Graham Reid | | 1 min read
From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this which comes as a remastered album, the first vinyl reissue of Golden Harvest's sole album.
Check out Elsewhere's other Recommended Record picks . . .
Elsewhere has written about this cracking New Zealand album from the late Seventies a number of times, so it is a real pleasure to see that after its CD reissue in 2017 it now appears on vinyl looking exactly as it did in 1978.
But sounding even better.
To recap, it's important to place it into its era: in the late Seventies the waves of punk were crashing on our shores and mainstream, polished pop was anathema to the emerging punk/post-punk culture.
Radio hits were just selling-out and who cared about production, just bang it down and get it out.
Golden Harvest could easily have been dismissed because producer Rob Aiken and engineer Ian Morris gave a glistening sound to their sharp and approachable pop, and Kevin Kaukau in the band was a peerless guitarist who could take solo into the skies when guitar solos were just out.
They covered All Along the Watchtower in the manner of Hendrix.
Golden Harvest also crafted superb radio hits: Mrs G, the timeless I Need Your Love and Give a Little Love.
I Need Your Love hit a midpoint between the disco dancefloor, mainstream pop radio and the rock club.
Golden Harvest won over quite a number of the cynical (see this article at AudioCulture) but their real problem – hence their short, one-album career – came from internal divisions as to their direction, as we noted there.
That's the background but what is important is that now a lovely black vinyl record – remastered from the analogue master tapes in Stebbing Studios where the original album was recorded – has now appeared courtesy of Frenzy and Stebbing.
Golden Harvest's self-titled album is a Kiwi classic and if you have your doubts, look at the testimonies below.
Mike Chunn sums up the feeling of holding this record in your hands.
If you've never heard it then you are in for a real treat, it is smart, sharp and offers something for just about every taste in 10 songs.
Well, maybe not hardcore punks or death metal devotees, but then they didn't get it back then either.
Enjoy.
It's hard not to.
.
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