Features / The Weekend Stream

As fans of New Zealand pop/rock heroes Split Enz continue to hope for additional, international deep-dive catalogue activity beyond last year’s release of the box set ENZyclopedia Volumes 1 & 2, a most unusual streaming surprise has popped up on digital storefronts that may provoke questions about those plans.

Within the last month, the band’s fourth album, 1979’s Frenzy, has appeared to stream and download on Apple Music and Amazon – its first appearance in U.S. storefronts in years, if ever. Frenzy marked an intriguing turning point for the group: after a band shake-up ahead of 1977’s Dizrythmia that saw original members Phil Judd and Mike Chunn depart and lead singer Tim Finn’s younger brother Neil join as a vocalist and guitarist, Frenzy – which was preceded by a madcap session in Luton, England that was later officially released decades later – found the group moving away from their previous art-rock style toward a more manic, raucous and melodic pop/rock. Notably, the album features the first writing and lead vocal credits for the young Neil Finn, whose turn on “Give It a Whirl” anticipated the direction the Enz (and Finn’s future band Crowded House) would take into the ’80s. The (no pun intended) Tim Finn-penned single “I See Red” was a minor hit in New Zealand and a Top 20 in Australia, and deep cuts like “Stuff and Nonsense” underlined the elder Finn’s elegiac, timeless style and pen.

Frenzy was the Enz’s first album not to be released by Chrysalis Records in territories outside the Antipodean nations, where Mushroom Records put out their works. Follow-up True Colours (1980), which yielded the group’s breakthrough “I Got You,” was their first to get a North American release through A&M Records, and after sixth album Waiata sold well enough on the continent in 1981, A&M extended a release option for Frenzy. But there was a twist: dissatisfied with the sound of the record, Enz keyboardist Eddie Rayner was allowed to remix the album for the U.S. and Canada. He in turn resequenced the album as well, dropping three tracks (“Famous People,” “The Roughest Toughest Game in the World,” “Abu Dhabi”) and adding six tracks from the Luton sessions (previously released B-sides “Semi-Detached,” “Carried Away,” “Holy Smoke” and “Livin’ It Up,” plus that session’s versions of “Hermit McDermitt” and “Mind Over Matter,” different to the ones on the original pressing). Subsequent Enz albums were common cut-out bin finds for the rest of the ’80s, with the band’s final, Tim-free album See Ya ‘Round (1984) not even released in the United States. When the group’s catalogue was remastered in 2006, Rayner took the opportunity to remix and resequence the album yet again, combining both track lists and adding the outtake “Horse to Water.”

The new digital edition of Frenzy is copyrighted by Mushroom, but notably features the 1981 remix available digitally for the first time anywhere. What makes the availability of this mix even more interesting is a somewhat controversial footnote that took place some time before the release of ENZyclopedia: third-party reissue label Rubellan Remasters applied to release the 1981 mix of Frenzy on CD in 2024, a release that was provisionally approved by Universal Music Group (who, as owners of the A&M catalogue, theoretically had access to Rayner’s revised tapes). However, with ENZyclopedia due out on Chrysalis the following year (and a tour of Australia and New Zealand planned for 2026, their first in two decades), the band stepped in and asked UMG to cancel the release. In what seemed like a fit of pique at the time, Rubellan founder Scott Davies in turn voluntarily drew down the entire label, to the consternation of fans of his work. What was not known at the time was Davies and UMG had already manufactured the discs and packaging, making his frustration much clearer, having paid for product that could in no way be utilized. A comparison of an obtained copy of that disc and the new digital product appear to be identical. (Besides the running order, a key tell of Frenzy‘s U.S. mix is the spoken dedication by Tim Finn to the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team before “Stuff and Nonsense.”)

What this portends for future Enz reissues – or if such projects are in development. is hard to parse. Chrysalis released ENZyclopedia Volumes 1 & 2 worldwide; a theoretical ENZyclopedia Volumes 3 & 4 would sit in between the band’s existing deals: Chrysalis worldwide for Dizrythmia, Mushroom (now owned by Warner Music Australia) and/or A&M for Frenzy. And it wouldn’t seem out of place for Rayner to have another go at mixing Frenzy or the accompanying Luton sessions. In the meantime, digital listeners can finally hear Frenzy with a few clicks – although not in the form they, or anyone else, may have expected.

This is a developing story. We have reached out to various labels and stakeholders for comment or clarification and will update as we know more. A big thank you to Bluesky user AkaoMiru for the tip on this!