When Split Enz started their new archival series Enzyclopedia Volumes One and Two last year, there was a bit of a difference across formats. The 5CD box set included new remasters of debut Mental Notes and Second Thoughts, a new mix of the latter by longtime keyboardist Eddie Rayner, a tweaked version of early odds-and-ends compilation The Beginning of The Enz, and a new rarities set, Wide Angle Enz. The equivalent 3LP box, however, only had the remastered Mental Notes, the remixed Second Thoughts and the retooled Beginning. While fans await any news on another volume of Enzyclopedia, the band (soon…
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Split Enz, ‘Encyclopedia Volumes 1 & 2’
It’s kind of a minor miracle that Enzyclopedia Volumes 1 & 2 (Chrysalis CRC/CRV1899) – the first in what we hope is an ongoing reissue campaign for Antipodean rock icons Split Enz – exists at all. Their catalogue is probably a tough sell if you live outside of Australia or New Zealand (none of their discography is consistently available worldwide), and their best-known work, where they became a razor-sharp, New Wave-adjacent ensemble, doesn’t come until years after what’s covered in this collection (available as a 5CD or 3LP set). And that’s before you get…
The Enz is Near! Split Enz Announce Start of Archival Series
Some time after Crowded House frontman Neil Finn indicated potential work being done with the catalogue of Split Enz – the cult-hero pop band co-founded by his older brother Tim – fans finally have some development on that front, with the first in a planned series of archival sets covering the group’s early, avant-garde years. Enzyclopedia Volumes One and Two will focus on the group’s early years, coalescing around the material leading up to 1975 debut Mental Notes, which celebrates a half-century this year. The 5CD set will feature remasters of Mental Notes…
The Weekend Stream Extra: A Guide to ‘MTV Unplugged’ on Paramount+ (Part 1)
Welcome to a special Sunday feature of The Weekend Stream, which takes a look at one of MTV’s great live music programs thanks to a recent reissue of one of its best-known episodes. We’re kicking off a five-part deep-dive on every episode of MTV Unplugged that’s currently streaming on the station’s parent streaming network Paramount+! If the music video was the most significant concept MTV introduced back in 1981, the word “unplugged” might come in a close second. In 1989, as the cable station began slowly diversifying their blocks of video programming –…
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Give It a Whirl: Rubellan Plans CD Debut of Rare U.S. Pressing of Split Enz’s ‘Frenzy’
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…
Back Tracks: Split Enz
It’s always a good time when Neil Finn has something to say. The legendary New Zealand singer-songwriter has been making the rounds promoting Gravity Stairs, the newly released album from Crowded House – and in an hourlong chat with countryman Zane Lowe for Apple Music, he said some exciting things for fans of Finn’s first band Split Enz, which he was a part of with his older brother Tim. “There’s various things happening with Split Enz at the moment, which I’m really happy about,” he revealed. “We’ve finally found somebody that has got…
Suffer Never: Finn Brothers’ Debut Album Set for Expanded Vinyl Package (UPDATED 8/21/2023)
UPDATE (8/21/2022): More than a year after its release, fans’ patience has paid off with a CD version of this title available through Needle Mythology. Orders (including vinyl and t-shirt merch bundles) will be shipped with a free enamel badge of the album’s cover art and are expected to ship around October 20. ORIGINAL POST (6/1/2022): Two of the best-loved songwriters of the Antipodes are celebrating their brotherly partnership in a new deluxe vinyl package. Finn, the first album credited to the Finn Brothers, will debut on vinyl this summer as part…
Suffer Never: Finn Brothers’ Debut Album Set for Expanded Vinyl Package
Two of the best-loved songwriters of the Antipodes are celebrating their brotherly partnership in a new deluxe vinyl package. Finn, the first album credited to the Finn Brothers, will debut on vinyl this summer as part of a double LP that also includes Neil and Tim Finn’s extraordinary demos from 1989 – which birthed another classic album from the duo. At the time Finn was released in 1995, Tim was enjoying some of the biggest success of his solo career with 1993’s Before & After and the minor chart hit “Persuasion.” Neil,…
Split Enz’s ‘True Colours’ Shine Bright On New Reissue
The album that introduced most of the world to New Zealand pop band Split Enz, True Colours is getting a new mix and expanded reissue for its 40th anniversary. The album now features a brand-new mix of the record by Enz keyboardist Eddie Rayner, who’s often overseen the sonic quality of the band’s catalogue. “I have both the original stereo masters from the 1979 mixing sessions, and the versions currently held in repositories such as Spotify…and they are radically different, sonically,” Rayner said in a statement. “The original masters are mixed, but unmastered,…
