Bailter Space Alterations

Rip It Up, Issue 144, 1 July 1989, Page 6

Bailter Space Alterations

Bailter Space are back with avengeance and anew drummer, according to Alister Parker. Who is it gonna be throwing sticks from behind the kit in the new Bailter Space? Read on ... ,

' Isay, your new drummer’s Brent MacLaughlin, right? and Alister wants tosay, Is he?

overlaid with cryptic mantras — love songs about industrial machinery and the elliptical passing of time. Nelshis the sound of a pop band letloose in a munitions factory; Tanker is the way that Alister

I know he used to be in the Gordons with Alister and Bailter

Space bass player John Halvorsen, but Alister wants to say, Is that who he is? I thought he looked kinda

imagined Bailter Space should sound onrecord. He says, Some people say that Tankeris more easy listening than Nelsh, but y’know I always

familiar; I'll have to take a closer look athim next time we practice. Bailter Space began their working life under the even more elusively amorphous moniker Nelsh Bailter Space three years ago. So far they’ve released a colourful EP Nelsh Bailter Spaceat the end of 1987, and last year a full-length album called Tanker that mixes stuff like my favourite two rock bands ever, Pere Übu and Wire, down into a melange of reverb-laden bashes and scrapings

wanted to mix Nelsh more brutally. I often think of re-doing those songs or even re-mixing the record. The progression to Tankerhad something else though; it’s really layered —not in terms of recording instruments over one another, but layers of texture. New Age electro shock therapy. The creative core of the first Bailter Space line-up had been

Parker and ex-Clean drummer

Hamish Kilgour. After bassist Ross Humpbhries and keyboard player

Glenda Bills left the band, and prior to the recording of Tanker, Alister’s old Gordons buddy John Halvorsen joined up to give the band room to explore more sonic terrain.

Alister says, Creatively speaking I really enjoyed working with Hamish and then when John joined we could do things I wanted to do but hadn’t beenableto.” Hamish left the band to resume life with the Clean in Dunedin: Now, following that band’s world tour, he has remained overseas and doesn’t plan to return until later in the year. Brent MacLaughlin joined the band and, talk of a full Gordons

reformation aside, Bailter Space are keying themselves up for a bright future. They tour NZ this month and plans are being laid for anew LP, an Australian tour in November and a trip to Germany early next year. The Gordons are huge in Germany, Doug Hood once told me. ;

Playing with Brent againis a positive thing, says Alister. Rehearsals have been exciting —we have some new songs and have revamped some Bailter Space material as well. We plan to carry on where Bailter Space left off; it’s similar but it’s different. Brent’s not justa drummer, and neither was Hamish, so we are working well together as an artistic combination. That’s how we work — our understanding of what we play has never been totally analyticalor logical. We don’t tend to intellectualise too much. : - Live, no doubt, Bailter Space will be loudbut, talking about experiencing the experience, Alister says, Personaily I think that people should attempt to find out whatour songs are about. They definitely mean something. You've got to get into that state where you're feeling something a bit deeper than just on an intellectual level. You can do this in your own

home. He leaves me with instructions: live is the ultimate Bailter Space; listening to the stereo, you must use high volume to achieve something close to the intensity of performance, but you can it down on your sofa and fall into Bailter Space. You could dance around your lounge if you wanted. He says: It feels really good to be playing together (it's not a cliche). After the long silence ... this time we plan to follow it through with a bit of vigour. '

PAUL McKESSAR