Failsafe Records is a

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the prod ...

that was founded in

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast As ...

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

. It started a long line of releases, including a chain of compilations that featured many artists (notably JPSE, Double Happys,

Nocturnal Projections Nocturnal Projections were a post-punk band from Stratford, near New Plymouth, New Zealand that began recording in 1981 and split up in 1983. Often compared to British bands, especially Joy Division, with whom they shared a moody, bass-driv ...

and

Loves Ugly Children Loves Ugly Children were a New Zealand indie rock band on Flying Nun Records, amongst other labels, during the 1990s. They released two albums, many EPs, singles and videos and toured extensively through their home country of New Zealand, as w ...

) who later appeared on

Flying Nun Records Flying Nun Records is a New Zealand independent record label formed in Christchurch in 1981 by music store manager Roger Shepherd. Described by ''The Guardian'' as "one of the world's great independent labels", Flying Nun is notable for bringing ...

, major labels, or other larger

indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found in and around t ...

History

The label has recently released a string of 'collected works' discs in its Retrogenic Series, for artists such as

Jay Clarkson A jay is a member of a number of species of medium-sized, usually colorful and noisy, passerine birds in the Crow family, Corvidae. The evolutionary relationships between the jays and the magpies are rather complex. For example, the Eurasian m ...

and Breathing Cage,

Pop Mechanix Pop Mechanix is a New Zealand-based pop music band that played in New Zealand and Australia from 1979 to 1988. Their single "Jumping out a Window" reached number 87 of the all-time top 100 singles for APRA NZ, and number 12 in the all-time top 50 ...

, Beat Rhythm Fashion, Children's Hour, Eight Living Legs,

Dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (t ...

and YFC. Failsafe maintains a website which contains a large music history section on the local and New Zealand wide music scene, mostly centred on the early 1980s bands and where they went to. The label had a big upsurge in the early 1990s with the release of its

Avalanche Compilation An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a slope, such as a hill or mountain. Avalanches can be set off spontaneously, by such factors as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, animals, and earth ...

featuring

alongside Pumpkinhead, 147Swordfish (featuring two members of

Salmonella Dub Salmonella Dub is a dub/drum n bass/reggae/roots band from New Zealand. The band was formed in 1992 by Andrew Penman, Dave Deakins, and Mark Tyler. The band has toured extensively throughout New Zealand, Australia, and Europe, including the UK a ...

and David Wernhan who went on to sculpt live sounds for

Shihad Shihad are a rock band formed in Wellington, New Zealand in 1988. The band consists of founders Tom Larkin (drums, backing vocals, samplers), Phil Knight (lead guitar, synthesiser, backing vocals) and Jon Toogood (lead vocals, rhythm guita ...

and S Dub), Lurch and Supertanker. The label also released work by Christchurch moody pop band Throw, Malchicks and Squirm, and its genre encompassed indie guitar disc Good Things. In 1995, the label went into hibernation before resurfacing in 2001 with releases from

Degrees K Degree may refer to: As a unit of measurement * Degree (angle), a unit of angle measurement ** Degree of geographical latitude ** Degree of geographical longitude * Degree symbol (°), a notation used in science, engineering, and mathematics ...

, Substandard, Eskimo (now Kimo) and Hooster before launching in 2005 its Retrogenic Series of retrospective releases focusing on key overlooked bands from the past 25 years. Wave 2 of the Retrogenic Series is scheduled for 2008. The label continues to work as a completely independent label and distributor.

Retrogenic Series

The Retrogenic Series is a group of CD releases from the Failsafe Records. The initial imprint started in 2005 as part of Failsafe's 30 albums in 30 days project, an attempt to release one album a day for the month of May 2005, and attempt to clear the Failsafe Records archives of collected works at that time unavailable to the greater public. This mostly consisted of music from important New Zealand post punk and alternative bands from the early 1980s to the 1990s such as

Children's Hour ''Children's Hour'', initially ''The Children's Hour'', was the BBC's principal recreational service for children (as distinct from "Broadcasts to Schools") which began during the period when radio was the only medium of broadcasting. ''Childr ...

, Eight Living Legs, YFC, Evasive Action, Southern Front, Newtones, Andriodss, Beat Rhythm Fashion,

and Breathing Cage. Many of these bands had sporadic recording works that were often left unreleased and unavailable to the public due to the lack of record labels willing to put money into financing local releases in New Zealand at the time, and the prohibitive cost to bands of undertaking pressings themselves. The Retrogenic Series aims to collect, restore and master as much material as can be found by various important and under represented artists from the acknowledged well spring of innovation that happened in the 1977-late 1980s period that spawned the

Propeller Records Propeller Records was an independent record label formed in Auckland, New Zealand, by Simon Grigg in 1980. 1980-81 In the years prior to 1980 the New Zealand contemporary Sound recording and reproduction, recording industry was largely moribund. ...

and

Ripper Records Ripper or The Ripper may refer to: People * Ripper (surname) * Paul Burchill, ring name "The Ripper", a professional wrestler based on Jack the Ripper * Kirk Hammett, nicknamed "The Ripper", the lead guitarist in the heavy metal band Metalli ...

labels, along with Failsafe which started in 1983. After the first wave of releases in 2005 the label continues to add new releases to the series as time and newly surfaced material allows. The project has continued and has taken 'requests' from music fans for artists they felt appropriate to the series.

References

External links

Failsafe Records Website

Failsafe Records demonstration tapes
at the

Alexander Turnbull Library The National Library of New Zealand ( mi, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa) is New Zealand's legal deposit library charged with the obligation to "enrich the cultural and economic life of New Zealand and its interchanges with other nations" (''Nat ...

{{Authority control New Zealand record labels Record labels established in 1984 Indie rock record labels

History

Retrogenic Series

See also

References

External links