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Browse by Artist: TERMINALS, THE


Artist: TERMINALS, THE
Title: Last Days of the Sun
Label: LAST VISIBLE DOG RECORDS
Format: CD
Price: $12.00
Catalog #: LVD 116CD
"Last Days of the Sun is the fifth album by long-running New Zealand avant-garage kings The Terminals. Bruce Russell has often described them as 'New Zealand's best rock band bar none,' and these days they often get called 'legendary' and while that may have as much to do with the fact they are in their twenty-first year they continue have a big reputation for the intensity of their live performances. Last Days of the Sun is their first release since the 1997 Terminals Live CD on Medication and the 1996 7" single 'Medusa' on Chicago label Roofbolt. It combines driving garage-rock and swirling guitar/organ interplay with dark, brooding, melodramas and quietly haunting ballads. There are twelve songs of love and anxiety, with The Terminals' characteristic ebb and flow dynamics and Cogle's unearthly tenor soaring right over the top."


Artist: TERMINALS, THE
Title: Touch
Label: LAST VISIBLE DOG RECORDS
Format: CD
Price: $12.00
Catalog #: LVD 122CD
"On their 1993 album Touch, the oft-ignored Terminals infuse their pop sense with layers of chaotic noise and bring the disparate styles to a head-on collision that lasts the length of the album. Touch is no perfect amalgam of noise and pop, but rather it's a rickety, wooden roller coaster of an album -- it jostles you throughout, making it a better ride than any slick steel production. Stephen Cogle's vocals soon descend into the music, sounding like some bizarre combination of Mark E. Smith and Syd Barrett. It quickly becomes clear that, thanks to that voice and drummer Peter Stapleton's surreal lyrics in coalition with their music, The Terminals demand your full attention at all times. Touch is a record that is impossible to get to know. In fact, it spends all of its time preventing you from doing just that, while simultaneously demanding that you try. The result is an engrossing record on par with any of New Zealand's best." "This reissue has been remastered by Brian Crook and includes both the original CD-only bonus track and a Terminals cover of the Victor Dimisich Band's 'Native Waiter.'"


Artist: TERMINALS, THE
Title: Little Things
Label: LAST VISIBLE DOG RECORDS
Format: CD
Price: $12.00
Catalog #: LVD 123CD
"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.). It's 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 Cogle's Ferry-esque vocals and that NZ rock sensibility. Little Things (1995) in particular stretches out the frenzy established with Touch; Jon Dale (NZ's 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, it's 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 Music's 'Both Ends Burning')."

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