Summertime Super-Fun-Pak! NZ Poetry on Vinyl -- Part One

Two records from the early 1970s -- private pressings for Waiata Recordings. All the golden voices from days of olde and yore, ever and anon are hither and yon -- Janet Frame, James K Baxter, Denis Glover, CK Stead, Sam Hunt, Bill Manhire, Charles Brasch -- reading their own works.

The recording quality on some of these tracks is simply shocking. My copies of the original vinyl are NM, but probably as a consequence of packing too much onto each side combined with the limitations of the original recordings, the sound varies: prepare for level peaks and drops, pops, echoes, and distortion. 

I won't try to write about these as poetry is mystery to me. I just wanted to digitise them for myself so I thought I'd share them with you. 

New Zealand Poets Read Their Works (1974)

I have taken a thrush from my cat

New Zealand Poets Read Their Work For Children (1974)

And a leopard, and a six-legged giraffe

Tom Thumb - The Singles: A & B Sides

Long out of print comp of everything this great Wellington garage/psych/R&B band ever recorded -- including five never previously released tracks. You can get your info fix over at Antipodean Beat, sergent.com.au, and Mysterex.

Whatcha Gonna Do About It 

Link removed -- back in print! Get it here.

Platter-Rack Raid with the Rayders

Not sure who came first:  The Platterrack, the hottest nightspot in mid-Sixties Auckland with residencies from the La De Da's and The Music Convention, or this light-weight 1965 beat gem from Auckland's (and then Hamilton's) The Rayders. At least half of these tunes are Rayders orginals. Contains two bonus tracks -- "I Cry" sourced (with photo of 7") from the Like Dynamite to Your Brain blog and the very excellent "Working Man" from Wild Things Vol. 2 16 Monaural Blasts of Wyld Kiwi Garage Pop 1966-1968. Great little poppy example of the propensity of sixties New Zealand bands to show off their versatility by getting rid of any orginality. Not to say that this album isn't a lot of fun -- just not particularly edgy (except for "Working Man" which is shit-hot, mate).

Little Egypt [link removed -- this album is available again on iTunes and Spotify]

No. 8 Wire - Psychedelia Without Drugs

The existing counterculture in late-60s New Zealand listened to the likes of Radio Hauraki as the ballooning consciousnesses -- some of those balloons filled with vegetal smoke, others with lukewarm, slightly moist, air -- of the bands in the rest of the western world set their tape-echoes and phasers to "stoned."  They crowded round the American troops coming through the ports, where they heard even dirtier rock'n'roll and R&B. Having no native New Zealand soothing herbs, some resourceful Kiwis hinted inquiries to the soldiers. Some were even lucky enough to take a taste: "Awwww... yeah? My mate's brother tried it over in Aussie, and he said it was like..." While they might not yet have the drugs, for now they could get the drug music (though some of this stuff shows that they didn't really get it). So, slightly bewildered and beer-fuddled, they followed suit. And soon they got pretty good at it.

Compiled by John Baker, this record is sometimes called the third of his 'Wild Things: Wyld Kiwi Garage' series. It certainly seems to be the rarest -- I've seen one copy other than my own, and mine is damaged. I've replaced the damaged tracks with cleaner versions where available, but tracks like "Bengal Tiger" by the Brew (with Doug Jerebine, soon to leave his name behind when departing NZ shores for the UK, cutting a tape as Jessie Harper, "Guitar Absolution in the Shade of the Midnight Sun") I've never seen anywhere else, so yr stuck with my noisy copy.


Slightly Delic [Link Removed -- this is back in print, yeah! Renamed 'Number 8 Wire: 16 Trippy New Zealand Nuggets 1967-1969' on Particles, LP or CD]