On this second go around for the Active Listener I intend to occasionally share some deserving music from my home country New Zealand. We're a little country with a small population, tucked away in our own corner and due to our geographical isolation and comparatively small music industry not a lot of our music makes it internationally. So what I share here will be known by very few offshore, beyond a small community of collectors.
Beat Rhythm Fashion, based around brothers Dan & Nino Birch were the ultimate NZ post-punk band. Their wistful dreampop-before-its-time sound compares favourably with The Cure circa Seventeen Seconds. For those that want to read an in depth history of the band I'd direct you to their profile page on the excellent NZ music website Audioculture here. This post is only intended as an introduction to get you listening.
Sadly they never released an album proper during their initial run in the early eighties, but they did manage three absolutely classic singles, of which the gorgeous Turn of the Century (embedded below) is the undisputed crown jewel. Get that playing now while you read the rest of this, you'll not be disappointed.
Christchurch (by way of Japan) label Failsafe Records have managed to collate two fantastic archival collections of recordings by the band from this era over the years, both of which are available through Bandcamp.
Bring Real Freedom constitutes the three singles and their b-sides plus a selection of well recorded live material which would have likely appeared on a debut album if they'd had the opportunity to record one.
Beings Rest, Finally digs even deeper to complete the picture, with rare compilation appearances and more live material that has been extensively restored and sounds absolutely superb.
Though both collections are revelations, I'd start with Bring Real Freedom. These two releases belong in the collections of anyone who is a fan of the Cure, Sad Lover & Giants, the Lines, the Sound, the Chameleons and the like.
Unfortunately Dan passed away in 2011 but Nino has released several albums of new material as Beat Rhythm Fashion since 2018 with Caroline Easther, former drummer for the Chills. They can also be found on their Bandcamp page.
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