Tuesday, November 16, 2004

I'd forgotten what great records The Car Crash Set made in Auckland in the early to mid eighties. Nigel Russell, Dave Bulog and Trevor Reekie made some glorious little electronic gems that have stood the test of time better than most NZ pop from that era. The singles sadly are as rare as hell these days since they only sold 15 copies between them all but if per chance you should see one, do yourself a favour..... Realistically its probably about time to stand up and say that the most interesting and inventive stuff coming out of these isles in the eighties, aside from The Headless Chickens and Fetus Productions, came from outside the Flying Nun catalogue. Its almost heresy around here, but much of the gilded Nun stuff hasn't held up nearly as well as the like of The Car Crash Set, some of the Body Electric stuff and lots of the early Auckland indie noise. The early Flying Nun stuff sounds like the past whereas things like the CCS sound like the present and the future in 2004 Sorry, but its true.

5 comments:

Peter McLennan said...

ooohh, bagging the Nun, go Simon!
I always dug the Skeptics, way under-rated on the Nun - they always got overshadowed by the Chooks, who were weird but hip, whereas the Skeptics were just weird.

Simon said...

whoa yep...forgot the Skeptics. We actually released their first record on Propeller. Yep they were well cool indeed.

Anonymous said...

car crash set sold heaps more than 15 copies ...heaps more ...they made so much money but wasted it all on drugs... they were ahead of their time and their dealers .. ...

Anonymous said...

Simon,

I'm reliably informed that Trevor Reekie's got about an album's worth of unreleased/live/rare/outtake Car Crash Set stuff lying about that he tidied up and presented as a gift to Nigel Russell on his birthday or something.

Not the greatest get-rich scheme on the planet, perhaps, but a retrospective release might be a worthy venture...

Dubber

Simon said...

Hi AD....yeah, Trevor & I have had that coversation. There is a good album of early NZ electronica to be done. We are talking fairly seriously about it