Various - **** (4 Stars)

Finally, it is within our grasp! I've been searching for this (quite likely unofficial) reissue of one of the holy grails of New Zealand music for sometime now and have been lucky enough to chance on a few copies by way of Siltbreeze. A representation of Wellington's early post-punk scene, Four Stars, as the title might have already told you, consists of four different bands - Life In the Fridge Exists, Naked Spots Dance, Beat Rhythm Fashion and Wallsocket - who contribute an impressive 13 songs between them. You wont find these songs anywhere else, which is both manna for the obscurists and sacrilege for the Internet Seekers trying to feed that insatiable desire for yesterday's gold. Same as it ever was. 13 songs from four unknowns and remarkably, there's not a second wasted, more than the equal of any of its KBD cousins across the water (think Kitchen and the Plastic Spoons for US or Flowers in the Dustbin in the UK), but what's most crucial about this collection is how different it is to what we have conventionally understood as the quintessential Flying Nun-led New Zealand sound. Compare this to, say, the Dundein Double, FN's own early 80s scene spanning compilation, and its night and day - i mean, quite literally. There's a darkened, crepuscular element to much of Four Stars that suggests an alternative history well worth uncovering. Forty years on, Four Stars keeps doing its job of putting light in those hidden corners. And be quick - given the dubious origins of this reissue, i can't see it hanging around long.