Builders – Beatin Hearts [LP]

"Bill Direen is a legend of the New Zealand underground. We're not overstating this. He has given us poetry, novels and a slew of recorded material. Weaned on a garage band youth in the late 60's, Direen started producing 7" records in the early 80's, all of them stunners These releases - Six Impossible Things, Die Bilder, Soloman's Ball and High Thirties Piano - were self-financed and distributed though Flying Nun (and recently reissued by the benevolent Unwucht label). Beatin Hearts is his ultimate, unforgettable debut album, not to mention Flying Nun's first full-length album release. Seventeen tracks, all brilliant short pieces of energy, harmony and spite. Anyone with an appreciation for Flying Nun's early recordings can find its genesis here, the dawning of one of the greatest music scenes to ever exist."

Grapefruit, 2016