NOCTURNAL PROJECTIONS

Rip It Up, Issue 63, 1 October 1982, Page 6

NOCTURNAL PROJECTIONS

Nocturnal Projections have effectively sneaked into New Zealand music from New Plymouth with a . self-financed breakeven single, follow-up EP and gigs in Auckland and the North Island some to crowds numbering in hundreds. They're quietly, impressively promising. They perform energetic originals notable for complex, overlapping melody lines from guitarist Graeme Jefferies, driving drumming executed with military precision by Gordon Rutherford, sometimes haunting, chanted vocals by Peter Jefferies, who can land on the notes and sustain them truly. Bass from Brett Jones adds depth to this quite densely structured music. Their sound and structure are well worked out compared to most new Kiwi bands, but they're not as overbearingly stylised as, say, the Screaming Meemees. They've left themselves room to develop and this is deliberate. Brett Jones says they haven't any restrictions on what they like doing. "If we create a big niche for ourselves we'll have more room to do different things in the future." They say they don't have set ideas about what they want to achieve. "To be open to things you've got to be prepared to be com-

pletely different in a year's time," says Peter Jefferies. "The songs are not set structures, the looser the structure of a song the more chance you've got of getting. a good rendition. "There's usually three melody lines in a song, from each person writing their own piece bass, guitar and vocals. The singing lines don't particularly follow guitar or bass lines. With that interaction of band members, each member of the group makes a big difference to what it sounds like. If you've got four different ideas going into the songs you get better songs and everybody's happy with what they play." Graeme interjects: "Of course everything gets thrashed over. If someone doesn't like someone else's part they say so. The songs never end up being the product of one individual, they always come nut as a hybrid of the original idea." If they're distinctive it's because of the way they play, they say, (nobody's special because they come from New Plymouth). They've been pleased with public response, feel they've had a lot of help and a lot of luck. Coming to Auckland was a big jump for them these guys are modest but no way humble. They aim to make enough money to do what they want,

' release what they want to release, to have "freedom which costs money," Gordon says. ■ ; "Radio With Pictures doesn't think our EP is suitable for a video. Out next one will be more unsuitable," says Peter. (As their self-financed single 'Nerve Ends'/'Purgatory' paid for itself they seem to be arguing from a strong position.) 'The songs will be more extreme and less commercial, he promises. Gordon expands: /■' "On our first single and/even on the EP we chose songs with a similar feeling about them which by chance were not as intense as our other songs." (By intensity he means the emotive content of the y songs.) Nocturnal, Projections produced their five track EP Another Year themselves, with no experience. They learnt by doing it, they can claim the faults as their own. They'll be a lot more spontaneous next time they go into the studio, says Brett. They'll know more about what they're doing. Catch them live if you like dancing, or listen to 'Out of my Hands' from the EP. Keep an eye on them. They have the potential to be compelling. Jewel Sanyo Kid Creole Winners Those who receive a picture disc of Kid Creole's Tropical Gangsters album are J. Falconer (Gore), K. O'Connor (New Lynn), Greg Furguson (Grey Lynn) and D. Reid (Feilding). No prize for the reader who thought lan Morris and Peter Urlich were the dudes in the band. They are August Darnell (Kid Creole) and Andy Hernandez (Coati Mundi). Their prior album on Ze Records was Fresh Fruit in Foreign Places. Rip It Up No. 63 Oct 'B2 Post all correspondence to RIU, P.O. Box 5689, Auckland 1. Editor Murray Cammick Graphics Stefan Morris Advertising Enquiries 790-653 Rip It Up is typeset ,by Artspec Typesetting Systems and printed by Lucas Print, Paraparaumu.

Blues fans are in for a treat when Johnny "Moose" Walker tours New Zealand with the Willie Dayson Band this month. Walker known variously as Big Moose, Moose John and J. W. Walker has been a mainstay of the Chicago blues scene for years. Although best known as a sideman, the pianist/organist is also an able performer in his own right. With the Dayson band in support, he can be expected to provide an evening of rousing and entertaining blues in a style dating back to the 40s when he started working the juke joints of the American South. A colourful figure, Walker was bom June 27 in either 1927 or 1929 at either Stoneville or Greenville, Mississippi (depending on your source). Walker's best available recordings are on Volume 2 of the Alligator series Living Chicago Blues. His four tracks here, with fellow Chicago stalwart Louis Myers on guitar, promise much for Walker's visit, the first in these parts for far too long a time. For a person who has appeared in the company of such blues greats as Lowell Fulson, Elmore James, Earl Hooker, Junior Wells and Otis Rush, relatively little is known of Moose Walker. The fullest biography is contained in Jim O'Neal's notes to the Alligator album, from which much of this derives. Other Walker recordings worth