’s irresistible blend of the puritanical with the libidinal—wrapped in a point-perfect distillation of proto-hipster psychedelic reference-points from the dawn of post-modernity.
“They were right—our youth was soon past. But this endures.”
—Bruce Russell, September 2011

The Pin Group - (1997) The Pin Group CD

 

Siltbreeze – SB63

Siltbreeze's Retrospective is a re-issued collection of recordings by New Zealand's seminal Pin Group (fronted by Roy Montgomery) -- the disc includes the "Ambivalence"/"Columbia" 7" (actually the first single issued on the Flying Nun label), the "Coat"/"Jim" 7", the Pin Group Goes to Town EP, a live cover of War's "Low Rider" and two low-fi studio tracks recorded during the group's 1993 "reunion." The band's sound -- a huge influence on the incredible New Zealand pop scene of the '80s -- was a decidedly post-punk approach that started off sounding very much like Joy Division or an extremely stripped-down version of Echo and the Bunnymen's early work -- over the band's brief career, however, the shimmery, jangly aspects of antipodean pop slowly emerged. Retrospective is a perfect collection of this material, since most of the band's original releases are incredibly scarce -- it's a vital addition to the record collection of anyone with an interest in the New Zealand/Flying Nun pop scene, and an excellent example of post-punk and its influence in New Zealand.

The Pin Group - (1982) Go To Town 12''

 

Flying Nun Records – FN 1967

The first signing of the legendary New Zealand label Flying Nun, Christchurch-based noise pop trio the Pin Group, teamed singer/guitarist Roy Montgomery, bassist Ross Humphrey, and drummer Peter Stapleton. Their 1981 debut single, the Joy Division-influenced "Ambivalence," was the first release on Flying Nun, issued in an edition of 300 copies; the follow-up, "Coat," appeared later that same year. After a 1982 EP, The Pin Group Go to Town, the band dissolved when Montgomery traveled to London for a year-long study program; he and Stapleton later renewed their collaboration as members of drone merchants Dadamah, with the complete Pin Group lineup reuniting in 1992 to record a one-off single, "Eleven Years After."

The Kiwi Animal - (2019) Music Media LP

 

Digital Regress – DR40

After a few years spleen venting at the front of Wellington art brutes Shoes This High, Brent Hayward struck out on his own, self-releasing a few EPs as Smelly Feet before forming The Kiwi Animal with Julie Cooper in 1982. The duo released their first album, Music Media, on Massage Records (their own imprint) in 1984.

Billing itself "New Acoustic Music," the Kiwi Animal's debut is a set of introverted and austere yet lambent folk songs. Textural, gently hypnotic guitar chords anchor minimal arrangements, as Hayward and Cooper's entwined vocals – think Pip Proud meets The Vaselines - project paranoia and forlorn, diffident cool. Wry, imagistic lyrics somewhere between the stoned political economy of D. Boon and the head-fuck soliloquies of Robert Ashley complete The Kiwi Animal effect.

The music of The Kiwi Animal, moody and intelligent and often abruptly gentle, works subcutaneously, propelled by guitars that churn and weave – no jangle here – and a his 'n' hers vocal delivery for the ages. Digital Regress is happy to make these essentially perfect records available again.

MILK - (2021) III LP

Flying Nun Records – none

When Reuben Samuel Winter (Waitaha/Kāi Tahu/Te Aupōuri/Te Rarawa/Ngāti Kuri) passed away in September 2020, he left a hole in the New Zealand music community that will never be filled. But like the generous soul he was, he has left behind a glorious gift to us all in Milk III.
Milk III is not the last album that Reuben recorded, but it is a masterpiece and a culmination of a life immersed in music. A life spent experimenting in a plethora of eclectic genres, and constantly leading the charge of weirdness from the vanguard of the New Zealand underground.
Milk III was recorded in January 2019 at Red Bull Studios, recorded, and engineered by Ben Lawson, with countless layers of overdubs recorded at Reuben’s home in Titirangi. It features an eclectic cast of musicians including Reuben Winter, Lachlan Smith, James Thorrington, Emma Hall-Phillips, Victoria Chellew, Charlie (Opi), Jong-Yun J.Y. Lee and Peter Ruddell.
Milk III is being released on black vinyl LP and Bandcamp on 20th April, 2021 via New Zealand label Flying Nun Records, with all profits split between Fibromyalgia Aotearoa New Zealand and Reuben's whānau and future fund. Reuben struggled silently with fibromyalgia and chronic pain for close to a decade, and this incurable and invisible illness affected his hauora on all levels.
The concepts for this work have been present in Reuben for years. The distinctly layered crunching guitars, the melodies that worm their way into your ears, and bite through them, the complex orchestration and arrangements within each track, lift this record up from being another incredible album from a man with a back catalogue of extraordinary albums to his name, to a stunning reflection of the fire that burned within Reuben throughout his entire life.
Reuben's altruism surpassed him, he pushed the limits of what kinds of sounds can come out of this country, and inspired a whole generation of musicians. In saying that, if there is one thing that this album does above all else, it manages to articulate the particular brand of darkness that hovers over this country.
Milk III, like it’s maker, cannot be wholly characterized by the darkness it contains. In fact, the presence of this darkness makes the moments of creative purity, of oneness of sound, of light all the more profound. To write about pain with such honesty is what makes this album worthy of absolute attention.
This record is not a hastily thrown together posthumous release. Every second of sound, every word, every multi-layered overdub was carefully considered, and lovingly crafted by Reuben. It shows an insight into who Reuben was in the last few years of his life. A man brave enough to stare his own pain in the face, and who was kind enough to share himself wholly with anyone who would listen.

The Dead C - (2006) Vain, Erudite and Stupid (Selected Works: 1987-2005) 2xCD

 

Ba Da Bing! – bing050

Brand new long-awaited compilation of the assorted career highs of one of the most formally advanced rock groups of the modern age, New Zealand's Dead C. Listening to the bulk of this excellent compilation the kind of leaps that this trio made in formal rock logic still sound staggering, from their aestheticising use of murky fidelity through Robbie Yeats' astounding lead-drum work that is as feral as any 4/4 rock motor and as liberated and attuned to higher-time as any fully-informed post-fire music blat. Morley's wasted, brain-bombed vocal style is as distinctive as any great vocalist you might wanna list (Roky, Buckley, Ireton, Tomokawa), their approach to classic rock structure is perfectly intuitive and drawn straight from the source and the guitar playing packs some of the most muscular weed ever gripped by human hands. It fucking rocks is what. Comes with a booklet with essays (Nick Cain, Seymour Glass, Tom Lax, Bruce Russell) and a totally choice track-listing that runs from "Max Morris" and "Angel" through "Helen Said This", "Power", "Mighty", "Bitcher", "Tuba Is Funny" et al. Outside of Fushitsusha, no one has done more to forward the cause. A totally necessary purchase.

Transistors - (2019) Shortwave / Flux Pentaphile (10th Anniversary)

 

Dust Up! – none

TRANSISTORS are a garage punk/powerpop band from New Zealand.
Melted Ice Cream (in collaboration with some 'rad punky dudes' over at Dust Up!) present to you the Transistors' first two releases packaged up in a special limited edition cassette release!

Bill Direen - (2019) A Memory Of Others 2xLP

 

Sophomore Lounge – SL100

The superb 2xLP set in your hands serves both as an overview of Bill Direen's musical arc, and as a companion to Simon Ogston's fascinating documentary film, Bill Direen: A Memory of Others. It is not a soundtrack per se, since the versions of the songs here are not always the same ones as in the film, but any quibbling about this is surely jackanapery and should be ignored forthwith.
The film follows Direen's 2016 tour of New Zealand, the first he had undertaken in a decade. The venues range from the historical home of the late New Zealand writer, Janet Frame, to a children's musical workshop, as well as more standard spots like clubs, galleries and radio stations. Functioning both as a meditation and a travelogue, the tour footage is interspersed with wonderful bits of Bill's musical and literary history, both of which are long and varied. Direen's work as a writer has resulted in a large shelf of first rate poetry, prose and plays, much of it underpinned by his surrealist tendency to bend reality. But, to the music...
Direen's earliest known band was Vacuum, a quartet created (along with members of germinal The World and the Victor Dimisich Band) from shards of '60s sounds found in their record collections. Vacuum's appearance coincided with the arrival of punk in New Zealand, although their recordings were only released after they'd ceased operation in 1979. Vacuum was followed by a series of "non-bands," whose names were associated with certain records or projects. For instance, Feast of Frogs performed material by the French writer, Boris Vian. Six Impossible Things, and High Thirties Piano were other ensembles, coexisting as Direen created band names based on the phonics of "Bill Direen." Bilders (Solomans Ball) was the first, followed by Bilderburgers, Die Bilder, Bilderine, and so on. The group's names were mutable and went through almost as many variations as the band did stylistically. Urbs, Gone Aiwa, Soluble Fish, The Twenty Minutes, Bolobolo and The HAT are some of the other units who inhabited Direen's orbit over the years. But the Builders is his mothership.
The name seems to have been codified with the release of The Builders' 1983 LP Beatin' Hearts, the first studio-recorded long player issued by the Flying Nun label. There has never been much chronological sense to how Direen's music emerged. Beatin' Hearts contained various songs from earlier records and bands, now credited to the Builders. So, were the earlier tunes recorded by the Builders? Not really. But then, why not? In the broadest sense, Direen has always seemed interested in scrambling linear flow. Thus, it's fitting that the music on A Memory of Others roams back and forth across time and space, beholden to no logic other than its own.
Recorded at various times throughout a span of 35 years, what's really amazing is how consistent the quality of the material is - also, how impossible it is to date most of the songs archeologically. There are certain tunes from the early days, "Russian Rug," "Magazine," "Bedrock Bay," and "Love in the Retail Trade," that definitely feel early. They're ripe with proto-New Zealand riffery, perhaps hinting a little of the Fall in terms of organ and vocal delivery. But you could say the same of much newer tracks like "Million Hearts" and "Charisma" recorded with the bandname Ferocious. Just about the time you start to develop a linear theory about Direen's musical evolution, he punches you in the head.
There are other old tracks, like "Alien," which are impossible to peg in temporal space. One does get the sense that Direen's muse has bent in the direction of folkier tropes over the years. Tracks like "Byron & Eve," "Unemployed," and "Momently," have something about them recalling certain aspects of the progressive British folk music tradition. But these tunes date from the same rough time as stuff like "Utopians." which makes me think of "Mercenaries"-era John Cale. Then there's "Trees," which is almost like one of Kevin Ayers' quieter tunes from his early Island Records phase. So that theory fizzles. PDQ.
Even though I've spent the last few days listening to these songs a lot, taking notes and trying to figure out what they might tell us about Bill Direen's creative trajectory, the joke's on me. Typical surrealist that he is, Direen refuses to hew to the straight line thinking I try to ascribe to him. The only rules he ever follows are his own, and I believe he probably figures even those were made to be broken. So just sit back, open your ears and prepare to deal with a truly original thinker and creator. It might be a bit confusing, but just let go of your preconceptions and dig. You will be amply rewarded. Scout's honor."

Graeme Jefferies - (2021) Messages For The Cakekitchen LP

 

Ally Records – ALLY 12-002 Graeme Jefferies’ first issue of recordings after leaving “This Kind of Punishment” and the first record using the idea of the Cakekitchen as a recording project. It was put together piece by piece on Graeme’s Teac 4 track over a three year period in various bedroom studios and warehouse spaces in Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin. Messages For… was originally released in 1988 by Flying Nun Records of New Zealand and later licensed to Ajax Records of Chicago. Most of these songs would not sound too out of place on a This Kind of Punishment album and this record was more or less made at the same time as the final TKP release, using the same instruments and equipment. A landmark release in the pre digital world of home recording.

Zero Cool - (2021) 720p CS

 

Melted Ice Cream – MIC0089

Wellington's Zero Cool present their sophomore album 720p today, along with the visual partner to single 'Raunchy' i.e. one of the most unsettling music videos I've seen so far this year. 720p has an undeniable undertone of something tragic to it, seeping through singer Scott Maynard's emo-pop vocals and fuzzy guitar, occasionally taking you by surprise, like a punch to the gut after a big hug. The super lo-fi clip for 'Raunchy' has a similar sentiment, spying on a would-be romantic picnic that grows increasingly uncomfortable and alarming, with fidgety hand holding, hovering arms and a total uncertainty of time and space. The trio's album is fit to be listened to many times over, malleable enough to suit a sullen solo listen or be the backdrop for a buzzing dinner party. Press play on the latest Zero Cool creation below, starting with this clip, best watched with the image resolution knocked down a notch from 1080p...

The Futurians - (2020) Atuan 7''

 

I Dischi Del Barone – IDDB040

Deemed to happen IDDB EP from the long running Dunedin, NZ act The Futurians. Full throttle avantgarde punk/sci-fi synth chaos, the two-suite 'Atuan' follows up the massive, monotonous blown-out blasts of the recent Programmed LP (Planam, 2018) and their short cut on the Porcelain Summer compilation 7". Much has been said about The Futurians, some of our favorite quotes are "the sound of gay robots disco dancing and crushing everything underfoot", "the remnants of space debris raining down on the green hills of New Zealand", "armed with nuclear weapons as sonic dust" and well, 'the best punk band on the fucken planet!".

GIANT FROWN - (2015) "I'm Pretty Gone" E.P.

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Vasculae - (2022) Broken Lust CD

Monorail Trespassing – mt139cd

The distant clang and scrape of metals, slow burning atmospherics, and subdued electronics both tonal and textured; less blast and more resignation this time around. Mostly recorded and composed in early 2020 and slowly picked at during the first cycle of the end times. The soundtrack to the death rattles of this life cycle, foreshadowing a slow-motion chemical apocalypse; Let it burn, let it crumble, just let me get some hedonism out of the way before it's too late.

Three tracks designed as variations on a theme utilizing similar compositional arcs and narratives, with the extra fourth track being a "performance mix" — utilizing the same sources — created for Tabitha Piseno's 'Noise & Politics' on Montez Press Radio in March 2020, as well as the arc of two live performances in Los Angeles just as the world shut down. Edition of 300 copies in digipack.

Dave Gilden - (2022) Texas Chainsaw Dopefiend CD

 

Monorail Trespassing – mt138cd, S.A.P. – SAP01

Finally available after numerous delays, beginning in 2014 and pushing my OCD to the absolute brink. Special gratitude is due to Nolan Throop for his patience tolerating my insanity on this project, not to mention everyone else. I am proud to have made this available on disc as it is my favorite noise recording of all time, since I first received my copy from Artware Audio in 2001.

Originally released on cassette in 1996, TCD is, at it's core, a Mother Savage 'mega-mix' composition of Gilden's work as engineered by Joseph Roemer and Rodger Stella — encompassing his projects Sawgasm, Crackhouse, Depress/Regress, and work under his own name as the source material for a manic amphetamine-fueled journey through the highs and lows of various chemical states; encompassing unhinged harsh sessions that build to abrupt jump cuts and inspired use of the stereo field, primitive caveman percussion, psychedelic tape collage with short samples of Big Black and The Decline of Western Civilization along the way, all layered and edited with surgical precision — a true masterwork of advanced and inventive tape composition using the primitive instruments of 1990's recording technology well beyond their capabilities.

The 90's brought many instant classics to the noise genre, but TCD stands above them all as perfection, and should be viewed as a benchmark going forward. This transfer of the original master tape, done by William Hutson (Rale, clipping.), has been carefully engineered to preserve and enhance the quality of the original without compromising it's integrity.

Edition of 300 copies in digipack. Co-released with new Swedish imprint S.A.P., who will handle all European sales and distribution; distributors and customers are encouraged to purchase the disc via: saprecords@protonmail.com | https://saprec.wordpress.com

Out of respect for the sanctity of this material, it will not be available to stream or download at this time.

Bigger Than Life (1956)

 

1h 35m 4.36GB .ISO file

Though ignored at the time of its release, Nicholas Ray’s Bigger Than Life is now recognized as one of the great American films of the 1950s. When a friendly, successful suburban teacher and father (James Mason, in one of his most indelible roles) is prescribed cortisone for a painful, possibly fatal affliction, he grows dangerously addicted to the experimental drug, resulting in his transformation into a psychotic and ultimately violent household despot. This Eisenhower-era throat-grabber, shot in expressive CinemaScope, is an excoriating take on the nuclear family. That it came in the day of Father Knows Best makes it all the more shocking—and wildly entertaining.

Empire of Passion (1978)

 

1h 45m 4.36GB .ISO file

With an arresting mix of eroticism and horror, Oshima plunges the viewer into a nightmarish tale of guilt and retribution in Empire of Passion (Ai no borei). Set in a Japanese village at the end of the nineteenth century, the film details the emotional and physical downfall of a married woman and her younger lover following their decision to murder her husband and dump his body in a well. Empire of Passion was Oshima’s only true kaidan (Japanese ghost story), and the film, a savage, unrelenting experience, earned him the best director award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Le amiche (1955)

 

1h 44m 4.36GB .ISO file

This major early achievement by Michelangelo Antonioni bears the first signs of the cinema-changing style for which he would soon be world-famous. Le amiche (The Girlfriends) is a brilliantly observed, fragmentary depiction of modern bourgeois life, conveyed from the perspective of five Turinese women. As four of the friends try to make sense of the suicide attempt of the fifth, they find themselves examining their own troubled romantic lives. With suggestions of the theme of modern alienation and the fastidious visual abstraction that would define his later masterpieces such as L’avventura, L’eclisse, and Red Desert, Antonioni’s film is a devastating take on doomed love and fraught friendship.
Le amiche was restored by the Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata. Restoration funding provided by Gucci and The Film Foundation.

Donkey Skin (1970)

 

1h 30m 4.36GB .ISO file

In this lovingly crafted, wildly eccentric adaptation of a classic French fairy tale, Jacques Demy casts Catherine Deneuve as a princess who must go into hiding as a scullery maid in order to fend off an unwanted marriage proposal—from her own father, the king (Jean Marais). A topsy-turvy riches-to-rags fable with songs by Michel Legrand, Donkey Skin creates a tactile fantasy world that’s perched on the border between the earnest and the satiric, and features Delphine Seyrig in a delicious supporting role as a fashionable fairy godmother.

Au hasard Balthazar (1966)

 

1h 35m 4.36GB .ISO file

A profound masterpiece from one of the most revered filmmakers in the history of cinema, Robert Bresson’s 'Au hasard Balthazar' follows the donkey Balthazar as he is passed from owner to owner, some kind and some cruel but all with motivations beyond his understanding. Balthazar, whose life parallels that of his first keeper, Marie, is truly a beast of burden, suffering the sins of humankind. But despite his powerlessness, he accepts his fate nobly. Through Bresson’s unconventional approach to composition, sound, and narrative, this simple story becomes a moving parable about purity and transcendence.

The Children Are Watching Us (1944)

1h 19m  1h 19m 4.36GB .ISO file

In his first collaboration with renowned screenwriter and longtime partner Cesare Zavattini, Vittorio De Sica examines the cataclysmic consequences of adult folly on an innocent child. Heralding the pair’s subsequent work on some of the masterpieces of Italian neorealism, The Children Are Watching Us is a vivid, deeply humane portrait of a family’s disintegration.

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)

 

1h 42m 

Disc One 4.36GB .ISO file

Disc Two 4.36GB .ISO file

In Luis Buñuel’s deliciously satiric masterpiece, an upper-middle-class sextet sits down to a dinner that is continually delayed, their attempts to eat thwarted by vaudevillian events both actual and imagined, including terrorist attacks, military maneuvers, and ghostly apparitions. Stringing together a discontinuous, digressive series of absurdist set pieces, Buñuel and his screenwriting partner Jean-Claude Carrière send a cast of European-film greats—including Fernando Rey, Stéphane Audran, Delphine Seyrig, Jean-Pierre Cassel, and Bulle Ogier—through a maze of desire deferred, frustrated, and interrupted. The Oscar-winning pinnacle of Buñuel’s late-career ascent as a feted maestro of the international art house, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie is also one of his most gleefully radical assaults on the values of the ruling class.