Tasmans Able...

Rip It Up, Issue 103, 1 February 1986, Page 2

Tasmans Able...

The Able Tasmans have sort of growed and growed. Not just materially — from a basskeyboards two-piece, to a three-piece and now four —

but musically. They've made the leap from being regarded as a manic novelty dance band with a manic novelty keyboard player

to something more substantial, and the debut EP The Tired Sun shows still more depth and variety in new songs and the treatment of live faves.

The manic keyboard player is Graeme Humphreys, a shortish, hyperactive chap with an affection for quantum theory and Carl Sagan. “Doing the EP last April was a turning point,” he says. “It was the start of a lot of different songs coming in.’ The recording saw the inviting in of Peter Kean, who now sings and plays a bit of guitar on a permanent basis with Humphreys, bass player Dave Benniston and drummer Stuart Greenway (replacement for original member Craig Baxter, who has departed for Australia in search of work as a professional animator). Kean and Humphreys met when the former was part of Raucous Laughter, one of those lineups which must be born, grow up and die all the time in the wilds of suburban Auckland. Somewhat“ahead of their time’, RL really only ever got it together to record a rather good demo tape at Harlequin. The Able

Tasmans play two songs from the tape (and want to release the original recording of one, ‘Michael’s, as a single flip to their own ‘Buffalos’) and Humphreys and Kean are now writing together. Other developments include Humphreys stepping back from the 'boards to play guitar sometimes, and an alter ego for the Tasmans, the Ogdens. The Ogdens indulge pre-pubescent musical imprinting with respectful covers of stuff like Michael Nesmith's Joanne' and Kenny Rogers’ ‘Ruby’. Right up your street, if you can stan’ it ...

Until now the Able Tasmans haven't ventured south of Wellington, but a hiking holiday has left Humphreys full of enthusiasm for ventures across the Strait, probably in mid-March. They should go down a storm, because with all the musical developments, the basic infectiousness hasn't left the band — they've managed to keep the good bits whilst adding new ones. And last words from the man who loves both his own cat Nelson and Schroedinger’s feling? “A little Greenhouse Effect is a good thing ...

Russell Brown