This is the debut solo album of multi instrumentalist, sound sculptor, and producer Michael Canning released in the UK in 1998. Canning hails from New Zealand although this record was released after he relocated to the UK in the mid 1990's. It is an intriguing and eclectic 10 track record which is more like a journey in sounds, textures and moods than a simple collection of songs.

It is undoubtedly a complex and intense listen and demands the listeners attention from the very beginning with its melange of radio-friendly songs melding into distinctly radio-unfriendly sound collages. The album features a collective of special guests and different drummers including long time collaborator Richard Barr and Red Lorry Yellow Lorry drummer Mark Chillington. Chronologically it spans recordings with from 4 track sessions in central Auckland in 1990 to larger studios in Sheffield in 1998.

It takes off with the sound of a train leading into "Poolside" - a frenetic percussion laden song ending with a Pebbles like garage guitar frenzy with the last track a hidden one consisting solely of what sounds like the inside of a church being dismantled with a heavy implement. One can certainly hear at times the echoes and devices of other music from New Zealand within the more song oriented pieces such as "In the Galley", "Cigars of the Pharoah" by bands like Bailter Space, Straitjacket Fits and indeed the metal audio sculptures of Len Lye. Although a wry sense of humour is employed on "Keith Richards trip to Invercargill" which is a melodic yet slightly bent singalong to the Rolling Stones legendary experiences in New Zealand in 1966 that reminds you of Beck - or perhaps even late 60's Bowie.

Canning's connection with the New Zealand avant garde scene of the early 90's is clear and such tracks as "Littoral" and "Mawhera" (which utilises the calls of near extinct native NZ birds like the kiwi) rank among the best that emerged from that wave of artists like Marcel Bear, Michael Morley, and others associated with labels like Corpus Hermeticum. A comparison to Chrome or the feel of some Thinking Fellars Union Local 282 work seems apt in parts, as well as a connection to free jazz - as is illustrated in "Cigars" with the trombone of Hilary Jeffrey.

While the lyrics, a mixture of singing and spoken word, remain somewhat opaque overall, it is clear that the entire album is a substantial and acid critique on post modernism, moral relativism and the saddening and ugly increasing decline of the worlds ecology at human hands. Despite its dark introspective feel it certainly has its up moments - like any good trip - with one being the trance like outro from a Sufi ceremony recorded in Turkey. One of the lines in "Steel Beast" summates it well in that this is a record of "poetry in acquisition" made by a skilled composer and sound editor who clearly understands harmonics and ghost frequencies. All contributing to make this an album with parts to slip into the mix of your favourite deep house - if you dare. A soulful and unique record with a pedigree but as one UK reviewer said in 1999, this kiwi ain't no sheep!

This album is the debut release of Michigan's now famous Stooges - although at the time they were quite vilified for their minimalist and droning approach. The actual sound engineering on this record has often been overlooked and it represents quite an exquisite capturing of an experimental and chaos driven guitar band of 1969. John Cale, who produced the album, adds a tasty Velvets flavoured Viola across "We Will Fall" which is a slow mystic chant over a quiet wah guitar lines. An odd piece, more than likely filler to make up the Stooges lack of actual songs at the time, it nonetheless fits stylistically with the rest of the album and still holds a charm of its own viewed almost 40 years on. The late Ron Asheton's guitar playing across the rest of the album is crisp and tasty three chord powerage with scuffling and squalling lead lines that hint strongly at his finer playing that would emerge on album two, 1970's 'Funhouse'. Asheton throughout maintains locked in with his with brother Scott on rolling and clattering drums, bassist Dave Alexanders rubbery and succinct bass lines, and the monotonal delivery of vocalist Iggy Pop. Pop's own recollection of the creation of classic "No Fun" recounts that it was based on Johnny Cash's "I walk the line" with a similar meter - and with a stipulated 25 words per song makes it the archetypal blueprint for the later punk explosion which occurred across the world in the mid 70's. Some of the tunes are certainly stronger than others but the stand out tunes of "1969", "Real Cool Time", and "Little Doll" make this an album to return to again and again.