MORE THAN WALLPAPER

Rip It Up, Issue 224, 1 April 1996, Page 10

MORE THAN WALLPAPER

There’s nothing quite like a strong cup of coffee first thing in the morning. And if you’re indulging in the company of Pagan Records CEO Trevor Reekie, a man so laidback as to be almost horizontal, the experience is doubly relaxing. It’s also a case of deja vu, for it’s almost a year to the day since Reekie first talked to RipltUp about his fledgling “psycho-ambient” project, Cosa Nostra, and their debut CD release. This Thing of Ours, a collaboration between Reekie and whizz producer Daniel Barnes, delivered a pleasing mixed bag of industrial-techno, ambient grooves, and dancehall/dub. Released on Pagan off-shoot, Antenna, the EP garnered widespread interest within New Zealand, and from as far afield as the USA and Europe — thanks to the title track’s inclusion on the Serenity Dub 2.IPM compilation, released by German label Incoming. Twelve months on, Reekie has dropped the ‘Nostra’ from the band name, and the forthcoming record, The Map of Love, sees him pulling more of the workload on to his own plate. What has remained the same is Reekie’s come-what-may attitude towards time spent in the studio. This Thing of Ours was spawned from experimenting, and The Map of Love evolved in a similar fashion. “We really just extended that original idea, which was to go into the studio with as little preproduction as possible, and treat it as a warts ’n’ all performance. It’s kind of indulgent, as it’s really just a bunch of jams, but that’s what’s good about it because you don’t hear that sort of shit much. Everything’s so technically worked out these days, so it’s really neat to be able to go in the studio and know that things might work and might not.” Sticking with this approach produced an even more satisfying record second time out, says Reekie. On This Thing of Ours he continually got sidetracked in wanting to go off on different tangents, whereas The Map of Love is an increasingly unified work, with Reekie concentrating on Cosa’s atmospheric ambient side. Equally, an emphasis on live instrumentation instead of programmed loops gives the EP a considerably more mellow vibe. As each track began to take structure, Reekie would recruit other musicians — including Greg Johnson and Eye TV’s Luke Casey — to flesh out the sound, and as he notes: “In a funny kind of way it all works.” In May, Incoming will release The Map of Love in Europe and the United Kingdom, with that edition being a compilation of songs from both EPs. As yet Reekie hasn’t secured distribution deals to

cover the US, Australia and Asia, but says he is content with the positive feedback from radio DJs and the media in those areas. Time is on Cosa’s side. “The way I’m trying to make Cosa succeed is probably more subtle than most. Cosa is not a hypey-hypey push project, it’s something that seeps in, because in reality, what are you pushing? You’re pushing a bunch of instrumentals, some people like them and some people think it’s a major yawn — most people won’t even hear it. Having the overseas release has been a real big confidence boost, and though it’s not going to sell a million copies, at the same time it’s going to get a lot of attention just because it’s out there.” Already work has begun on the third Cosa record, with Reekie promising the same informal style of creation, ramming the point home with the kind of thinking that only makes sense when you’re ‘stoned as a rat’. “What’s going to happen next is a combination of more structure coming in and more structure being deliberately left out at the same time, to try and keep that jam appeal on the record, but at the same time acknowledging that you just can’t keep on releasing a bunch of jams.” One thing that is guaranteed, Cosa will remain a studio project. We’re not about to see Reekie and gang on MTV Live Unplugged. “I could put a band together no problem, but would you really want to go to a gig and see something like that? It would be fun to play, but it’s probably more fun to play it in the studio than to an audience. If I thought I was boring people with it, I’d feel really uncomfortable, but with it being on CD, people have the choice of listening to it or not — it makes fuckin’ great wallpaper, I have no hesitation in saying that.” .

JOHN RUSSELL