On Tape

Rip It Up, Issue 94, 1 May 1985, Page 33

On Tape

Nat Curnow, Sonya Waters (TaComm) The Table Committee (Tacomm) (Both available from 934 Three Kings Rd, Auckland) Mick Raye is an Englishman who came to this country something over a year ago and the Table Committee is the banner under which his musical ventures go. His instrumentation is generally electronic and that’s what he has added to songs by young Aucklander Nat Curnow. Curnow’s four songs are interesting for the promise they hold more than anything else the dreamy, atmospheric backdrop is right, but if Curnow gets some discipline into his singing he could be really good at it. Likewise, the songs themselves need straightening out a little. But he’s only played previously on his own with acoustic guitar, so he’s obviously still learning. Tacked on the end is a Sonya Waters song, 'The Raven’, that Raye also helped out on. It’s deliciously spooky without ever getting gothic and Sonya sounds much more comfortable than she did on No Pain. Neat. Raye's own tape was mainly made in England and through the sytnths there’s an oddly English character about it. But while some of the arranging and instrumentation is rather good, the tape shows up that he’s not a natural singer or lyricist and plain bad lines stuff things up in a few places. The fact that he’s working with young musicians here, however, can only be good. Nat Curnow has been promised a Flying Nun release and it’s from here that things should get interesting. RB David Eggleton God Defend New Zealand (Ocean Records, Box 876, Auckland) Half of this is really good, the other half sounds too much like J. Coop. Cluck or B. Dylan or has too many gratuitous NZisms for comfort or is not as fast and forceful as Eggleton live. Rob Chadwick'sa ttempts at bop-backing don’t always suit, tending to slow the flow, but mostly the music works pretty well, especially in the title track, ‘Flying To NZ’ and ’Utopia’. Buy it, I would. (And I don’t even like poetry.) RB

Tapeworm "A juxtaposition of noise prose from urgent dispensary. Contains pain stimulus." From thee psychic void cometh thee Tapeworm. Research hits NZ. You like Throbbing Gristle, you’ll like this. But 1! There ... is... n 0... glamour... in... heroin! Anyone who celebrates needles fucking veins should be ... I dunno, forced to listen to Duran albums for minutes in a row. CK

Yuski Kawachi Non-U ($4.50 from 369 Stuart St, Dunedin) Yuski Kawachi has been writing songs in his bedroom for three or four years now but this tape indicates it’s time to venture out. He sings about staying in his room playing music and staying away from the outside world and it all gets a bit much. The first side is him singing over keyboards and the on the other side he wields a guitar. He seems to have a natural dexterity with both instruments but his singing’s pretty lacklustre (when you can hear it) and things tend to wander. Having to play with someone else would probably work some of that out, it would certainly add another perspective. Get out and about, old chap! RB Malcolm Overtone Awake To Dream ($5.00 from Theatre Of Fusion, Box 2979, Auckland) This tape is the soundtrack from a short, experimental 16mm film that Mr Overton(e) hopes to show publicly along with others sometime soon. It’s a slyly constructed stream of noises and halfaudible voices that it’s best to just let seep into your head as it will. Well executed film. RB