Ocean Lover - Kim Blackburn (Lizards In Love) Somewhere Lovers - Vibraslaps (Vibraslaps) Say Cheese - Expendables (Between Gears) Corsican Ride - Raith Rovers (Songs from the Lowland) Suzanne Said - The Shallows (Suzanne Said 12") Solomon's Sister - Peter Arnold & Claire Timmings (Rarer Than Radium) What's In A Name - Orange (Fruit Salad Lives) Too Far Gone - Scorched Earth Policy (Keep Away from the Wires) Time of the Leaves - The Kiwi Animal (Music Media) Ice Lands - Alpha Plan (Stratford Workshop) Iceberg - Bilderine (Split Seconds) Thats What Friends Are For - Mainly Spaniards (7" single) Thursday - The Puddle (7" single) Not A Private Joke - Letterbox Lambs (Not A Private Joke) Hey Old Man - Calamari Bushmen (The Ghosts Of Things I've Killed) Under Your Face - April Fools (Disturbed) Pinhead - Debris (Super 8 Mayhem) Anais - Alastair Galbraith (Talisman)
This collection tries to present some of the lesser known New Zealand acts, mainly from the 80s and a few from the 90s. It starts with the voice of Kim Blackburn, a voice straight from the Valhala, singing about the great ocean. Two groups with more experimental sound - Vibraslaps and the Expentables (whose singer Jay Clarkson we will meet again in a future NZ compilation) and a short track from Robert Scott's band, the Raith Rovers. Then there's the Swallows, the group of Roy Montgomery from 1985, and then a track from a record that became what it's title said: rarer than radium. Following are two real masterpieces of teenage pop (New Zealand way), by the Orange and Scorched Earth Policy. The only way I can explain why these two groups aren't bigger than the Beatles, or even the Chills, is that they never tried hard. They were just kids and they were doing it for fun. Note that Orange's Andrew Brough later wrote some realy great songs for Straitjacket Fits. The pair of Kiwi Animal released a few records in 1984-85 and then went on to other forms of art. Two songs about ice follow, from the Alpha Plan and the great Bill Direen, this time under the name of Bilderine. An equally great musician, George Henderson with the Puddle sings a perfect Creation (the label) style pop hit about Thursday. Then there are 3 groups from the 90s (as far as I know only Debris managed to release some more of their music, Calamari Bushmen put out only this record and the April Fools was a short lived super group including Martin Phillips and David Kilgour) and this collection closes with one of the more quiet songs of Alastair Galbraith from his first album. Those who are in this scene (i.e. the 'classic' New Zealand or early Flying Nun sound) will find some real obscure names, some of them never heard for over 20 years - not even included in the many F.N. compilations. Anyway this doesn't matter. What it does matter is the good music, and everyone bother to listen to it, I hope will enjoy some real pop gems, made in New Zealand.
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