2xLP (edition / 500) vinyl version of the official soundtrack to Simon Ogston's recent Bill Direen documentary "A Memory of Others." Comes w/ downloadable full-length film.
(on the filmmaker) - Simon Ogston, director, grew up in Christchurch with the music of Flying Nun on his turntable. In 2017, he realised a long-held ambition to capture Bill Direen and his musical friends on film. Archival material, avant-garde theatre and video clips punctuate the story line, as the crew accompanies Bill on a 2000 km tour of his native skinny islands. Watch out for places referenced in the lyrics, some spectacular landscape, Christchurch ruins and reconstruction post-Quake, or the beautiful Whanganui River now given the same status as a human being in New Zealand law. The film offers a raft of extraordinary guest appearances from members of Vacuum (1978) through to ongoing Ferocious. A soft highlight is a Gamelan orchestra of elementary school kids backing Bill. Not forgetting the analytics, Ogston slips in sporadic interviews by cognoscenti of New Zealand Underground, poetics and early punk tendencies.
Sophomore Lounge, 2019