FAILSAFE UPDATE JULY 2007

New Release imminent, plus Gigs

Beat Rhythm Fashion - Bring Real Freedom
The long awaited disc of finely crafted songs from this much respected and greatly sought after Wellington band. Brothers Dan and Nino Birch made sweepingly beautiful and thought provoking intelligent music. Part of the Wellington terrace scene that gave us the four stars compilation BRF grew past their edgy post punk beginnings to create open melodic soundcapes like the classic "Turn of the Century".
The band only managed three 7" singles before departing for bigger shores, and things never quite worked out for them after their departure.
This Disc collects all three singles all lovingly restored and remastered, plus 9 tracks from the band's later live set to complete 'The album BRF would have made' if life had played out differently.
This CD is a limited edition pressing, not a CDR, and will be released in NZ, UK, and Japan.
Also to come a collection of their earlier post punk material and material that didn't quite fit on this disc.. We haven't decided whether to print this disc or CDR it like others in the Retrogenic series but if you show enough interest we can pony up the money for another pressing. Speak up, let us know you're interested.

Desperate Measures - Broken Bottles
Classic early Christchurch punk in the vein of UK Subs and other song based punk outfits, Desperate Measures had a large and loyal fan base, and a string of highly enjoyable gigs to their name. The band released one 7" EP, "1984", and a collection of rough and ready songs on the 'Wasted Again" album before disbanding and morphing into Evasive Action, but that's another story.
This album collects for the first time on CD the EP and the album plus the odd unreleased track on one CD. Excellent liner notes and photos from the band's personal collection makes this a fitting representation of a good rock band in Christchurch's punk scene in the early 80's.
This CD is a limited edition pressing, not a CDR, and will be released in NZ, UK, and Japan.

Gigs
Chris Matthews and his Robot Monkey Orchestra, (featuring members of YFC and Children's Hour) will be dragging his sorry ass down to the South Island to do some gigs featuring his pop re-workings of Dylan Thomas poems and also play some nuggets from his past bands Children's Hour and the Headless Chickens. Pester him at his Robot Monkey Orchestra Myspace page if there's something you'd really like to see him play live.
Confirmed dates are
Oamaru Penguin Club - 2nd August
Dunedin Refuel - 3rd August
Christcurch - TBC but tentitively 4th august at dux although this might be changed to the next week.

Failsafe Records Newsletter April 2007

You may have noticed that Failsafe Records has been slightly off the radar for the last few months. We're back.

After the major push of 2005's Retrogenic series (30 albums in 30 days) and the ensuing reformation gigs of YFC and Children's Hour, plus gigs by Eskimo and Paul Scott (Pop Mechanix) I'd have to admit to being a little burnt out so the label lay low for most of 2006 trying to finish off the albums that didn't quite meet their 30 day schedule. (BRF, Newtones, Breathing Cage etc). Excuses excuses, all you need to know is that we have been busy and we're still here bringing you the impossible-to-find quality sounds you've come to expect from us.

Kiwi FM Label Hijack - Failsafe Special. 11 am - 12 pm 21/04/07
This Saturday Failsafe Records will be taking over the studios at Kiwi FM for an hour to play label highlights and preview upcoming material as part of Kiwi FM's label hijack series.
We'll be playing tracks from BRF, Kimo (formerly Eskimo), Breathing Cage, Dolphin, Children's Hour live in 05, quite a bit of cool stuff actually.
You can tune in worldwide to check it out via the website at http://www.kiwifm.co.nz where they have live streaming. The show repeats again on Tuesday afternoon.

Eight Living Legs - Live in AK. - Kings Arms Monday 23/04/07 first up 8.00 pm
After 20-something years of hibernation the legendary Eight Living Legs have reformed. Spurred on by Failsafe's release of the False Sense Of Security disc, and the Five Yards Ahead live disc the band rediscovered their own music. Singer / Bassist Robert returned from living in Europe to rejoin his partners in sound and they've been working up a new set of sounds plus keeping some of their classics, to please people like Failsafe. We'll be catching the band for our first time ever this monday, maybe see you there.

Beat Rhythm Fashion
The good news is that the Beat Rhythm Fashion discs have finally been restored to our satisfaction. Thanks to all the people who have spurred us on in this painstaking task with encouraging and eager emails. We were having real trouble sourcing a sufficiently good copy of their first single 'Beings Rest Finally', but thanks to the helpful people who keep a watchful eye on this label we got a couple of good copies to work from and we've finished restoring them to their original glory sans scratches.
As mentioned in an earlier mailout the first BRF disc will be a manufactured CD and not a CDR. We'll have 500 of these before we revert back to CDR copies so when we announce its release don't leave it too long before ordering.
We're expecting an end of May release now, or just after.
We have our detailed liner notes and some photos to go with it and we're presently completing the artwork which will feature the original band logo as designed by Jono Birch, brother of Dan and Nino, the core members of BRF. Sadly Jono passed away after a battle with cancer at the end of last year so this is in memory of him as well, a thoroughly nice bloke.

Breathing Cage - Spilt Milk
Spilt Milk, a collection of recordings from the infamous Breathing Cage, fronted by legendary songwriter Jay Clarkson and featuring local luminaries Michael Kime (Bass), Greg Malcolm (Guitar) and Gary Sullivan (Drums).
The band won first prize ($40,000) in the Rheineck Rock awards in 1989 following on from wins by the Headless Chickens and Ardijah. That much money confused the band and the resulting album 'Misericord' over-polished some great songs. This album collects earlier recordings of those works plus further uncovered material including tracks with Graeme Jefferies (TKP, Nocturnal Projections), and some of the last songs the band played as Breathing Cage. 17 songs and detailed liner notes.
Available Now

Desperate Measures - Broken Bottles
Desperate Measures make a welcome return to availability with their comprehensive collection of everything they ever did all on one CD. This includes their 1984 EP, and the contents of their part of the 'Wasted Again' split album, plus some lost tracks that didn't make it to either of those releases.
Desperate Measures were a seminal punk band from Christchurch; punk in the way 4 people picked up instruments, and got together to write and play songs about living life in small town Christchurch 2 stops from the edge of the world. The 'Measures' mutated into other post-punk outfits Evasive Action and Southern Front, stay tuned for their CD releases some time soon.
Available Now

Dolphin - Waiting for Splashdown
Highly influential Christchurch power-pop three piece Dolphin ripped melodic tears in the local music scene from 87-91, inspiring fellow Chch citizens (including Loves Ugly Children) to pick up their guitars and play pretty tunes, loud. With three cassette EPs the band went into hibernation until 95 when they released a double CD and left for the UK, recording a further album of material (Bring It All Down) with drummer Pete Thomas (Elvis Costello and the Attractions).
The band went into hibernation again at the end of 98 but Japanese label Freshwater have rediscovered them and released a compilation of the bands material, remastered and packaged for the Japanese market. This disc is also available locally and is a great introduction to their jagged edge melodic sound. This is a pressed CD and we have a limited number of imported copies available through Failsafe or you can order directly off Freshwater. Dolphin's back catalogue is also available through Failsafe.
Available Now

On the horizon
Other projects we've working on are:

Newtones - New Way - Compilation of their single, EP, compilation and studio out-takes plus a swag of material from a really good live recording at the Gladstone in Chch recorded by their sound engineer Fred Krammer.

Humblewagon - Christchurch melodic merchants who disbanded last year but not before they got a chance to record. As is the way with Failsafe we're on it and we won't let this fantastic bands material go to waste. Think ambient, melodic, tinged with alt-folk and country but then again more like The Byrds and The Beatles.

Chameleon - Christchurch mid 90's pop mining territory not too far from The Sundays. Featuring the vocal talents of Leigh Franklin, Now resident in the UK and impressing with her efforts there.
http://www.myspace.com/leighfranklinheaven

The Stones - We almost had to give up on this project to pay tribute to one of the most under-recognised bands of that whole Dunedin thing in the early 80's because we simply couldn't find any recordings to cull the material from, but thankfully Mr Chris Knox came to the party with 3 excellent recordings of live sets. We'll be mastering them up in due course. For those or you who are unfamiliar with the Stones they were great, they were cheeky, irreverent but above all they had good songs. One of our key moments in live music was watching The Stones work their way through a 15 minute version of their song 'Fad World' in a paddock in the misty cold night of a Punakiki music festival on the West Coast of New Zealand. Things like that you don't forget and hopefully we can bring that all to the perminant record for you on this disc. We'll keep you posted.

The Androidss (hopefully) - We can't promise anything but we have uncovered 2 live recordings of this legendary Christchurch post-punk band whose recorded output stands at present at one classic single and a track on Failsafe's Accident Compilation. That's not nearly enough so we've been chatting to Mark Wilson, one of the last remaining functioning members of the band, and hope to bring you a collection. We're as keen to hear this stuff as you are. Mark is also working toward an album of new material. We'll keep you posted on all that too.

Pop Mechanix - Compilation, Splash Alley, and Lost Tapes. Three more discs from the legendary Pop Mechanix. We worked hard to bring you 5 discs of this most under-appreciated NZ band and we've got 3 more discs to go till we're finished. 'Splash Alley' is sort of like a prequel to Pop Mechanix in that it is the band before they changed their name and it featured the talented Richard Driver on vocals.
This is a live recording of the band from the Mainstreet gig where Doctor Rock was so impressed with the band's music but not with their name, so they changed it and the rest is Pop Mechanix.

'Lost Tapes' is the Australian-recorded Zoo album which was produced by Eddie Raynor (Split Enz). The album was recorded with Andrew Snoid on vocals but when he was poached by the Swingers the album was re-recorded and released with Paul Scott singing. We released that album as Pop Mechanix 'Zoo - Lost in Australia', but luckily Eddie kept a copy of the Snoid recordings and we're bringing that to you too. Snoid rejoined the band a year later so it all ended happily.

Compilation - Even we admit 7 albums is a lot, and if you're new to the band its going to be pretty hard to pick where to start so we're compiling a single cd collection of the 'best of' and bringing that to you. It will also be a CD pressing so when we let you know its out don't wait too long to order.
Possible rumour: Paul Scott and Paul Mason may be recording new material as a bonus for the compilation.

Evasive Action - Post-punk Chch band who rose from the ashes of Desperate Measures and Unauthorised. We've remastered their recordings that originally came out on cassette in 1985. A tidy addition to Failsafe's Chch punk and post-punk catalogue.

Southern Front - From the ashes of Evasive Action came this band, and another album of excellent post-punk tracks. This one will be a little way off as we're looking into getting live tracks and unreleased studio material together to make this an impressive collection.

Kimo - Kimo is the rebranded Eskimo the collaborative project with David Mulcahy (JPSE, Superette) Rob Mayes (Dolphin, Throw, Springloader), and Michael Daly (YFC, Leadleg).
The band got sick of searching for their name on Google and coming up with a bunch of nobody electronic outfits from Australia so they decided to just change their name and be done with it.
They're presently working on catchphrases to explain the Kimo angle, something to do with pop therapy will no doubt emerge. Aside from all that though the band have been busy recording new material, lots of it. Its a bit of a progression from the raw pop joy of their 2004 Loverbatim album, with less noise and more melody happening. New single Surrender will be available soon and the rest of the album will follow shortly. We're thinking July.

Collaboration - A collaboration project with members of the Failsafe fold doing "Songs in the Key of Slow". We initially called this project Colab cos it's a clever play on the collaborative nature of the thing, but this has been pinched by an AK outfit (Kolab) who aren't anywhere near as collaborative in nature, so we'll have to come up with another name now won't we.

All Failsafe discs available from Galaxy, Real Groovy, failsaferecords.com and smokecds.com

Failsafe goes Myspace
If you want to keep in touch with Failsafe via Myspace we have 2 pages up and running,
http://www.myspace.com/failsaferecords, and a new page that we can post songs on - 4 songs at a time from new releases - http://www.myspace.com/failsaferecordscom.
Don't forget to 'friend' our bands too. Note, not all of the pages are a full going concern as yet but they will have tracks and info up when we get time. spread the word.

http://www.myspace.com/atomicblossom - Chch sonic pop bands page features 4 tracks from their 1996 album
http://www.myspace.com/beatrhythmfashion - Legendary Wellington post punk 80's band. 2 albums coming.
http://www.myspace.com/breathingcage - Jay Clarkson's late 80's band. Melodic throughtful rock.
http://www.myspace.com/childrenshournz - The band that became The Headless Chickens. Birthday Party/Joy Division.
http://www.myspace.com/degreesk - CHCH power rock outfit.
http://www.myspace.com/deluxeboynz - The band that went on to become the dukes. much more pop, classic songwriting.
http://www.myspace.com/desperatemeasuresnz - Early CHCH punk ala the Sex Pistols and UK Subs.
http://www.myspace.com/dolphinnz - From CHCH, Husker Du inspired jagged edged indie Rock
http://myspace.com/eskimo_nz - alternative indie from jpse/superette dave mulcahy and dolphin/throw rob mayes
http://www.myspace.com/springloader - chiming rock from chch, speciallising in dense melodic guitar
http://www.myspace.com/thrownz - moody melodic pop from chch with members of Dolphin and cinematic
http://www.myspace.com/yfcnz - Legendary 2 bass and drums outfit from early 80's chch. ground breaking
http://www.myspace.com/leadleg - dark post punk rock from ex YFC, with a little bit of on u sound thrown in
http://www.myspace.com/popmechanix - Classic Kiwi pop from this legendary south island band
http://www.myspace.com/hoosternz - indie rock in a 70's vein from chch 3 piece hooster
http://www.myspace.com/evasiveactionnz - Punk in a harder vein from chch ex desperate measures and unauthorised
http://www.myspace.com/southernfront - Post punk follow on from the evasive action family tree
http://www.myspace.com/accidentcompilation - early eighties compilation
http://www.myspace.com/bidingourtime - mid 80's compilation
http://www.myspace.com/southnz - late eighties compilation
http://www.myspace.com/avalanchecompilation - early 90's compilation.
http://www.myspace.com/goodthingsnz - mid 90's compilation
http://www.myspace.com/keepingsecretsnz - mid 2000's pop compilation
http://www.myspace.com/malchicksnz - Alternative art wave from auckland early 90's
http://www.myspace.com/substandardnz - CHCH instrumental dream rock
http://www.myspace.com/eightlivinglegs - Auckland post punk dark wave from 82, recently reformed and performing
http://www.myspace.com/robotmonkeyorchestra
http://www.myspace.com/stonesnz - The legendary Dunedin band. new retrospective album in the works.
http://www.myspace.com/lilsnz

Plus our electronica offshoot, Electrode:

http://www.myspace.com/electroderecords

Note, not all of the pages are a full going concern as yet but they will have tracks and info up when we get time. spread the word.

NOVEMBER 2006 - BEAT RHYTHM FASHION DISCS NEWS UPDATE

Ok.
It seems I wasn't as far through my restoration work as I thought I was and had run a few tracks through the automatic click removal software, which on close listen had distortions through it. The version of 'Turn Of The Century' up on the Downloads page is one such track. The fully restored version eats that for dinner, or more importantly gives a clean clear and pleasurable listen, it took 20 painstaking hours to restore it. 'Beings Rest Finally' and 'Song Of Hairless Apes' are also part of the finished club. 'No Great Oaks' isn't too bad (but I thought that of 'Turn Of The Century', and 'Bring Real Freedom' has had a partial restore) That leaves 'Art And Duty' and the completion of the other 3 and its done.
I've remastered the other tracks to great effect and re ordered the discs so as to make Disc One a well rounded album and Disc Two a packed solid extras disc. Disc One will be a pressed CD. Disc Two will be like the rest of the Failsafe releases - high quality duplication, although if I get enough emails saying 'please reserve me a copy of both discs' I'll press both.

The bad news is that I've postponed the release of both till the middle of January 2007.
There's just no way I'll have the restoration complete early enough to get the discs manufactured this year.
My apologies to all that have pestered me for this disc asap, but you've waited this long and a few more weeks ain't going to kill you, and believe me it will be worth it.

A huge swag of other Failsafe goodies are in the works. Some details are on the Catalogue page.

A mail out is due soon too.

AUGUST 2006 - BEAT RHYTHM FASHION DISCS NEWS UPDATE

The Beat Rhythm Fashion releases have gone though a bit of hard work of late.
This is an important project for me because they were one of my favourite bands at the time and the recordings have been really special for me over the years I've owned them.
I had hoped to have these discs out for you by the end of July but in the pursuit of doing this material justice I've hit some time consuming snags.
Here's a run down on the progress:

- We've got the liner notes care of Wellington music historian David Maclennan and interviews with the band all sorted.

- Extensive restoration on the vinyl releases has happened. All master tapes for the singles have been lost to the ether, most likely dumped by the EMI pressing plant into Cook Strait.

That means someone has to dub the best existing vinyl copies into a computer and painstakingly remove all clicks and scratches. This has to be done by hand as existing scratch removal software adversely affects the sound quality of the material. These weren't good pressings to start with and that they were also favourite singles means they got a fair bit of play, and picked up the odd bit of wear and tear consequently before they were copied to computer. Its taken a lot of one-on-one time to restore most of this, but rest assured we're doing our best to make these the best possible versions of these songs for your ears. As an example the 12-second intro to 'Beings Rest Finally' took 9 hours to restore. Other songs have been a lot easier. Thankfully its mostly done bar a few touch-ups.

- Initially we were going to make it a three disc set comprising 2 live concerts and a vinyl disc but we've reappraised the content of that though and have decided to make it two discs.

Disc One is the 3 singles and the key tracks from other recordings essentially making the BRF album that most likely would have eventuated if the band had the chance.
This album is designed as a united whole.

The second album contains the rarities from the material we have - the Wellington Zone cuts and the **** (Four Stars) tracks, live versions of unreleased material, including the last 2 songs the band wrote and performed as BRF in their NZ line up, and live versions of the singles etc ('Beings Rest Finally', 'Turn Of The Century').

Essentially we've fitted the three discs onto two discs.

Because of the short run nature of most of Failsafe's releases (many are under 100 copies) most are CDR releases although you wouldn't know it because we try and keep the high standard of production and packaging up to the level you've come to expect from the label.

Because of the interest in the BRF disc we're manufacturing a limited run of Disc One.
It'll be the smallest run you can make so if you want one of these discs don't leave it too late.

Thanks for the emails of encouragement and support. Its great to know there are so many people out there as keen to hear this music at its best again as I am.
So I'm estimating mid-September for delivery of Disc One.

PS. Spurred on by the interest in this project BRF have recently got back to writing and recording music. We'll keep you posted on that of course.

Cheers

Rrob
Failsaferecords
info@failsaferecords.com

FEBRUARY 2006
1. Pop Mechanix On The Radio - Radio New Zealand Special In 2 Parts
2. What I Did With The Last Year Of My Life Part 2
3. Things To Do With Your Money
4. Website Things
5. Coming Up

1. Pop Mechanix On The Radio - Radio New Zealand Special In 2 Parts
As you may know Failsafe spent far too much of the early part of this year compiling the comprehensive collection of all things Pop Mechanix. We got 5 full CDs of pop from these boys which isn't too bad considering all most of New Zealand knows of them is their one hit wonder status for 'Jumping Out A Window'. That's only the half of it, or 1/88th the story as we've got 5 discs with 88 tracks, 318 mins total playing time. That's 5 hours and 18 mins!!!!!
Anyway hear the Pop MX story with interviews this Saturday 4th December at 3.30, and part two follows next Saturday. for those overseas I'm pretty sure there's some kind of streaming thing going on on their website.

3.30pm Musical Chairs featuring Pop Mechanix
Christchurch, 1979: Two high school dropouts and three university students start rehearsing music in a funeral parlour. The students quickly quit their studies and the working men pack in their dead-end jobs, to follow their dream of making it big - as Pop Mechanix. Dick Driver is the front-man, a charismatic singer sporting a big 'Jewfro' of sometimes-blue hair, and they have four fantastic musicians, including one of the unsung heroes of New Zealand songwriting in bass player Paul Scott. Little do they know what trials and tribulations await them (Pt 1 of 2)
Repeated Friday 7.30pm

There will also be substantial media in the next months Rip it Up, Real Groove, and NZ musician magazines with interviews with Pop MX, Childrens Hour, Failsafe and CD reviews aplenty. If you see any good press for Failsafe in your area please let us know, cos we've only got a couple of pairs of eyes, tops.

2. What I Did With The Last Year Of My Life Part 2
As many of you know I've been working on the Retrogenic 30 albums in 30 days project which I kinda sorta did manage to do in roughly kinda sort of 30 days, but not necessarily get them all out to the general public.
Visit the website to see what's there. And for those Beat Rhythm Fashion fanatics who constantly pester me to finish their discs off and get them out, apologies for the delay but the music is all ready to go and we're just waiting on the definitive liner notes which I know you all want and love. The good news is the band are now writing said liner notes and have uncovered a bunch of songs even I didn't know about. Apparently when they migrated to Melbourne in the mid eighties they joined forces with Des Hefner of Scavengers fame and laid down 6-10 songs. These tracks will now be included on the studio album as soon as they get to me. So patience will pay off, but feel free to keep the encouraging emails coming.
There were the Children's Hour, YFC and Eskimo shows which were bloody fantastic as the many of you who attended have found out. Other shows are completely possible but we'll keep you posted.
As some of you know I got the complete honor of filling in as Children's Hour bassist and there's photos aplenty of the gigs with me grinning ear to ear as the rest of the band play it dark, I couldn't help it, I was having a good time.
There is one track not on the 'Looking For The Sun' CD (Dancing With Delilah) on the music downloads page. This is taken from a recording of the CHCH concert. Its free, go grab it you cheap buggers, but buy the albums too though will ya, alright?.

3. Things To Do With Your Money
So as I said we've got most of the Retrogenic series out there for you and if you haven't bought them already you may miss out.
We've got all the real groovy records stores stocked and you can shop at their online store as well and our good friends at smokecds have also got the full range on offer at their online store. They've got a handy Failsafe link on the left hand side which links 3 pages of label goodies they stock. It'll be four pages soon.
Also don't forget you can get these releases directly off Failsafe too which we would prefer cos then we can have a direct link with you, chat, shoot the breeze etc.
Both Real Groovy and SmokeCDs offer credit card purchasing, they're so modern.

4. Website Things
Peter's been busy putting up all the junk I throw at him. we've got some updates to the artist profile and NZ music history sections which are multi-paged things so do go through the whole lot and not just the front page.
Here's the direct link to the big history page

The lovely people at muzic.net.nz have let us plant our site on their server so there's no nasty pop ups any more and its all pretty smooth really.

There's pictures for the Children's Hour YFC and Eskimo gigs here .
Thanks to all those who came along and made these shows the standout events they were, and of course the bands who blew you all away.

There are 16 A3 size posters for you to download from the Retrogenic series.
Print em out, put em on your wall

5. Coming Up
Failsafe is taking a little break till mid January but when we come back we'll have the last discs in the Retrogenic series (Beat Rhythm Fashion x 3 discs, Newtones, Chameleon, Breathing Cage, Leadleg, Kept Secrets - alternative rock comp, and we'll also be adding a desperate measures, Evasive Action, unauthorised and southern front early CHCH punk series). Have I missed anything out? Probably.

Thanks a lot to all of you for your encouragement and support through this rather full-on year.
Keep looking for that good music, keep the emails and communication coming through cos we love em and keep buying the music you love cos its the only way it will keep coming to you.

Wishing you a tasty new year christmas period and will catch up with you soon.

Cheers

Rrob
Failsaferecords
info@failsaferecords.com

November 2004
1 - In this Newsletter
2 - Eskimo get top marks for loverbatim album.
3 - Retrogenic - 30 albums in 30 days project takes shape, releases list
4 - Electrode compilation - robots dream of electric sheep.
5 - Colab - as in collaboration. great songwriters and performers unite.
6 - What I did on my holidays. other music to check out.
7 - Electrode's Emerald Green and Tom Bosley Experience have a gig!

1 - In this Newsletter
We've got quite a lot to tell you in this newsletter so take your time and read the bits that interest you.

There's the Eskimo update

There's a lot of detail for NZ music fans on our up coming Retrogenic series, the 30 albums in 30 days thing which has been generating a lot of interest. Nothing like a good catch phrase to turn heads eh.

Also we've got more info on the Electrode comp showcasing a whole bunch of our bedroom studio dwelling friends and the results of many nights exposed to electric radiation.

Colab is our new in the works project that gets a bunch of our favourite musicians and songwriters together, gives them a theme and sees what they come up with.

And since you all love music and lets be honest their ain't nearly enough of the stuff that moves us around, and its near impossible to find it in this world of controlled marketing we though we'd share with you our latest discoveries of overseas bands, (stuff not on this label but really cool stuff none the less), and ask you to send us your picks.

2 - Eskimo get top marks for loverbatim album.
Eskimo have also been getting high accolades for their recently finished and released Loverbatim Album. The NZ Herald and RIU both returning four star reviews.
NZ Herald - 'bold stuff, highly recommended, 11 high voltage tracks' - Russel Bailie ****
Rip it up - 'beautifully unassuming and catch right from the very first track' - Jane Yee ****
Full reviews here

Lead track Evergreen has also been included on the december nz on air indie hit disc, finally breaking the curse of exclusion from all things industry.
Evergreen also features on the October issue of A Low Hum Magazine, along with an amusing interview about tires and semantics. (you probably had to be there).

3 - Retrogenic - 30 albums in 30 days project takes shape, releases list
To refresh your memories Retrogenic 30 albums is the purging of the failsafe vaults, releasing at least 30 albums of material that only Failsafe and the Failsafe cleaning staff have had access to for the last 20 years.
To be honest were were looking at the wealth of music that never got released to the wider public and we thought "hey!, lets do something about it". So taking a big bite of the pie (almost more than even we could handle) we've started work on assembling master tapes and live recordings for some of the best kept secrets in New Zealand music stretching back to the early eighties.

Its proved to be a harder job than we thought as many master tapes stored at studios having been taken to the dump. That's right, not given to the Alexander Turnball NZ library archives, but simply taken to the dump to decompose, literally.

We were planning to bring the whole shebang to you this month but we're still waiting on a few of the master tapes to be sent for Childrens Hour and the Stones recorded work soooooo..... (cue wind sound effects and tumbleweed........)
But the good news is we've uncovered a great stash of wonderful recordings of those bands too, live and unreleased so the collections are going to be even more extensive and complete.

We're mastering this all up, making pretty covers and packaging and getting the extensive liner notes all ready so that you can have access to more of New Zealand music, off air.

so here's what we got lined up so far

Deluxe boy - recorded works.
A great pop band from Christchurch from the late 90's to 2003, in the classic pop vein of heavy jones trio and throw these guys morphed into current band the dukes. this is a collection of over 16 tracks they recorded as deluxe boy but never got round to releasing. We got our hands on a cd and were blown away so we're taking it on ourselves to bring it to you. Makes you wonder what the major labels are occupying themselves with when they overlook "a" grade pop like this in favour of.....what??
1 - Deluxe Boy - in the studio

Pop Mechanix - complete collection.
This will probably be a 3 disc set made up of the bands first demos in 1980 which captured an edgy pop band with attitude bashing out their set to tape, and capture magnificently straight to two track, no remixing, not overdubs. This tape comes from Mike Chunn's personal collection and we're both lucky and excited to bring this to the wider public. Thanks Mike!

The band went on to record and release 3 singles and b sides, produced by Eddie Raynor etc before they left for Australia to seek fame and fortune, and the possibility of regular income from music. The band hit big troubles and high court battles over the use of their name, and eventually imploded and returned to New Zealand.
They reformed in 1986 real low key like, whipped up a bunch more classic pop songs, and once again got their career derailed. Its a classic NZ story of good band making great music getting everywhere but where they should be going, but the music remains to attest to the bands legacy
2 - Pop Mechanix mark one - Recorded work.
3 - Pop Mechanix Mark two - Recorded work.
4 - Pop Mechanix mark two - Live and unreleased.

Youth For Christ
These guys were an inspirational band doing cutting edge and unusual stuff with attitude and cool. Back then it flew over most peoples heads but now with the likes of Franz Ferdinand and Interpol riding the charts it almost seems the time is right for their music.
We've managed to find most of the studio recordings that comprise their Between Two Thieves mini album from 1984 plus an unreleased track. We've also got the bands last NZ concert full of brilliant just written material that put this band well ahead of its time.
For those not familiar with them YFC comprise the angular and tribal drumming skills of Michael Daly (now of Eskimo) and the two bass attack of Grant Horsnell and Jonathan Ogilvie, Jon doing most of the vocals which were shard like interjections loaded with pop culture overtones. There was no guitar in this band, hence you get a quite distinct sound and feel from what they did, highly rhythmical, abrasive and intense at times, hook laden, and with elements of the beat poets.
5 - YFC - Between two Thieves - Recorded work
6 - YFC - Live and unreleased.

Childrens Hour
Before there was Headless Chickens there was Childrens Hour. The band were one and the same although the unfortunate suicide of Bassist Johnny Pierce altered things somewhat.
Childrens Hour were a whole different ball game from where Headless Chickens went to though.
Dark, powerful, intense and at times overwhelming they mined similar but different territory to early Birthday Party.
They released 1 mini album, one 7 inch single, and had two other tracks on compilations. We've got them all off vinyl although we're still waiting on the master tapes from flying nun storage. Hopefully this won't be a revisit of 1988's 2 year wait for the release of the JPSE size of food and Bats law of things albums. (just kidding dylan, we kid because we care :)

On top of the wonderful studio work we've located some excellent live recordings care of Bob Sutton in Dunedin. These document the bands earlier work that never made it to a studio. Plus we've got some of the last stuff the band wrote so we're well covered there. The band were quite intense live if that jogs anyone's memories.
8 - Children's Hour - live and unreleased.

Leadleg
Leadleg were the continuation of 2/3 of YFC after the band left for Australia.
Initially the solo project of Jonathan Ogilvie, Jon continued to explore tall dark tales of love and loss nd hardship, with strong Johnny Cash overtones.
Ogilvie was caught in a suicide bomb incident while visiting China which left him and his then Girlfriend with chunks of shrapnel in their bodies and legs, hence Leadleg.
Jon and Michael joined forces with guitar and keyboards to explore the more moody world and dub territory. Influenced by the on-u-sound thing but heavily tinged by their own musical heritage the band explores pool hall brawls and literal references with that heavily rhythmical thing permeating through out.
The band released a 7 inch ep and a 12 incher before recording an album which was not released by the time the band split.
9 - Leadleg - recorded work
10 - Leadleg - payola (unreleased last album).

Throw
The last recordings with the original Throw lineup of Steve Birss, Rob Mayes, and Jeremy Taylor.
These tracks were recorded in 1992 and at the time proved too difficult to mix with the technology of the time, and one pair of hands. This album contains some of the bands best material and shows Throws deft hand at a good tune, and a careful balance of mood and dynamics.
11 - Throw - dreambaby goodbye album

Springloader
Springloader managed to record a full album of material in their 2 year career but only managed to get 2 tracks into the public eye, one was on the good things compilation (Now I Know) and the other was the NZ on Air funded video for one more thing. This album shows what you'd expect from the continuation of the Dolphin and Throw sounds, melodic infused rock music.
12 - Springloader - just like falling album

dolphin
Dolphin rocked Christchurch from 88-90 with their chunk of jagged edged guitar rock, with a does of husker du and dark british pop over their melodic NZ influences, they were the forerunners of what lead to many a good chch rock band.
They released 3 cassette only eps which have never been available on any other format (apart from the first single which appeared on pagan records positive vibrations album)

Dylan from Flying Nun comments....
Subject: RE: childrens hour, eight living legs
Got the email update about all the reissues - can't wait for the Dolphin
ep's to be issued on CD, nice one! Such a f*cking great band but who's
got a tape deck these days? ......Dylan

Well we've got a cassette deck but we've also go the original masters so that's all sorted.
They sound really rock and fresh, brimming with energy.
While we were digging out these masters we also found a bunch of demos and unreleased other tracks from that period which make for great listening.
13 - dolphin - eps
14 - Dolphin - demos.

Delphy
Delphy was dolphin from 1996 onward. The band left for the uk to find fame and fortune and recorded this collection of 18 songs. Drummer Steve Birss never made it to the UK but his drums appear on this collection along with Pete Thomas (Elvis Costello & attractions Drummer) who filled in while the band search for Tracy Thompkins their eventual replacement for Birss. Bring it all down is all the studio recordings the band did while in london.
15 - Delphy - bring it all down album

The Stones
Of all the bands on the legendary Flying Nun dunedin double eps that featured the Chills, Verlaines and Sneaky Feelings the Stones were the most entertaining live, and their music never really got well represented on record. We've decided to do something about that and have collected all their recorded work together (waiting on those master tapes dylan) to get a better overview of what this band was about. There's the dunedin double tracks, the another disc another dollar 12" and a couple of compilation appearances.

You may remember the band comprise Jeff Batts on Bass and Vocals and Wayne Elsley on Guitar and Vox, and Graeme Anderson on Drums. The band disbanded with Wayne going on to form the Double Happys with Shane Carter. Wayne sadly dies in an accident on a train leaving the remaining Double Happys to morph into the Straitjacket Fits.

The band really excelled live though and we've managed to locate live recordings to show you that mesmerizing side of the band and get some more of that unreleased stuff out of the ether and onto your stereos.
16 - Stones - recorded works
17 - Stones - live and unreleased

Beat Rhythm Fashion
Wellington's Beat Rhythm Fashion started life in 1979 as a post punk edgy anarchy tinged outfit and progressed on to melodic but socially opinionated band mining similar territory as early cure. They released 3 singles on bunk records, had 2 tracks on the infamous four stars album and 3 on the live wellington zone album.
We've got all of that for you plus we've got a couple of great live gigs that represent the bands unrecorded work brilliantly. Another one of those incredibly gifted bands that we as a country liked to keep secret, back in the day when 'we love New Zealand music' wasn't a catch cry.
The band featured Brothers Dan and Nino Birch and Caroline Easther who later went on to join the Verlaines and the Chills
18 - Beat Rhythm Fashion - Studio works
19 - Beat Rhythm Fashion - Live at the Gladstone
20 - Beat Rhythm Fashion - Live at the cook

Eight Living Legs
Were one of those good Auckland bands around in the early eighties that you didn't get to hear about outside of that city. The band were a gifted bunch of songwriters and musicians doing a fine line in angular, intense and moody post punk rock.
They released one side of an split ep with fellow AK band Flak before leaving for Europe in 1983.
I purely by chance got sent a cassette of 9 songs they recorded at progressive studios and I always thought these great songs should be out there for people to hear. Sadly I should have thought of that before this year because when the Studio changed ownership the new management took it upon themselves to take all the master tapes they couldn't easily find owners for to the dump. (bad studio, bad).
Luckily I kept my copy of the tape and we're looking for other copies too so we will bring you something to listen to for sure. We've also got a live concert recorded and mixed by Greg Carroll. Greg you may remember was the much loved sound crew member for U2 who tragically died in a rigging accident while working for U2.
21 - Eight living legs - Studio
22 - Eight Living legs - Live

Atomic Blossom
This much loved Christchurch outfit were on the road to international success when they recorded and released this great little album. The Band self released this then went to New York to follow up on interest the band had gained from supporting smashing pumpkins on their nz tour. On arriving in New York the band attracted the attention of Madonna's Maverick label and were all but set to make it when they imploded with co singer/guitarist Prudence Stone deciding she didn't want to be in a rock band after all. You get that sometimes, with musicians.
Consequently its almost impossible to get a copy of the original album and so we've decided to re release it in a remastered form to share the music.
23 - Atomic blossom - Album

Naked Lunch
Is the work of Atomic Blossom main man Dean Karena prior to his Atomic Blossom days. Sonic, melodic, rhythmic and dark, the band did a fair few recordings before splitting and moving onto other projects. As is the way with many NZ bands this stuff was never released so we're compiling it all onto a disc for you to check out.
24 - Naked Lunch - Recorded works

Chameleon
Were the show case for the lovely voice of Leigh Franklin, and the melodic sometimes dark, sometimes ethereal music of this Christchurch 4 piece during the 1994-96 period.
Luckily Failsafe did a bunch of demos and studio recordings and captured the band at their prime, and this stuff is really good.
The demo's were done in an old nunnary, as in "get thee to a nunnary", although there isn't any notable religious feel to the material.
The band did release an ep in 96 before moving to Melbourne and imploding, but you'll be luck to ever see a copy of that so this collection of works will definitely make amends for the absence of an available recorded history.
25 - Chameleon Studio recordings and demos

Breathing Cage
Breathing Cage were Jay Clarkson, Michael Kime, Greg Malcolm (surfing USSR) and Gary Sullivan (dimmer/ JPSE). We're still working on this one cos Jay is presently in Germany but we've got a few excellent recordings from this band. The demos for their solitary album capture the rawer less produced offerings found on the album plus there's the early recordings done for the Failsafe South compilation we've managed to find a copy of too. We'll keep you posted on the progress for this as soon as we manage to locate Jay.
26 - Breathing cage - high street recordings.

Loves Ugly Children
Before they were international jetsetters for the flying nun label LUC were prolific songwriters in little old Christchurch. They recorded the stagger mini album for Failsafe in 1989 with Scott MacArthur doing guitar and Simon Crockett on drums. Later that year Simon McLaren and Angela (Floss) Leslie moved on with a new drummer and a three piece line up and recorded a series of demos and did a series of gigs. Soon after Jason Young joined the band on drums and they recorded further tracks for Failsafe's Avalanche album, and one for the Good Things compilation plus one more unreleased track, and then they followed up that with their self released Purge Ep.
Essentially plenty of great songs that you've probably not heard. Oh and theres some live unreleased stuff too including a version of one of their best tracks 'Awesome Feeling", maybe there's two albums here.
27 - Loves Ugly Children- early recordings, unreleased, and live

Newtones
The newtones were one of the first New Zealand bands I saw and they had this impressive instrumental that they opened their sets with called 4 ships. That track was never recorded or released and was one of the reasons I started the label, so that I wouldn't lose other key musical moments to history. The band released a track on the class of 81 comp, a 4 song 7 inch ep and a single as well as a track on the accident compilation. We've got all of that plus we're working on getting live material if we can. maybe even that four ships song. Now wouldn't that be something.
28 - Newtones - Newtones.

Failsafe Compilation - Keepin' Secrets - Various Artists
Its been a while since we gave you a neatly packaged best of, 10 years actually so we've got a compilation in the works to give you a good overview all on one album. We'll have tracks from Eskimo, Hooster, Substandard, Degrees k, Throw, Delphy, Dolphin, Springloader, Alpha Cast.
We'll also have some new additions to the stable, but more on that later.
29 - Keeping secrets - Failsafe records compilation

Failsafe Compilation - Loose ends compilation - various artists
The loose ends compilation features tracks from various bands we've had pass through the Failsafe studios that didn't get a wider release when they were done but they're so good that we want to bring em to you anyway. We'll bring you more details on this one soon.
30 - Loose ends - various artists

So that's 30 albums but we've also got a bunch more discs we're working.
Catherine wheel NZ, Genie and the Wild Children, Hercos Pilots, Alms For Children, and a whole bunch more. feel free to make your own suggestions too ok.

4 - Electrode compilation - robots dream of electric sheep.
Peter Lewis the Failsafe Web Designer and member of the Tom Bosley Experience has been busy compiling a showcase sampler of NZ electronic underground music. We're almost ready to go on this baby and there's been considerable interest in this comp too.

Here's a list of confirmed artists. Click here to see the album cover and a complete tracklist

Refrag
The official bio notes for refrag read like absurdist short stories. Some of the band members are murdered during a Salvation Army charismas party. Additional band members are incarcerated for unethical scientific studies. Assuming that none of this is true, who really makes this unique and genre-bending music?
Desmond Murphy is the electronic orchestra behind refrag. When forced to comment, he says, "Maybe it's a bit odd and some folks like it? I like music that doesn't sound like anything you heard before but not so mad that it has no reference." The titles and lyrics of his compositions are often certainly of black humor variety, and a careful listener will sometimes note just a touch of silliness in much of what refrag does.

Emerald Green
"Emerald Green is dance music that's not dance, catchy music that's not pop and pop music that doesn't make sense - I call this music Psychedlic Electro Trippy Pop"
Emerald Green is the solo project of Mel Smith, who started self-producing music in her bedroom in early 2004.
Mel's love of bands such as New Order, Human League and other synth/beat filled songs of the 80's, inspired her to write songs with a more modern approach to this sound. "It's important for people to be able to dance to my songs, I feel there's nothing worse than standing still and listening to songs that you like, songs that you want to move to, but you can't because that beat just isn't there".
Aside from her music aspirations, Mel is well known for her band/gig photography (http://melsphotos.tripod.com) for publications including Rip It Up, Pavement, The Package, Grooveguide and Cheese On Toast.
www.emeraldgreen.orcon.net.nz
photo by Andrew Geekboy

Module
Module delivers a tasty selection of dreamy atmospherics, big phat beats, pulsing basslines trippy vocals and effects galore not to mention crazy keyboard solos, percussion, guitars, violins, and just about anything else that makes a noise. Just always searching for the perfect beat.
Module is the live solo electronic project of Jeramiah Ross, who has performed in bands, Rhombus & sense_ and supported The Blackseeds, Pitch Black and many other, as well as constantly touring around NZ and writing a stupid amount of music.
Known among friends as that crazy fulla with the lightning fingers, module just loves to have fun and write phat beats and dreamy dub hop.
He is also part of Rhian Sheehan's live band on keyboards / samples and mixing duties along with Jess Chambers & Kirsten Johnstone.
more info at www.module.co.nz

Sharkweek
Sharkweek is the solo project of Peter Lewis from the Tom Bosley Experience. Better for known for his collage art (as seen on the cover of this CD), Peter likes to create music using similar methods - collecting sounds from disparate sources and layering them together to interesting or unusual effect, all held together with bass and beats from the excellent ReBirth software. You can find more Sharkweek songs at mp3.com.au and more of Peter's art at www.warpart.co.nz

AmbientSpace
AmbientSpace is a project by Christopher Mills. It is an exploration of soundscapes, tone and rhythm created in a small bedroom studio near Wellington. Main influences on AmbientSpace include classic electronic music from the 70's through to today, rhythm and structure from the Middle East, and a heavy dose of the lovely cheesy sounds that 80's music has to offer. It's my hope that the music of AmbientSpace takes you places.

The Tom Bosley Experience
The Tom Bosley Experience were raised by wolves. The Tom Bosley Experience discovered the lost treasures of Tut-Ankh-Amun. The Tom Bosley Experience achieved the title of Hierophant in druidic circles and were killed by Romans for it. The Tom Bosley Experience is a swarm of nanolocusts infecting the telephone networks with madness and filth.
All that, and they're a couple of nice guys too.
In their current spatiotemporal focus, The TBE are Auckland musician Sean Murgatroyd and Dunedin sound engineer and musician Peter Lewis. Their style is varied, but centres around the ambient experience. They have just released their first album, "The Spark of Inspiration" and are making rapid progress towards their second.
If you are interested in finding out more about The Tom Bosley Experience, please go to their website: www.tombosleyexperience.com
The Tom Bosley Experience. Love us. Fear us. Buy our album. Have a nice day.

Gastro
Gastro (aka Steve Baker) subjected Dunedin, Palmerston North and Wellington with his own style of warped and quirky breakbeat. He is currently in a millennial induced hibernation.

Grusome
Grusome is a Wellington based producer of electro-pop, drum n' bass and other random electronic music. He has been making music for around 4 years, using both software and an ever-growing collection of synthesizers, drum machines and vintage computers.
Grusome's music tends to mash genres, taking influence from techno and breakbeat styles, as well as punk and indie rock.
His other projects include DJing various types of music, and promoting underground dance parties under his 'Aerial Piracy' banner.
Grusome is a firm believer in the use of open source software, and supports the free (or cheap) distribution of music over the internet.

Flying Dreamz
Flying Dreamz is the left wing of Planet Paris - Electronic / Ambient / Trance music featuring: Don McKenzie - programming, keys, guitars, bass, percussion and vocals, and Nikki Donovan: vocals and guitar.
Don McKenzie started his first band GRIM LTD at high school in Palmerston North, singing and playing bass. His next band, Christchurch's SALVATION, released a D. McK original "I'd Rather Be Asleep" in 1969.
Many bands later he released two solo albums, LIFE IN A CLOSED SYSTEM (1987) and FLYING DREAMS (1989).
Moving to the West Coast to tutor Audio Engineering at Polytech in Greymouth, Don met singer-songwriter Nikki Donovan (b. 1960) and formed Planet Paris.
http://www.amplifier.co.nz/amp/view?item_id=696
They released two albums - CROSS THE LINE (1998) and OUT OF THE BLUE (2003), recorded at Inland Sea Studios and available from Inland Sea Records, P O Box 189, Greymouth, New Zealand.

Dekline
Dekline was founded in March 2004 by Kier Fitzpatrick. Experimenting with multiple audio-creation platforms, Reason was put to use to create a foundation. Dekline derives from heavy guitar overtones and dark industrial rock, however half of the project has spawned into an electronica binge. Though there are heavy elements of electro-clash, ebm and industrial bands such as Skinny Puppy, NIN & Apoptygma Berzerk in the electronic side of Dekline, inspiration is drawn from the likes of Motley Crue, Iron Maiden & Slayer.
Shane Hickmore joined as lead vocalist in May 2004 however is not involved with the remix projects. Shane provides the vocal edge to Dekline that crosses the line of industrial into electro-clash/rock'n roll.
Dekline now consists of a six-piece live act including the likes of Madmat (ex-manager of American glam-rock band "All the Pretty Horses") & Brenny O (Puppeteers of Hatred)."
http://dekline.darkhabit.co.nz/

Hieronymus Bosch
The enigmatic Hieronymus Bosch have been in existence since 1985 making them New Zealand's longest running and little-known-about dark experimental / Industrial group.
The sound of Hieronymus Bosch is that of many combined and overlayed sounds, both electronic and acoustic are utilised to create rhythm of various light and dark moods and conceptual explorations. Sometimes haunting and atmospheric, sometimes intense, abrasive and nightmarish.
'Dark & brooding Nightmarescapes throb and writhe like wounded serpents, choking and ebbing painfully in formation across the desolate plains in the world of Hieronymus Bosch. Sinister moods develop and disturb the inner senses. Moulding electronic pulsing rhythmic waves and samples with acoustic/organic sound sculpting, overlaid with the darkest of vocal spectres. Hieronymus Bosch explore the darkest of Netherworlds, bringing to life the dreams and visions produced in all of us. The inner light is held forward to greet the darkness. Aural masterpieces.' Audioglobe - Italy
http://www.clubbizarre.co.nz/bosch

Disasteradio
DISASTERADIO is a band consisting of LUKE ROWELL and COMPUTER. They have been creating ELECTROCK since 2000 and have enjoyed over 30 live gigs and four albums. DISASTERADIO has played with bands including but in no way limited to Die! Die! Die!, Phoenix Foundation, The Mint Chicks, Atom & His Package, Cortina,This Night Creeps, The Fanatics, and Goldenaxe.
http://www.mp3.com.au/disasteradio

Golden Axe
Hi, Golden Axe is an Auckland based keyboard duo featuring the talents of Chris Cudby and Dave King. How are you? Our "Golden Shakehands LP" CD is currently available.

Wendyhouse
In 1992 Mr Pudding and EE monk climbed inside a Wendyhouse at Auckland's Artspace gallery to perform songs from the year 2032. Thirteen years later and it looks like Wendyhouse might even survive 2032; the year of their original sci-fi dystopia. Not long after their debut, Pudding and EE monk were joined by Martin " Webclaw" Scott on Casiotone. A kindred spirit in the world of musical conjuring was Mr SnakeBeings (then of
London), who was invited to contribute tracks to Wendyhouse's first CD release; 1994's Hot Action Plastic. Pudding, EE monk, Webclaw and SnakeBeings, have continued to collaborate, in various combinations, ever since.

5 - Colab - as in collaboration. great songwriters and performers unite.
Failsafe records is about to initiate its next project, fully aware that it hasn't finished the rather big project that it has already started, but that's half the fun.
Colab is a project getting some of our most interesting songwriters and musicians together to see what they can do when their not the solo captain of a ship. We've asked a bunch of our favourite musicians to come down to the failsafe studios and write and record songs. So far we've got a few degrees K, some Eskimo's, A Bat, a Look Blue Go Purple, an Alpha Cast, a Childrens Hr/Headless Chicken, a Breathing Cage, a Chameleon, a Substandard, a Deluxe Boy, and a few others we'll tell you about later etc etc.
We're going to throw a few of them together at a time in a room, give them the theme of "Songs in the Key of Slow" and let them create.
Its looking really interesting and we'll keep you posted on exactly who, when, how and how much as soon as we know, we just wanted to wet your appetite for now.

6 - What I did on my holidays. other music to check out.
Failsafe recently took a trip through America and discovered some really interesting music that you're never going to learn about in mainstream media or find at your local chain store music retailer, and though we love the independent music of this country we love independent music in general and lets face it, its hard to find and there's not enough of it easily accessible so this is going to be a new section to the newsletter, cool music that we discover, we meaning you too.
So email in your latest discoveries of obscure but brilliant music and we'll pass it along, share the knowledge etc.

We'll get the ball rolling with a couple of acts:
Sufjan Stevens
We picked up a copy of his Greetings from Michigan album and when we heard the distinct tone of a plucked banjo we thought, "I don't know if I'm ready for indie music with banjo in it" but another ten seconds into the song and were were completely cool with it. Sufjan does folk tinged indie music using weird instruments in non traditional ways. No deliverance style picking here, instead indie melodic rock tinges. He's got 4 albums out already and I've never heard of him, until now. Check out his page at http://www.sufjan.com/

Do Make Say Think
We've been a fan of the Constellation label from Canada for a while. They do God Speed You Black Emperor! Do Make Say Think have four albums of moody atmospheric, intense instrumental rock and we were lucky enough to be in the same town as them while they were playing a gig. One of the best shows I've seen. I recommend their 2nd album goodbye enemy airships the land lord is dead.
Read about the band on the constellation site:
and check out constellation at http://www.cstrecords.com.

7. Electrode's Emerald Green and Tom Bosley Experience have a gig!

A plethora of multi genres and multi media delights, from the cool trippy electro grooves of Emerald Green, the superb electronic and found sound genius of Dirty Orange Machine, the menacing deviance of I Hybrid, to the utter geeky pop wackiness of the brilliant Tom Bosley Experience, the crazy Vodophone Warriorz, the eccentric (and brilliantly named) Catguts and the Big Bang Theory....
Its a full on night of digital experimentation, seductive synthesis and circuitry driven nuttiness!

Failsafe Records online.
Don't forget to check out the website if you've got a spare few hours.
There's a mail order store, and a downloads page with well over 40 and rising tracks to sample.

August 2004 - A Flurry Of Activity At Failsafe
Eskimo - those scallywag ratbags of chiming guitar pop have managed to finish their debut album 'Loverbatim' a mere 3 months after their first release party for it in May, and to celebrate they're having an actual release party for said album at the Dux De Lux in Christchurch New Zealand on Friday 3rd September. The album contains 11 slices of over-driven melodic rock of the high standard you've come to expect from these musical merchants.
MP3s - after months of waiting, we finally have a full complement of MP3s available for your listening pleasure. Forty different songs can now be downloaded from the Music Downloads page, thanks to the folks at mp3.com.au.
Retrogenic Records - Failsafe have been feeling really guilty of late looking through the massive collection of unreleased material that we've been listening to for the last couple of decades. It just ain't right not to share so we're going to do just that - the plan is to release 30 albums over a single month period. That's one album a day for a whole month, and a tidy little catchphrase to boot! Bands involved include Childrens Hour, Pop Mechanix, Loves Ugly Children and Springloader.
Electrode Records - the new ambient and electronic arm of Failsafe Records. Electrode is pleased to bring you the "melodic pop-influenced ambient sound" of The Tom Bosley Experience and the "Psychedelic Electro Trippy Pop" of Emerald Green.
Hooster - the video for 'Throw' is in the hands of Both C4 and Juice and hopefully you'll get to see them soon. you can also download the video from the bands own website.

June 2004 - Eskimo Song Released To Radio
The band are battling with inner demons of perfectionism, and although they have recorded most of their debut album they may well spend the next century fine tuning it, or not. But they have managed to conquer them demons long enough to squeeze out a track to radio in the shape of lead album track "Arrow".
The track also presently features in a firestone commercial which was initially supposed to have the bands song appear as a random 2 seconds of background car radio noise. The ads producers so loved the song that they couldn't stop themselves stretching it through the whole piece and pumping up the volume.
Eskimo are also available to play weddings, housewarmings, and product line openings, for the right price.

Hooster - Rotate Album And "Throw" Video.
So Hooster have been busy and have finished their ten track debut album "Rotate". Its been a long time in the making with many a subtle overdub, packed full of chiming, roaring and ringing guitars and drums and bass, oh and vocals too.
On top of that they've whipped up a video for their song "Throw" which will be included on some copies of the album as a quicktime movie. We may even put it up on the bands website hooster.com so check there too in a week or so.

18 March 2004 - Eskimo Play Media Club
yeah it's those noisy pop dudes doing an evening gig this time to make up for the harsh realities of there dual lunch time outings for the orientation crowds last month.
now you can relax in the low light of the Media club this friday to the dulcet tones of Eskimo and Lunger.

Eskimo you will remember are the combined efforts of David Mulcahy (Guitar and vox) ex JPSE and Superette, Rob Mayes (Bass like its a guitar) ex Springloader, dolphin and Throw, and Michael Daly (drum punishment) Ex YFC and Leadleg.

The boys have got a number of new tracks to try out on you including pop gem and future radio botherer "Evergreen", that is if they can learn the things properly tonight at their last minute practice. yell out for it, insist they play it, make their life hard.

The band are "this close" to nailing the final features to their album "loverbatim" having added real drums to all tracks last weekend. Now all that is required it to squeeze the lot through a quantum defibrillator and the dozie max fizzerlator and hey presto, album.

But until then you'll have to catch em at the media club.

doors open at 9.
Lunger kick it off at 10 with their post punk covers of wire and buzzcocks
then Eskimo at 11.

see you there.

December 2003
Hooster - begging for a Big Day Out
It was the boys from Hooster who suggested it was time for another Failsafe newsletter even though the usual two years between official Failsafe info has not yet passed.

Seems that the band have got themselves up reasonably high on the list of bands in line for an opening slot at the Auckland Big Day Out. But they need just that little bit extra, so they're reaching out mob style to their connections, and their connections' connections to get them to vote on the site. I stand to win an all expenses paid
18 hour bus trip with one ice cream stop if they win the gig.
So if you haven't already voted go visit:

http://www.jacklive.co.nz/votenew.php

and put in a vote for change. Hooster for Big Day Out 2004!

In other Hooster news the boys have acquired a new member in the form of drummer Kayne.
Previous drummer Al has been missing in action last seen heading for the Wellington party front. If he is not discovered before Christmas he will receive an absentee honorable burial and a posthumous award for services above and beyond the call of duty, to getting completely trashed, well beyond.

Luckily the rest of the band are focused and ready to release their next bunch of work in the form of the Floatin' EP and soon to be followed by their full-length album.
The band have been up and giggin' again completing a headline gig at the Dux which gathered them a quite frankly 'over the top' response from fans who have had to wait a full year between gigs, but with personal problems sorted and yours and my networks help in getting the vote count up on the big day out thing hopefully they'll be rockin' on a regular basis.

Mars - Solo Flight
Mars the performing ensemble have parted ways from each other and Failsafe. Singer Guitarist Stephen MacIntyre and fellow band mates have decided to separate and Stephen is going it alone on his quest for international success. We wish him well, and the best of luck in the fickle pop market. If you want to get Mars'd up you'll have to
look elsewhere from now on.

Eskimos In Summer
You heard right, Eskimos have turned up in Christchurch New Zealand and are playing hook infused distorted rock, how dare they!!
Eskimo you may remember is the result of lackadaisical and half-assed efforts from David Mulcahy (JPSE and Superette), Rob Mayes (Throw, Springloader, Dolphin) and Michael Daly (YFC, This Cage, Leadleg).
The boys went through a spurt of rehearsals toward their October gigs in Chch and Wellington which went off surprisingly well but they've only just this weekend started on their much promised first release which will be a four track EP of as yet undetermined content. Is that clear enough for you?

http://wwww.failsaferecords.com
The web site is up and working (obviously, because you're reading this!) and it's chock full of interesting and obscure details of the popmeisters of New Zealand that have passed through the label. Try and work your way to the History section ('Full List') under the Artists pull down menu in the Artists section. Or simply click HERE.

Also we'd like to put out the call to all of you who know anything about any of the bands on the list or Chch / NZ music in general to help us fill in the gaps re band member names, where they are now and anything else you think was particularly interesting about the scene.

There is now a shopping basket mailorder thing going in the html catalogue page so if there's something you want from the catalogue you can now select and purchase it as you would in a supermarket, except you don't have to stand up or walk to do so.
We'd like to thank webmeister Peter Lewis for his hard work in assembling my rough notes and doodles into something that almost makes sense.

Also if you have your own web offerings we'd really appreciate a link to the site so that we can jump up in the search engines listings above Failsafe security, and Failsafe condoms.

Mp3.com stole our free music poster board.
Just when we thought we had a good system to help you hear the label's new and old releases by biffing them up on MP3.com for you to download for free, the site decided to bow out on providing free downloadable material, no doubt so that they can re emerge and charge people for the service. Anyway, no mp3s available unfortunately till we find an alternative. If anyone knows of a free site that allows storage of mp3 files we'd sure like to hear about it. Till then the radio remains silent.

TBC Late November - Hooster at Dux, Christchurch.
Hooster finally get their sad-ass drummer situation sorted and will make a welcome return to the stage and finish their album in late November. New drummer Kayne Rusk joins the group to rock where no band has rocked before and the boys will be showcasing tracks off their upcoming album, and may well have an EP ready for the gig, we'll see how that goes though.

Friday 31 October - Eskimo at Bodega, Wellington. New support band yet to be annouced as Fraser at Bodega managed to get his dates muddled so we won't be playing with Sleepers Union as we were looking forward to doing. They'll be playing at Bodega the week before that. 10:00PM

Saturday 25th October - Eskimo at Dux Delux, Christchurch. New band featuring David Mulcahy (Superette, JPSE), Rob Mayes (Throw, Dolphin, Delphy), Mike Daly (YFC, Leadleg, This Cage), debuting a new bunch of music. Also playing are labelmates Alpha Cast fresh from a long drive up from Dunedin, the band will be playing tracks off their debut EP as well as hot new material. 9:00PM

RECENT EVENTS

Saturday 4th October - Substandard at Arc Cafe, Dunedin. with support from Dunedin band Sentinels.

June / July 2003 - lots of recording being done! Click here to see what releases are coming soon.

Saturday 2 August - Arc Cafe, Dunedin - Mars (Christchurch) with local support from Alpha Cast - 9:00 PM - $5 and $4.
An original POPTASTIC evening of delight! Mars celebrate the release of their new album "Live From Hempfields".

Saturday 4 October - Substandard at Arc Cafe, Dunedin. 10:00PM

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