Out October 25th
Gatefold double LP
Primitive Art Group 1981-1986 is being released on October 25, 2024 digitally and as a gatefold, double LP. It is a combination of the group’s only two albums, consisting of one LP of Five Tread cuts plus “Cecil Likes to Dance” a never-before-released live recording from Thistle Hall (1984) and the full 1985 LP Future Jaw-Clap. Completely unavailable since mid-1980s, Amish Records is exceedingly proud to have worked closely with members of the group to present this crucial contribution to New Zealand’s music history.
It is well documented that in the early ‘80’s New Zealand was awash with adventurous new music. Though sharing the kind of happy isolation and the DIY ethic with contemporaneous outfits like Flying Nun, South Indies and Xpressway, one band cut a decidedly different path. The Primitive Art Group, formed in Wellington, devoted itself to collective improvisation coming out of a jazz tradition. With the line-up of Anthony Donaldson (drums), David Donaldson (bass), Neil Duncan (saxes), Stuart Porter (saxes), David Watson (guitar), and originally with Pam Grey (on cello), the group’s relatively brief existence left a lasting impression on the New Zealand’s free music scene.
1981 was a year of social unrest and change in New Zealand with massive protests against the nuclear testing in the Pacific and widespread opposition to contact with apartheid South Africa. Against this backdrop, the Primitive Art Group launched themselves on an unsuspecting public. These ‘punks of jazz’ availed themselves of various DIY situations like Rawa House, public street marches, bars and the Rock Against Racism concerts of that time. Musically, there was no precedent in New Zealand for their combination of noise, collective playing and compositional freedom. Gary Steel from the local music rag TOM, wrote “The first time I saw the Primitive Art Group they blew my tiny mind… Great sheets of architectural noise coming at you from the stage. Where else would you see free music in New Zealand in the early 80s? You just didn't.”
The band’s five-year lifespan was non-stop activity: rehearsing, touring, the creation of Braille Records (their own record label), dance and theater work, appearances at music festivals, and hosting two hugely influential national festivals of improvisation at Thistle Hall, Wellington. In 1984, Primitive Art Group made their first recording, an ambitious double LP, Five Tread Drop Down (Braille 001) which had only a single pressing and sold-out locally. One year later they were back in the studio making their second album, Future Jaw-Clap (Braille 003). This outing contained tighter pieces, as the band widened its repertoire as an improvising unit with nods to influences and antecedents like Mingus, spy themes, elevator music and ragtime.
In 1986, The Primitive Art Group gave their last concert at the Wellington Town Hall, just a half mile from Rawa House and the legendary Thistle Hall where their first shows had taken place. The band’s Braille Records’ recordings have never been released outside of New Zealand, nor have ever been available digitally. As Thurston Moore writes, “these are magic time capsule, lost-n-found recordings, previously shared only by deep-diving record collector aesthetes”. The group’s brief tenure has continued to inspire new generations of improvisers, but nothing has ever quite matched the visceral blast of the Primitive Art Group’s arrival on the scene. Every member of the group has carried on doing creative work at the highest levels: scoring films, making art, mentoring, organizing, touring and playing, always playing.
