Chris Knox - Song For 1990 (1990)

A rather quickly-produced mini-album for the NZ sesquicentennial in 1990.

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The Terminals ‎- Touch (1992)

Renderers' guitarist Brian Crook made the sound of the Terminals even more aggressive and anarchic. Touch (Raffmond, 1992) is a demonic and cacophonous work, particularly in the vocal parts (Stephen Cogle and Brian Crook) and in the (dissonant) keyboards parts (Mick Eldorado). Furthermore, the drummer (Peter Stapleton) has progressed to a living orgy of tribalism in the vein of Maureen Tucker (Velvet Underground).

 

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The Terminals ‎- Disease (1991)

The Terminals' second album, released on Xpressway on cassette.

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Fatal Jelly Space - Hole (1990)

Fatal Jelly Space was a New Zealand band based in Auckland with an all female line up. The band existed from 1989 - 1994 and decided to cease when Jacinda (vocals) stated that she wasn't angry anymore and wanted to do something else.

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Chris Heazlewood - They Slaughter Small Children (1992)

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Chris Heazlewood - Surf's Up In Malibu 7'' (1993)

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Chris Heazlewood - Rat Fink A Boo Boo! (1990)

This ultra-rare cassette release was a blueprint for future releases named after a suitably obscure 1960’s b-movie.

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Chris Heazlewood - Hellmouth 666 (1991)

This I think was the last release on Xpressway and may even be the reason the label was halted. There is a sound to twisted music-it's a sound that is bent, wild, and wrecked and it's usually the work of a deranged and comically brilliant amalgam of musicians. Flipper had it early on, but the band who epitomized that "sensibility" was New Zealand's Axemen. Ironically, bands who practice such unrestrained mania fused with such a sparkling sense of humor are often seemingly fit with an aggressive desire to be taken deadly seriously. I've seen exchanges in the NZ monthly Rip It Up whose The Axemen fought tooth and nail with those who challenged their "seriousness," all the while releasing gloriously biting and deranged bits of mind shatter. I have to assume that was all part of the fun. Heazlewood seems almost too angry and selfconsciously hip at times to carry this muse, but early solo projects like Hellmouth 666 are very much in Axernen's territory. Robert Cardy (one of the mighty Axemnen) even wrote the one cover song here. Unlike The Axemen, though, Heazlewood's style is much denser, with guitars drenched in a thick and fuzzy overdrive. Heazlewood's songs don't always have the shambolic humor of the Axemen, but songs like "Who's Dead-essentially a dialogue of "you're dead" "No you're dead"-is a scream. I'd call Hellmouth 666 winning, I'd call it. what's the word I'm looking for? Oh yeah.. . supergood!

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Loves Ugly Children - Showered in Gold (1997)

RipItUp described Showered In Gold as, “a feast of furies, where heavenly melodies inhabit massive power-chord driven songs which alternately drift like enormous abandoned spaceships or rock like fission-powered missiles.” As for the album title? “Showered in Gold can mean showered in praise, pissed on from a great height or it could be a reference to a sexual act”.

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Loves Ugly Children - Cakehole (1995)

On January 20, the day after supporting Ministry at The Powerstation in Auckland, the group played the 1995 Big Day Out (they returned in 1996). Then it was back to Christchurch and Dunedin.  They went to Dunedin in April 1995 to record debut album Cakehole in Fish Street Studios with Tex Houston. “It’s a punk rock record,” Maclaren would later say. “I’m getting my attitudes from reality, from having a normal life. Having some punk rock element to our music is keeping our feet on the ground, staying down to earth.” “Cakehole was all personal politics, which was the kind of music I was listening to at the time, records that were naked, but honest. It was quite a difficult album to tour because it would put me into black moods doing the gigs.”

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Loves Ugly Children - Cold Water Surf (1994)

 t In the early to mid 1990s, Christchurch was a city flush with guitar-driven groups marshalled on record by the short-lived Flat City Records and more comprehensively by Failsafe Records. Despite the flurry of live activity and some enduring recordings, few of the active groups transcended their spirited beginnings. Fiery trio Loves Ugly Children, comprising Simon Maclaren (guitar, vocals), Angela “Floss” Leslie (bass, vocals) and Jason Young (drums, vocals), were the most prominent and enduring group on the rising scene. In 1994 Loves Ugly Children, having already established themselves as one of Christchurch’s biggest drawing groups (the Avalanche release party on April 26, 1993 attracted over 1,000 fans), signed to Flying Nun Records. Their first release for their new label was the Cold Water Surf CD EP from which ‘Senseless’ was extracted for a single and a video made.

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Dribbling Darts - Present Perfect (1993)

New Zealand folk-pop group Dribbling Darts was founded in 1989 by former Sneaky Feelings vocalist/guitarist Matthew Bannister, and was originally completed by ex-Remarkables bassist Alan Gregg and violinist Alice Bulmer. Originally dubbed the Dribbling Darts of Love, the trio debuted in 1991 with the EP Shoot; by the time of the follow-up EP, Florid Dabblers Voting, drummer Richard Foulkes, Jr. had been recruited, and was later replaced briefly by ex-Sneaky Feelings drummer Martin Durrant. The Dribbling Darts were silent for the next two years as Bannister and Bulmer focused on raising their child, but finally resurfaced in 1993 with the single "Hey Judith," quickly followed by the full-length Present Perfect.

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Mainline - A Christchurch Compilation (1999)

Here's a nifty little compilation from 1999. There's some real oddities in here. Fabulously imaginative sonic noise soundscapes which immediately bury themselves in the frontal lobes. Losta other goodies. Definitely worthy of a listen & a catalogue number for your NZ oddities collection.

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S.P.U.D. - Gnaw (1991)

The second and final album from this noisy New Zealand underground group saw them produced in a much cleaner fashion than on their debut. Giving their lurching Birthday Party-like sound a magnified sheen resulted in a sound akin to early Jesus Lizard; none of their energy and invention was lost in the graduation to high production values -- quite a feat for a post-punk noise group. The quintet builds a complex architecture of noise guitar textures over a propulsive rhythm section, providing dramatic tension to the instrumental arrangements, and giving vocalist Glen Campbell space enough to exercise one of the most unique vocal instruments. On "Recliner," the chaos of Sonic Youth circa EVOL meets speed metal precision; "Creep" is the most turgid riff the Melvins must wish they had written. Typical of Flying Nun groups, they seem to exist ten years ahead of their time. With this album they may have scored few fans outside of their home country, but among them are Sonic Youth and Steve Albini, both institutions who have cited this album as a noise rock classic of the highest caliber.

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S.P.U.D. ‎– Sour (1990)

This obscure New Zealand post-punk group were the young outsiders when they came to the legendary Flying Nun label in the late '80s. The previous decade has seen the label's identity bloom as the home of delicate and crafty songs, the Verlaines, Chills, and Chris Knox -- elegance was as far removed from the SPUD sound as guitars, bass, and drums can get. On their 1990 debut, a sound inspired by Black Sabbath and the Birthday Party saw the quintet thrashing feedback drenched dirges more akin to the Chicago post-punk sound of Touch and Go or Amphetamine Reptile. Scratch Acid, Jesus Lizard, or Halo of Flies may be good comparisons; fellow Kiwis Skeptics and the Dead C worked up a similar storm of guitar driven chaos as well. Ahead of its time, the group recorded a second stunning record "Gnaw" in the '90s and dissolved. Core member Mathew Heine later formed a similar ensemble, Solid Gold Hell.

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The Clean - Live at Fabrik, Hamburg (23-04-1990)

Another gem!!

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Solid Gold Hell - The Blood & The Pity (1996)

Well it ain't pop music, and it was never was meant to be. The now defunct Solid Gold Hell were pure southern gothic. Like their live shows, their recorded output is a combination of travelling medicine and old-time bare-knuckle boxing show: a sound that threatens to take on all-comers and sell you something for your soul. In the years since this band crawled out of an unholy alliance between Flying Nun's Spud and JPS Experience, Solid Gold Hell have taken on a string of challengers to the mantle of most out-there and fully rocking live group Auckland has to offer. Their live shows were a mixture of skewed musical precision and pure pathos - for every moment of sheer rocking exhilaration as rhythm section Gary Sullivan and Colleen Brennan duel with guitar maestro Matthew Heine, there's the sight and sound of singer Glen Lorne Campbell growling out a lungful of death-rattle over the mic. And the show finale, with Glen on trombone and Gary drumming with one hand and holding his trumpet in the other, while Colleen and Matthew play heads-down string-torture, is the kind of showbiz that sells snake oil to indians. Their album 'The Blood And The Pity' hits the same way. Musically, Solid Gold Hell have never given us anything as good as 'The Country Sow', a song that swings out like the arm of a punchdrunk Joe Louis. There's never been anything as hard-out as 'Heavenly Badness' or riffery as dynamic as the mini-album's title track or 'My Father Before Me' from this lot before either. This is music to put a little fear in your soul. And as the lady said, it also rocks. Beware.

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Solid Gold Hell - Swingin' Hot Murder (1994)

Formed in the wake of New Zealand noise rockers SPUD, Solid Gold Hell was a continuation of that group's lurching Birthday Party/Jesus Lizard sound with more garage punk kitsch and less avant sonics in the mix. Turgid swing beats and atonal blues draw comparisons to Killdozer and Australian pub crawlers the Scientists. Similarly, they take a lot from Captain Beefheart's magic band and filter it through punk and sarcastic bar-room jazz, resulting in a drunken mix of low-tech noise and reluctantly startling musicianship.

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Pop Art Toasters - Pop Art Toasters (1994)

With neither of their bands touring, or in the recording studio, New Zealand music scene veterans Martin Phillipps (guitar/vocals) of The Chills and David Kilgour (guitar/vocals) of The Clean,  bassist Noel Ward, keyboardist Alan Starrett and drummer Noel Ward joined forces to create perhaps the closest thing to a “super group” that New Zealand ever had, the one off group, Pop Art Toasters. Released in 1994 the group’s sole release, the self-titled Pop Art Toasters, proffer five fluffy covers of obscure and semi-obscure vintage pop gems.

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The Clean ‎– Late Last Night (1994)

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