7" Singles

There's been lots in the media lately about the return of vinyl and while there are elements of the usual media beat-up there is some local activity that backs up the hype. The Kingsland Vinyl Appreciation Society and Midium Records are two labels that have been releasing albums on vinyl and now NZ music website and promotion company Cheese on Toast has just broadened their activity venturing into the release of music with the launch of a 7” singles club. Each month Cheese on Toast will launch a split 7” featuring two up and coming local acts. The singles are launched at a live event with most of the limited release singles being sold at the gig. The first in the series featured poet/MC Tourettes backed with The Drab Doo Riffs – a band fronted by Karl Stevens, formerly of Supergroove. Tourettes has released two albums and The Drab Doo Riffs have an EP coming soon.

Motivated by the arrival in the letterbox of my very newest 7" single I went rummaging for a few of my old 7" vinyl faves. One I dug out was 'Simpleton' by Cyclops, a Dunedin superband of sorts from the early 1990s. The band featured Bruce Blucher formerly of The Alpaca Brothers, Kathy Bull of Look Blue Go Purple and Peter Jefferies of Nocturnal Projections and This Kind of Punishment along with Ande Richardson. During their brief career they produced some devastating live shows, a couple of singles on American labels and a collection of most of their recorded work, Goat Volume.

Sandra Bell started her musical career in Auckland in the early 80s melding poetry and music but after a shift to Dunedin in 87 she became immersed in that city's music scene. She formed a relationship with Peter Jefferies, who was the drummer in Cyclops. Following the break-up of that relationship Bell released a dark collection of songs on a double 7” single Chord backed by a collection of some of Dunedin's best like Alastair Galbraith, Look Blue Go Purple's Norma O'Malley and Sean O'Reilly.

A single with a strange back story is The Flakeheads' 'Anaesthetic in my Head'. It was recorded on a single microphone straight to cassette, lathe cut on acetate and released in a limited edition of less than a hundred, yet it ended up being named Single of the Week in high profile UK music magazine Melody Maker in January 1997. The guest reviewer, Crispin Mills of Kula Shaker' said "this is good, it's real".

King Loser are one of the great NZ bands, always a risky prospect live they could be phenomenal or a train wreck, but they released a clutch of classic NZ albums. Given the precarious nature of some of the personalities and relationships in King Loser frequent break-ups were inevitable. King Loser guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Chris Heazlewood had songs spilling from him so in the breaks he recorded a handful of singles as Heazlewood and Cash Guitar. In 1995 Heazlewood released a single on Flying Nun that is one of my favourite kiwi singles – 'Badge or Medallion'. Chris Heazlewood's solo work was later compiled on a CD titled Cash Guitar.

The Coolies were a three piece all-female punk rock outfit came from Manurewa in South Auckland who seemed to define the term Riot Grrl. They played short, sharp chaotic sets with everything turned up to 10, an approach pretty well captured on a late nineties single released on Girl Alliance. The band returned in the new century releasing a a still raucous, but more dance orientated album in 2002, and returning to the Auckland live scene. They are reportedly working on a new album.

Shayne Carter's band Dimmer has just released a new album, Degrees of Existence and it's one of that bands best. The origins of Dimmer lie in the mid nineties when Carter was casting around trying to find musical direction after the break-up of the Straitjacket Fits. One of the early incarnations of the band featured Chris Heazlewood and they were incredible live. However it wasn't until 2001 that a Dimmer album was released meaning much of that early music never saw the light of day. However in 1995 Dimmer did release a debut single that I would rate as my favourite NZ single of all time. Still a highlight of the Dimmer live show that single is 'Crystalator'.

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Lost for Words

Lost for Words features great kiwi instrumentals, songs sans vocals.

The big question is how do you define an instrumental. On the surface it seems quite simple, a piece of music that doesn't feature voice. But the whole electronic / dance music thang muddies the water. Sure it might not feature vocals but is the music made by Pitch Black or Concord Dawn what you think of as an instrumental. (Come to think of it some of that music doesn't even feature instruments, unless you're going to count a laptop.)

If we look back a bit it gets easier. Many early kiwi rock acts in the 1960s aped their overseas counterparts such as theBeatles, Stones etc and some also picked up on huge instrumental acts like The Shadows or the American surf guitar sound of Dick Dale, Link Wray and so on. In New Zealand the biggest instrumental act was Peter Posa, his most famous tune - White Rabbit. He drew on the surf guitar sound but wasn't quite so drenched in reverb and was a mighty fine picker. Peter Posa is the kiwi instrumental master. He is still around playing gospel and in fact he put out an album a couple of years back.

You all know the Ray Columbus and the Invaders hit 'She's A Mod'. What is less well known is that The Invaders recorded several instrumental B sides without Ray. A couple of these can be found on an the Very Best of Kiwi Instrumentals, an interesting budget price CD, you'll pick up Amplifier or The Warehouse.

Three decades later the debut single from Shayne Carter's post Straightjacket Fits band Dimmer was the classic, thrilling instrumental 'Crystalator', a song that exhibits both control and paint stripping ferocity. This is one of my favourite NZ singles of all time.

The podcast closes with HDU's 'Tunguska', first released as a single in 2006 after a lengthy hiatus and then included on last year's excellent Metamatics album. This song was recently described by Flying Nun founder Roger Shepherd as his summer anthem. Hardly an accurate description 'Tunguska' is, never-the-less, brilliant. It's a moody and brooding guitar soundscape that invokes the feeling of isolation and menace of Tunguska, the site of a devastating early 20th century meteorite strike in Siberia.

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