Gordonoise

Rip It Up, Issue 51, 1 October 1981, Page 6

Gordonoise

Jewel Sanyo

The Gordons are New Zealand's mavericks of maximum impact performance. They are intensely original and almost completely self-contained. They can make their own instruments, posters and build their own recording studio. They don't play often. In Christchurch they can draw audiences of 350 to their Gladstone Hotel gigs. Their songs are almost mesmeric, dense walls of closelyrelated, repeated musical phrases, with vehement vocals and some startling guitar playing, delivered with the amps turned up. Initial reaction is to stand on the spot and be blasted. Then to do it again the next time they play. This sort of thing leads to cult followings. Alister Gordon (guitar), Brent Gordon (drums) and John Gordon (bass, vocals and guitar), formed the band in Christchurch 18 months ago. They have played up and down the country, released one EP on their own label here and in Australia, and have made a film clip for Radio With Pictures. They have no aspirations to the New Zealand pubrock circuit. John: "We don't play a lot we don't like to. We want to perform as a special thing, rather than as work. We can play a lot better, not going through the motions every week. This is the first time we've had anything to do with promoters. At present we're doing four gigs in a row and it spoils the music; because we hype ourselves up to play. Two nights a week is enough. A Gordons' song has no commercial content, if we start playing it too much it will get commercial." The Gordons are determined not to compromise the strength

of their musical statement. Alister: "We aim for as much spontaneity as possible when we're playing, when a song becomes too much a mind thing you have to drop it. When we started off we knew we had something different, a new technique maybe." The Gordons are in Auckland to make an album. Response to the EP in Australia has been encouraging, they say. They sent over 300 promotional singles which have all been taken by radio stations and retail outlets. "Because we're not based in Sydney, we're not well up on the playlist. But the record's a year old now." They intend to record three records by Christmas. John: "We're going to do an album in the time it takes to do a demo tape." Alister: "And I think we're going to pull it off we did our single in seven hours. Unless you can do the song first take, you lose the quality. What we're recording is a live tape made in the studio." Brent: "We're swapping instruments on the album. I play some guitar, John the drums and Alister bass." The album will be released on their own label for distribution in New Zealand and Australia in the next two months. The Gordons don't sound like anything else and for sound reasons. Alister's bizarre slide effects are achieved with a piece of bone, a square of aluminium and a seven ounce glass. Anything else? "Sometimes I have used twelves." John: "We've all been making our own instruments, we've got seven or eight guitars. We don't use special effects pedals just guitars plugged straight into amplifiers." Brent has been building a drumkit, making shells out of brass and aluminium. "I'm just looking for a distinctive sound. I've never seen shells made of those metals." These three guys know what they're doing. They're serious, unassuming and dedicated. The Health Department bulldozed their recording studio down in Christchurch because the sound was 10 decibels over the limit. The Gordons aren't depressed, they just keep on plugging in.