This Kind Of Punishment

This Kind Of Punishment

In The Same Room

Superior Viaduct

With This Kind Of Punishment, Graeme Jefferies and Peter Jefferies produced some of most adept DIY sounds to emerge from New Zealand’s 1980s post-punk scene. After their phenomenal self-titled debut and classic A Beard Of Bees, the brothers would make one last album together, In The Same Room. Originally released in 1987 on Flying Nun, In The Same Room is perhaps the straightest rock offering in TKP’s esteemed catalogue. Opening track “Immigration Song” expertly pairs jagged guitars with wrathful vocals—resulting in one of the most celebrated moments in their recording career—while “Don’t Go” puts the full breadth of the Jefferies brothers’ method on display: spiraling riffs, somber baritone and chamber-like calm give way to frenzied rhythms and antagonistic lyrics. From deeply insular songwriting to hands-on production, This Kind Of Punishment draw the listener in close—nearly within the same room as the players—and remain rooted in a distinct approach to presentation that is inseparable from their music.

This Kind Of Punishment

A Beard Of Bees

Superior Viaduct

In the fertile terrain of New Zealand’s 1980s post-punk scene, few figures loom as large as the Jefferies brothers. Graeme Jefferies and Peter Jefferies—the primary forces behind This Kind Of Punishment—wrote some of the best music to come out on Flying Nun, Xpressway or elsewhere. A dizzying mix of pastoral ballads and DIY experimentation, TKP’s songwriting was at once classic and acutely raw. Among This Kind Of Punishment’s myriad recordings, A Beard Of Bees best outlines the collective vision of the Jefferies brothers. Their classic second album feels more meticulous than its predecessor, proffering a grey, near-Mancunian influence that serves as both touchstone and springboard for the proceedings. The unique maneuvering on “Trepidation” is a marvel: guitar sweetness shifting toward melancholic piano and ending with their combined shimmer. Conversely, the augmented VU-inspired noise of “East Meets West” positions itself as the album’s prime moment of severity, creepily building toward horror-show screams that inch to a buried, found-sound resolution. Originally self-released in 1984, A Beard Of Bees has been out of print for almost 25 years.

This Kind Of Punishment

S/t

Superior Viaduct

In the fertile terrain of New Zealand’s 1980s post-punk scene, few figures loom as large as the Jefferies brothers. Graeme Jefferies and Peter Jefferies—the primary forces behind This Kind Of Punishment—wrote some of the best music to come out on Flying Nun, Xpressway or elsewhere. A dizzying mix of pastoral ballads and DIY experimentation, TKP’s songwriting was at once classic and acutely raw. On their self-titled debut, the Jefferies brothers and Chris Matthews eschew the punk-informed modes of their contemporaries for a sound that is decidedly more deliberate / intimate. Rooted in a marriage between simplistic, classically-influenced piano, alternating guitar chime and sparse, subtle violin drone, This Kind Of Punishment is a contemplative, inventive collection of ideas corralled via economic 4-track recordings, minimal instrumentation and an austere performance style entirely of the Jefferies’ own making. Songs like “After The Fact,” “In View Of The Circumstances” and “Two Minutes Drowning” boast a living quality whereby the listener can act as bystander to these moments of creation—a trait that the band would expand upon throughout the course of their brief tenure.  First-time vinyl reissue since its initial release in 1983.

This Kind Of Punishment

Radio Silence

Superior Viaduct

Recorded in Auckland in 1984, these archival tracks capture seminal New Zealand band This Kind Of Punishment’s unique alchemy of poignant melody and four-track claustrophobia. The previously unreleased “Radio Silence” offers an astringent, phantasmagoric comment on—and perhaps retreat from—the contemporaneous NZ scene. “Reaching An End” (from legendary compilation Killing Capitalism With Kindness) is a classic in the mold later perfected on Peter Jefferies’ solo output: unadorned piano blanketed by rich, wistful vocals, plucked strings and muffled drum beat. Less, after all, can be so much more. Cover photography by Chris Knox. Translucent orange vinyl pressed in limited edition of 1,000 copies.