TERMINALS - Little Things

Perennially unrecognized and underrated; The Terminals finally established their stature in 2007 with their release Last Days of the Sun (awarded one of the top 50 albums of the year in Wire magazine.) Mixing elements of classic VU, Doors, late 70s/early 80s post punk (Wire, Joy Division, etc.) with a unique strand of New Zealand rock that has been developing in isolation since the early 80s (Vacuum, Pin Group, The Clean, etc.). Its hard to understand why it took so long for the band to garner a little attention from the critics. The early 90s saw two full-length releases from the band (Touch and Little Things). Both are seriously meaty albums with guitar distortion and drums often taking the forefront (perhaps channeling a bit of Fun House), but pinned down by Stephen Cogles Ferry-esque vocals and that NZ rock sensibility. Little Things (1995) in particular stretches out the frenzy established with Touch; Jon Dale (NZs closest thing to a rock-musicologist) claims this to be their most sophisticated stage; drawing comparisons to Charlambides and Fushitsusha, yet never fully breaking away from rock. Indeed, its worth noting that Little Things was released side-by-side with the free noise entries like Gate, Handful of Dust, etc.; but unlike those bands, there was still a core part of the Terminals that was all about songs and lyrics -- even if that format was as dense and electrified as Musica Electronic. This much-needed reissue features both some serious remastering by the band and two live bonus tracks (one a cover of Roxy Musics Both Ends Burning). - Last Visible Dog.