Customer Reviews

The Pin Group

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The Pin Group are, of course, most famous for releasing the first ever 7" on Flying Nun records, the nigh on impossible to find Ambivalence/Colombia.

Pin Group are considerably darker than those more famous Nun pioneers The Clean. Rather Joy Division-esque, with strong, leading bass.

Roy Montgomery handles the guitar and (Curtis-esque) vocals.

Anyway, this CD compiles the first 2 7"'s Ambivalence/Colombia and (my favourite,) Coat/Jim along with the later Go to Town 12" EP and the early 1990's Siltbreeze released Coat 7".

Well worth owning if you have an interest in the darker side of NZ music.

Yes it's minimalist, obscure, Velvety and what we now call lo-fi but the music is quite stunning in places thanks to Roy Montgomery's spooky deadpan vocals. I agree with the other reviewers in praising "Columbia" and the single version of "Ambivalence" but for me the stand-out track is "A Thousand Sins" which has been one of my favorite pieces of music for more than 25 years. It's the story of a young person who unwisely takes one pill too many and takes a bus trip to the middle of nowhere, paralleling what's happening in his head. The first time I heard it I went cold and it still gives me chills like nothing else. "...a small flash of light / in what for miles had been darkness / pulled his gaze to the window / and his whole body jumped / What he saw was..." - well you check it out (shivers).

I think I remember seeing them at the old Sydenham Fire Station, also maybe supporting John Cooper Clarke at some pub somewhere? Could be wrong about that. Definitely early 80s though. Evocative of that era.

This is a fine collection of challenging, foreboding work by the seminal New Zealand art-noise band, The Pin Group. The band featured guitarist Roy Montgomery, who went on to do some really fabulous space-rock and difficult music... Here are his early recordings, which presaged some of the darker kiwi rock of the 1980s and '90s. If you're into the stuff on Xpressway, etc., you'll want to check this album out. (Joe Sixpack, Slipcue Music Guide)