Not long after Neil Finn suggested that Split Enz's catalogue affairs could be shaping up in the year to come, a very welcome CD premiere has been announced by Rubellan Remasters. They'll release the U.S. version of the New Zealand group's fourth album, Frenzy.
The Enz recorded Frenzy with the core line-up that appeared on 1977's Dizrythmia: founding members Tim Finn on vocals, keyboardist Eddie Rayner and Noel Crombie on percussion, along with bassist Nigel Griggs, drummer Malcolm Green and Tim's younger brother Neil, an additional guitarist who would earn his first songwriting credits on an Enz LP as well as his first lead vocals on the tracks "Give It a Whirl" and "Master Plan." Bolstered by a Top 20 hit in Australia, the raucous "I See Red," Frenzy was the first step for the band out of the art-rock niche they'd initially carved into a leaner, tighter New Wave/power pop act that happened to have two of a country's most talented songwriting siblings in the ranks.
For American audiences, however, Frenzy became something else entirely. The band's U.S. label, A&M Records, elected to release a version of the record in North America in 1981, a year after True Colours took off and yielded a minor hit in the gem "I Got You." Eddie Rayner resequenced the album, utilizing some B-sides and outtakes from the group's mythic 1978 studio sessions in the British town of Luton. He then set about remixing just about the entire record, save for "I See Red." (Technological limitations prevented Rayner from achieving his goals with the Frenzy reissue, and the band would re-sequence a new mix of his for a 2006 CD release.)
With the Split Enz catalogue a bit of a mess on American digital channels - debut Mental Notes and Dizrythmia are available through Chrysalis, while Universal Music Group has uploaded the group's 1980-1983 run (True Colours, Waiata, Time and Tide and Conflicting Emotions) - this wider release of Frenzy will be a boon to collectors. (Ever the open book, Rubellan head Scott Davies indicated that several other albums from the band - no doubt the ones controlled by UMG - "are in the final stages of the clearance process for newly remastered CD reissue," though it's not confirmed if or how they'll happen. The remaster of Frenzy, meanwhile, will be available to pre-order from Rubellan sometime in August, packaged in an "eco-wallet" CD case with a booklet and limited to 1000 copies - per Davies, a new tenet of the licensing agreement with Universal. We'll update this post when it's available!
Split Enz, Frenzy (U.S. Version) (Rubellan RUBY61CD, 2024)
- I See Red
- Give It a Whirl
- Master Plan
- Betty
- Frenzy
- Stuff and Nonsense
- Marooned
- Hermit McDermitt
- Holy Smoke
- Semi-Detached
- Carried Away
- She Got Body, She Got Soul
- Mind Over Matter
- Livin' It Up
This program originally released as A&M Records SP-3153, 1981. Tracks 2-14 remixed for this release.
Tracks 1-7 and 12 released on original version of Frenzy - Mushroom L 36768, 1979
Alternate mixes of Tracks 8-11 and 13 and original mix of Track 14 later released on The Rootin' Tootin' Luton Tapes - Warner Music Australia/Rhino 5144241092, 2007
Original mix of Track 10 first released on "Things" single - Mushroom K 7643, 1979
Original mix of Track 11 first released on "I Hope I Never" single - Mushroom K 7910, 1980
Back Tracks: Split Enz
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The Weekend Stream: January 8, 2022
Thank you, pal.
The fact is there is a lot of good music out there (and in a sea of material and classics that get ''lost'' there are gems to discover)
- and this label does really well with remasters, good Alternative Music artists and clear NEW mastering.
Thank you.
It now looks like this may not be happening as the label backed out.
The label had to "back out" as someone in the Split Enz camp pulled the plug on this reissue...nothing that the label could do. Appears as if Rubellan is, sadly, going to shut down.
If Neil and Tim had something to do with this, it just makes me sad. The label pulled the license at the last minute after all the work had been done. They reassured Scott (who runs the label or did). The same thing happened with a reissue of That Petrol Emotion where the label wasn’t even aware they had licensed the music to another label for reissue. Universal is a mess. I feel bad for anything trying to reissue anything from the major labels. They are parasites.
That should say that they reassured him that they had clearance and there was no clause that could prevent it from being released.
It is sad that the situation with Universal pulling the license because someone from Split Enz was not happy about this release is the catalyst for Rubellan Remasters shutting down for good as they did an excellent job of reissuing and remastering some great gems from the past. I am really going to miss this label as everything they issued was done with the utmost care.
I refuse to believe in it. I was eager to see Rubellan Remasters to reissue the Split Enz back catalogue. To put all the tracks on their right place and now this horrible news. If it's really true that someone in the band was against it, it did not surprise me because the Crowded House reissue (as 2CD set) a couple of years ago do not features any previously unreleased material, only demos of songs from the album itself. And there's material for such. Shame, shame, shame!!! It's unjustice Rubellan Remasters to close doors. I have some of the label's CDs and the Scott work is really terrfic !!!