Reaction!

Rip It Up, Issue 80, 1 March 1984, Page 34

Reaction!

Friday night at Auckland's funky (but chic) club Zanzibar, and among the THUMP and ZING of overseas disco production marvels are the unlikely strains of something closer to home.

It's Car Crash Set's 'lmagination and, hey, it fits!

Trevor Reekie is Car Crash Set's guitarist and co-producer and is

also in charge of Reaction Records. He smiles when asked if he thinks local recordings can foot it with overseas productions. "You mean the Arthur Baker sound? I know a lot of people think we're clouing it but were trying to find our own sounds within the limits of drum machines and synthesisers. Using those instruments you can only do so much and the rest is up to the individual ability of the musicians. I think we're getting close to the sound we want though. There's no New Zealand club sound, that's the thing, and if you put out something using those instruments you're automatically going to be compared to an overseas band. If we were doing the same thing in London we'd actually have a chance to foot it with those big bands." So local studios can be

competitive? \ "Definitely. Harlequin and Mandrill are defintely getting great : sounds and I think even some of the 16 tracks are doing it. And even the Flying Nun "bands at Progressive, they're getting the sounds they want." Reactions thrust centres around the Mockers, , Car Crash Set and Paul Agar's Marginal Era. The Mockers' debut album Swear It's True is due for release soon on the label. It contains new material and fresh versions of songs like "Good Old Days' and Woke Up Today'. ■ Following that will Ibe {Marginal j Era's 'Mystery Girl'/.'Fascinat ion', j It] is Marginal Era's This Heaven' that Reekie - considers the bestproduced record to be released on pUbeinMlHp Reaction is aligned witdi Mandrill Studios and almost all its recordings are made there. Is that

familiarity the secret : to a good sound? Or sophisticated effects racks? Experience? Or sheer time in the studio? "All those things ... but the song is the biggest thing. And then the artist's interpretation of what he wants. In a production situation we never, hardly ever, overrule the artist: and in mixing we bend over backwards to give them what they want. The rest of it's a matter of knowing what can do what -that's a matter of the engineers knowing their stuff, l which ; they do at) Mandrill. "But a lot of our work is a trial and error. Like on the Mockers album we used ‘ the stairwell for recording a lot Phil Judd was the first to do that. And on Alvison Park', where the guitar line jumps out, that was just pure chance. You miss a lot of that with computerised mixing." RB