TERMINALS “DO THE VOID/DEADLY TANGO” 45

This 1990 single from New Zealand’s TERMINALS did more to excite me about the fount of wild, noisy, experimental rock bands around those parts at the time than any record save for THE DEAD C’s “Helen Said This” 12. Taken together, those two records stand as the exemplary pillars of the rock music the islands were putting out at the time. After a 1980s known primarily for immense contributions to their own special brand of skittering, Velvet Underground-inspried “pop” music, New Zealand bands, particularly those associated with the Xpressway label, took a more droning, darker turn. The TERMINALS’ debut 45, “Do The Void/Deadly Tango”, was just such a record. Low-fidelity feedback is scattered throughout the record, and a gentle hum of noise pervades both songs. “Deadly Tango” has a very 70s glam sheen to it, with trilling vocals that specifically recall Roxy Music (later on the band paid much more direct homage with a cover of that band’s “Both Ends Burning”). It’s “Do The Void” that still blows me away to this day. It’s an angry, swirling pool of bass-heavy grind, which explodes into feedback on multiple occasions. The band went on to produce a fine body of work in the years afterward, and they deserve their due as an innovator and an ahead-of-their-time leader taking rock music to new places at the dawn of the 90s.

Play or Download THE TERMINALS – “Do The Void” (A-side)
Play or Download THE TERMINALS – “Deadly Tango” (B-side)