Is Joy Division the first band to pop into your head when confronted with longing mentions of the post-punk genre? It’s a natural impulse, given their influence and Ian Curtis’s justifiable deification even 40 years after the fact; but a limited appreciation for the musical heavy-hitters (so to speak) ignores the plethora of post-punk bands who didn’t necessarily have time for studios, studios for time, or a superhuman ability to leap tall mountain ranges for the sake of visiting with intrigued major labels at a moment’s notice.
Nocturnal Projections was borne out of New Plymouth, New Zealand in 1981, and they didn’t even release a genuine studio LP before members Peter Jefferies, Graeme Jefferies, Brett Jones, and Gordon Rutherford decided to dissolve behind desires to pursue other musical ventures (The Kind of Punishment turning out to be one of them). A handful of singles and EPs recorded in the early 80s were the only distributed (if you want to call it that) relics.
Praise be to the lord (who coincidentally works for Dais Records) for dusting most of those relics off! Dias is sponsoring the release of the following two albums on April 27: Complete Studio Recordings — the title of which should make things sufficiently self-explanatory — and Inmates In Images, a collection of the “best of the best board recordings of live sets between 1981 and 1983.” Wow. Almost as good as being there, right?
Well…sorta. According to Jefferies:
We were better live. If you went to the shows that’s when you really got Nocturnal Projections. What you have here is an attempt to document those performances. Much debate, trawling of archives, and careful re-mastering has gone into this set. If you weren’t there, then this is probably as close as you’re gonna get to it. If you were, then I hope this album brings back some memories. Certainly works for me.
There you have it, folks: be excited…but not TOO excited (it’s not very punk to be too excited, anyway). And now that your expectations have been sufficiently lowered, check out a preview below and pre-order the releases here.
Complete Studio Recordings tracklisting:
01. You’ll Never Know
02. Isn’t That Strange?
03. Could It Be Increased?
04. Difficult Days
05. Out Of My Hands
06. Understanding
07. Another Year
08. In Purgatory
09. Nerve Ends In Power Lines
10. In Darkness
Inmates In Images tracklisting:
01. Inmates in Images
02. Walk In A Straight Line
03. Moving Forward
04. Blank Faces
05. Don’t Go
06. Restoration
07. Alone In The Corner
08. Words Fail Me
09. Late Night