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FROM SCRATCH Pacific Plate http://www.fromscratch.auckland.ac.nz FROM SCRATCH is an Auckland based N.Z group with an international reputation for innovation, and an energetic and compelling style of music/sound performance. The group has worked in the Auckland area since the mid 1970s, gaining its reputation firstly as a four person group, and later, during the early 1980s, as a trio. From the mid-nineties the group has many new instruments, and new members with founder Phil Dadson being joined by Shane Currey, Adrian Croucher and Darryn Harkness. The title of From Scratch's new tribute to our country's seismic underbelly is a nudgy pun (Pacific Plate), but outrageously apt when Shane Currey finally dashes around, spinning a series of whirring dinner plates on the floor. Global Hockets, Philip Dadson's 1998 multimedia collaboration with German computer whizzes Supreme Particles, would have been a hard act to follow And this time round, the man who launched his percussive career with primal drumming ceremonies in Mt Eden's crater has played down the high tech. Dadson opens Pacific Plate clicking stones, not as an accompaniment to the wry monologues that he was spinning a few years back, but to his own throatsinging. There are echoes of past From Scratch projects, but Pacific Plate offers new and intriguing sounds. Although some of the exotic "instruments" are a little distracting visually - Adrian Croucher clambering around with two water-cooler drums on has legs - others, such as the Rodbaschet, a glass-threaded rod coaxing sonics from a metal sheet, seem like a sculptural nod to Len Lye. Dadson's fanciful inventions also pay tribute to international gurus such as Tom Nunni and Bernard and Francois Baschet, along with the great Harry Partch, all brought together in a work that even conscripts a kitchen sink. Click on album image to see larger album cover
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