Salmonella Dub have just released their auspicious seventh studio album, the dynamic Freak Controller, a medley of roots, rock and electronica dance styles. It’s been two years since Salmonella Dub released their last studio album, the platinum selling Heal Me in 2007. In 2008, the band toured with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and released the live album, Feel the Season Change.
Nick Cave / Stagger Lee
I’ve always been a Birthday Party fan, but it wasn’t until Liz, my wife, played me this track that I fully realized the depth of power behind Nick and the amazing thing that the Bad Seeds had morphed into. This is rock and roll orchestration at it most cutting edge. Oh, what a story!
Hunters and Collectors / Lumps of Lead
I’m a big fan of the earlier line-up of Hunters and Collectors and tracked down this vinyl EP after seeing the video on Radio With Pictures back in the early 80s. The video was shot from a front mounted camera on the bow of a speedboat traveling through Sydney Harbour. It was eerily poignant at the time.
Cabaret Voltaire / Voice of America
I remember as a 14 year-old going to the Record Joynt in the Square and purchasing my first records — Space Race by Mi Sex and Voice of America. Not surprisingly, Caberet Voltaire had a far more profound effect on me at the time than Mi Sex! It’s a bit like the difference between Ketamine and Alco Pops. No disrespect to Mi Sex, mind you.
Peter and the Test Tube Babies / Banned from the Pub
This was a favourite at parties when I was 15 or 16, alongside Part Time Punks and True Love by the Marching Girls. In fact, I remember getting a hiding from a Mod with a walking stick at one particular party after getting a bit carried away pogo-ing in the lounge. I had my trusty duffle jacket and boots on, so it had no effect! Especially after the bottle of screwdriver my mate and I had sculled.
Love / House Is Not a Motel
I was about 17 when I got this album and I listened to it three or four times a day over Christmas with my parents. Both lyrically and arrangement-wise, this album would have to be the most inspired record I have ever owned. It’s up there with Joy Division for mopey weekends.
Kora / Burning
I first discovered this track when releasing it on a Kaikoura Roots festival CD ticket back in 2005. This is Kora at their finest. Recorded live in the Radio Active studio, it captures both the power and simplicity of what must be Aotearoa’s best live act. Those lyrics still send shivers up my spine! And Brad, your drumming is legendary.
Can / Vitamin C
Oh my, my, my. This album was my security blanket thru the hazy mushroom days of the late 80s. I remember rolling my Vauxhall Viva on a gravel road on the West Coast on what we called ‘Vitamin A’, or codename cardboard. Bloody amazing album, this one, and this track is even better when you are watching the road go upside down through your rear vision mirror. Sorry mum! She had bought me the car as a bribe to go to teachers’ college, and I’d had written it off within a month.
Horace Andy / When The Rain Comes
I love Horace. His ‘money, money, money, is the root of all evil’ is still a religious mantra for me. I picked up this track on our recent Freak local tour of Australia. I think I grabbed it at Melbourne airport on a World Magazine compilation. It sounded great at full volume driving around Byron Bay in my Holden for four days.
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