After a while, Crocodile

Rip It Up, Issue 122, 1 September 1987, Page 6

After a while, Crocodile

Composer/keyboardist Peter Dasent seems a bit bashful about his credentials in NZ rock.

His press kit refers only fleetingly to the Crocodiles, it disguises the innovative rock band Spats as a “music/theatre ensemble,” and fails to mention at all the memorable theme music he wrote for that Kiwi rock institution Radio With Pictures.

Perhaps though it’s unreasonably parochial to focus on Dasent’s New Zealand past. After all, he left for Sydney six years ago and his work since then has moved well beyond the confines of the rock field, as his latest project demonstrates. He’s back in New Zealand this month with Intensive Care, a theatre/dance piece composed by Dasent and choreographed by Paul Jenden. It will be performed by Jenden and dancer Christina Asher, with live music by Dasent

and vocalist Tony Backhouse. Dasent and Backhouse go back to the Crocodiles and beyond. In 1981, after considerable success with the single ‘Tears’ and two albums, the Crocodiles made the traditional trans-Tasman trek. And like many that had gone before, they broke up.

While Morris embarked on her solo career, Tony Backhouse and Croc's bassist- Jonathon Zwartz formed the Vulgar Beatmen. Dasent meanwhile enrolled at the Conservatorium of Music in Sydney and spent two years studying jazz and exploring his own compositions. During this time he formed jazz quartet Le Combo, while keeping one foot in the rock world recording with I Am Joe’s Music, strictly a studio band

and brainchild of Crocodiles’ founder and mentor Fane Flaws. Their one album received little promotion and was misunderstood by the Australian public; it is said to bear the distinction of being Mushroom’s worstselling album ever. But it is actually a work of eccentric brilliance — a series of funny, funky Flaws songs with Dasent’s keyboards playing a musical counterpart to Flaw’s lyrical looniness. There’s a trace of a TV theme here, a bar of Bartok there, and a nod to Italian film score composer Nino Roto. Although the Aussies failed to notice it, Kiwis are still to be given their chance when Palmerston indie label Meltdown release it later this year. While I Am Joe’s Music is still essentially rock — though perhaps inhabiting a sub-genre with the likes of Beefheart, Zappa and the Residents — Dasent’s other projects have also shown his humour and eclectic nature. He once performed on Australian TV as the Human Wedge of Cheese, and I

Am Joe’s Music made a totally incongruous appearance, (hidden behind Flaws-designed masks) at the 10th anniversary celebration of Countdown alongside Marcia Hines and Bucks Fizz. Then there is the Umbrellas, a “neo-classical ensemble,” founded in 1985: Dasent on piano with a flexible group of musicians from both jazz and classical backgrounds. They have recorded. an album of Dasent compositions (as yet available only in Oz), and last November performed. at the the Sydney Opera House.

The Umbrellas continue, but Dasent has currently found a diversion in Intensive Care, a “combination of dance and music, comedy, costume and song.” It should be a rare opportunity to experience Dasent’s unique combination of offbeat wit and musical daring. Intensive Care makes its world premiere at Auckland’s Little Maidment Theatre on September 30, running 12 consecutive nights until October 11.

Nick Bollinger