Music of New Zealand - Electronica

Electronica

The earliest electronica in New Zealand came out of Auckland and Wellington in the early 1980s. Wellington's The Body Electric, formed out of the punk band, The Steroids, had a massive hit with Pulsing which, without airplay beyond student stations, spent four months in the national Top 50.

In Auckland there was a rush of activity, much of it centred around Trevor Reekie's labels, Reaction Records (which he A&Red) and Pagan Records. The compilation, We'll Do Our Best, on Propeller Records was an early sampler of this. The most prominent act from Auckland in this period was The Car Crash Set, who released several singles and a now sought after album for Reaction in the mid 1980s.

The explosion of the club scene in Auckland in the era led to a surge in the recording related recording activity, and in 1988 Propeller Records released New Zealand's first House record, Jam This Record, produced by James Pinker, Alan Jansson, Dave Bulog (ex Car Crash Set) and Simon Grigg.

There were sporadic recordings over the next few years, notably the work of Joost Langeveld, Angus McNaughton, DLT along with Future Jazz (the term was first coined in Auckland in the early 1990s) scene grew up in the urban inner cities centred, in Auckland, around the Cause Celebre nightclub and the work of Nathan Haines, the two notable early releases being Freebass Live At Cause Celebre and Haines' Shift Left.