the terminals/scorched earth policy/victor dimisich band
i wrote a really nice, long, boring post about the terminals. then opera crashed and took my post with it, so you get this inane rambling crap. please, please don't tell me to use firefox - it shuts my monitor off and i have to restart my pc. i have no idea why.
alright. music.
the victor dimisich band were a new zealand post-punk band at the dawn of the 80s. they recorded a 12" in 1982 and a couple of posthumous documents were released. their sound was a bit gloomy but unique, perhaps comparable to the pin group with strummy guitar and the howling baritone of stephen cogle. cogle shared songwriting duties with peter stapleton, and that would continue later in the terminals. some of the songs they wrote during this period wound up being recorded by the cogle-less scorched earth policy. "native waiter" is from the 12".
SEP followed the dimisich band and lasted from '82-'86. stapleton and mary heney from continued on from VDB but the most important new element was brian crook... brian crook's guitar playing sounds like the result of a thirty day wander through a desert. it's psychedelic in the way that alchol poisoning and sunstroke are. i don't even think they have desert in new zealand, but if they do - even 10 square feet - i'd wager crook has toured it extensively, and frequently on hands and knees. the scorched earth policy wasn't quite as obvious as the name - a baked, churning mixture of punk rock, 60s garage and psychedelia and a tinge of country. the lyrics began taking a turn from the arty to the bad trip and horror movie side of things. male/female vocals and some of the most excellently raw production in my memory gave the music a sound that is somehow 1960s, somehow timeless. not "paisley revival" bullshit, this, but an atavistic rebirth, a slavering and weird new thing from old roots. "the cult" and "since the accident" are from the fucking essential compilation of their cassette and vinyl releases keep away from the wires.
the terminals picked up where scorched earth policy left off, though their first album really leaves a lot to be desired. it was on their second, touch that they matured the SEP sound but added stephen cogle's strummy velvet underground/post-punk sensibility back into the mix. the sound varied wildly, with organ and synthesizers played by mick elborado (also of SEP) burbling and twittering, and crook's fried guitar noises needling through the holes in cogle's rhythms. "black creek" is the 7" version, far superior to the version on their mannered third LP and going down heavy like a mouth full of roofing tar. "basket case" is the first song from touch and somehow manageds to mix pounding riffs and analog synth warbles without sounding anything like hawkwind. or anything else, really.
since the breakup of the terminals, brian crook has gone on to the renderers (country-rock with occasional acid paranoia) and a couple of solo discs, peter stapleton is in a variety of free/improv projects (flies inside the sun most prominently, also featuring crook) and runs the great metonymic and medication labels with his wife kim pieters and some other members were in a group called "the minus 2" for a while. but you know, WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
victor dimisich band - native waiter
scorched earth policy - since the accident
scorched earth policy - the cult
the terminals - black creek
the terminals - basket case
alright. music.
the victor dimisich band were a new zealand post-punk band at the dawn of the 80s. they recorded a 12" in 1982 and a couple of posthumous documents were released. their sound was a bit gloomy but unique, perhaps comparable to the pin group with strummy guitar and the howling baritone of stephen cogle. cogle shared songwriting duties with peter stapleton, and that would continue later in the terminals. some of the songs they wrote during this period wound up being recorded by the cogle-less scorched earth policy. "native waiter" is from the 12".
SEP followed the dimisich band and lasted from '82-'86. stapleton and mary heney from continued on from VDB but the most important new element was brian crook... brian crook's guitar playing sounds like the result of a thirty day wander through a desert. it's psychedelic in the way that alchol poisoning and sunstroke are. i don't even think they have desert in new zealand, but if they do - even 10 square feet - i'd wager crook has toured it extensively, and frequently on hands and knees. the scorched earth policy wasn't quite as obvious as the name - a baked, churning mixture of punk rock, 60s garage and psychedelia and a tinge of country. the lyrics began taking a turn from the arty to the bad trip and horror movie side of things. male/female vocals and some of the most excellently raw production in my memory gave the music a sound that is somehow 1960s, somehow timeless. not "paisley revival" bullshit, this, but an atavistic rebirth, a slavering and weird new thing from old roots. "the cult" and "since the accident" are from the fucking essential compilation of their cassette and vinyl releases keep away from the wires.
the terminals picked up where scorched earth policy left off, though their first album really leaves a lot to be desired. it was on their second, touch that they matured the SEP sound but added stephen cogle's strummy velvet underground/post-punk sensibility back into the mix. the sound varied wildly, with organ and synthesizers played by mick elborado (also of SEP) burbling and twittering, and crook's fried guitar noises needling through the holes in cogle's rhythms. "black creek" is the 7" version, far superior to the version on their mannered third LP and going down heavy like a mouth full of roofing tar. "basket case" is the first song from touch and somehow manageds to mix pounding riffs and analog synth warbles without sounding anything like hawkwind. or anything else, really.
since the breakup of the terminals, brian crook has gone on to the renderers (country-rock with occasional acid paranoia) and a couple of solo discs, peter stapleton is in a variety of free/improv projects (flies inside the sun most prominently, also featuring crook) and runs the great metonymic and medication labels with his wife kim pieters and some other members were in a group called "the minus 2" for a while. but you know, WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
victor dimisich band - native waiter
scorched earth policy - since the accident
scorched earth policy - the cult
the terminals - black creek
the terminals - basket case
posted by brian eff @ 5:33 AM
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