New Zealand, a tiny country with a population less than the metropolitan San Francisco Bay Area, nevertheless had a fairly prolific and interesting garage/beat scene in the mid-'60s. This collects 16 singles that, with one or two exceptions, were obscure even in the land of their release. Like the bands from neighboring Australia, the Kiwis compensated for their isolation with crude mania, and this has some ferocious sub-Stones pounders from the likes of the La De Da's, Chants R&B, and the Bluestars. An above-average garage collection, well worth checking out by '60s aficionados.
Wild Things #1
Until now the only compilation of New Zealand `60s beat/punk had been the patchy but generally pleasing How Is The Air Up There, and that was many moons ago. Now we've got Wild Things, the first volume of a projected series presenting `60s gems unearthed from dusty vaults throughout the land of the kiwi bird.
A handful of killers included here will already be known by habitual compilation buyers, including the La De Da's classic "How Is The Air Up There" and the Blue Stars' undisputed monster "Social End Product." But never fear, there's plenty of other dirt to be dug here.
The La De Da's second single, "Don't Stand In My Way," is a belting R&B raver that outdoes "How Is The Air"'s ripping fuzz guitar action and adds ace stop and switch changes, a hot organ break and brutal bass work.
Cute dolly bird Sandy Edmonds does a pretty swell job on the Pretties' "Come See Me," thanks in part to solid backing by the Pleazers, whose "Hurtin' All Over" is a beat pounder on an even higher temperature setting.
The Smoke (no, no the overrated British limpos) plough a more psychy furrow with "No More Now," a pulverizing rave with brash, distorted guitar and a strong harmonized chorus. To confuse mod-type record shoppers still further, there's the Action (Kiwi version), here represented by a good rendition of the Vagrants' "I Can't Make A Friend."
Tom Thumb also looked Stateside for material, getting adventurous with "You're Gonna Miss Me." It has a cool psychopathic edge but basically they're messing with the untouchable. Sounding like the Artwoods after a few too many pints, their "I Need You" connects much harder with a cruncho compressed bass backbone and moody delivery.
For pure "godlike" status though, it's Chants R&B who emerge victorious with a trio of killer lined up here. Their "I Want Her" is as diseased and surreal as white punk R&B gets, a slippery slop of slithering riffs, hell-imprisoned banshee wails and manic drumming. It slides off into a cryptic Arabic dream segment, lost in "miles and miles of golden sand" (and stealing lines from Them's "Little Girl") before careening back into shake-up territory for the song's finale.
Their version of "I'm Your Witchdoctor" may lack the spooky atmospherics of John Mayall's original but it more than makes up for it with feverish guitar and hyper-energetic delivery. Finally, "Neighbour Neighbour" pushes the intensity level way past the danger point. These guys ruled!!
Wild Things comes complete with a photo-laden insert with the lowdown on all the bands. With 16 cuts and no real duds, compiler John Baker has done an amazing job: now buy it!
- Mike Stax (Originally published in Ugly Things #11, 1992)