IT CAME FROM THE ATTIC: THE B-sIDES [2012]

I can’t help but single out It Came From The Attic – The B-Sides, as the catalogue’s overlooked gem: a compilation of scrappy demos, experiments and live tracks released in a run of 25 CD-Rs, each housed in a numbered white sleeve and finished off with a red Attic stamp. I hand-carved the stamp myself. It would go on to be the door stamp for our gigs and it still sits on my desk today.

Every track on The B-Sides is a strange beast. Space Bats, Fat Children, George Driver and Trick Mammoth showed their working with punchy demos and outtakes. The space itself was centre-stage in a live-in-the-Attic recording by Brown (later renamed Ha, The Unclear), a late-night collaboration between Adrian and Lee, and an acoustic Astro Children track that Adrian recorded in the stairwell with a Singstar mic and a cardboard box. It was messy and disjointed; I don't think anyone was rushing to claim this was the ‘new Dunedin Sound’. But the playfulness and immediacy of the recordings represent best the energy of what I experienced during those years.