Chris was always essentially a collaborator. He sensibly liked to work with others with the expertise he lacked. Finally, over time, step by step, he gained the know-how to be able to record a solo album that he could be happy with. Seizure was brisk and to the point, but it needed to be.
Despite Seacliffe Asylum's frightful history, the band were collectively conscious of the general good vibes around the recording, and you can hear that state of mind in the finished recording. Free All the Monsters is an album of great sounds performed and recorded in a relaxed and expert manner.
..."There was a considerably positive nationwide reception to this oddly formatted release by four bands barely known outside Dunedin. The 12” EP idea was still relatively new, but this double EP in a gatefold sleeve was absolutely novel. The music press soon got on board with positive reviews, and the talk was now about what was happening in Dunedin. The consensus was that it was something special"...
..."The sound is unmistakably This Kind of Punishment, with the Jefferies brothers at its core and Chris Matthews featuring prominently. The material is surprisingly diverse, using components and approaches from other projects. Perhaps this reflects the need to quickly prepare and record the material in the short week available to them. Chris Knox had lent his Teac 4-track with the stipulation that it was to be returned within the week. A requirement that could be interpreted as a challenge to a musical enterprise that was usually painstakingly detailed and time-consuming."...
While I have always had reservations about this release, I can see that I must learn to embrace it. Firstly as a part of the Flying Nun oeuvre that is personally unavoidably connected to me - as an almost forgotten quirky Christmas release in one remote corner of 40 years worth of Flying Nun’s more “conventional” releases. Secondly, whether anyone likes it or not, as a tiny particle of a much bigger and weirder genre - that of the Christmas record.
...Headless Chickens was a band that used a lot of technology and guitars...Conscious of what they were rejecting and knowingly embracing new music-making methods and sound, the band had created a watershed moment. The future had arrived....
...These three Alec Bathgate albums illustrate a distinct progression; from the tentative Gold Lamé to the assured, complex and accessible masterpiece The Indifferent Velvet Void and, finally, the quirky at ease collection of instruments, Phantom Dots....
The Gordons showed us that it was possible to do something completely different in 1980 by cutting out the cliched rock conventions, cranking up bold and modern musical ideas, and effectively using repetition and volume. They blew everyone and everything away. No one knew that loud was a thing before The Gordons.