builders: beatin hearts

Bill Direen is a legend of the New Zealand underground. He has written and produced poetry, novels and a slew of recorded material. Weaned on garage bands in the late '60s, Direen started producing seven-inch records in the early '80s, all of them stunners. These releases - Six Impossible Things, Die Bilder, Soloman's Ball and High Thirties Piano - were self-financed and distributed though Flying Nun (and recently reissued by the benevolent Unwucht label). Beatin Hearts is Direen's ultimate, unforgettable debut album, not to mention Flying Nun's first full-length album release. All seventeen tracks are brilliant short pieces of energy, harmony and spite. Anyone with an appreciation for Flying Nun's early recordings can find its genesis here, the dawning of one of the greatest music scenes to ever exist.