PINE

Pine have released one EP, Speeding (2001) and two albums, Longplayer (2002) and Akira Sunrise (2004) and most recently the mini-album Twelve Hour Collision (2007) Pine will already be known to many New Zealanders through their first EP Speeding (2001) and debut album Longplayer (2002). These yielded the singles (and some videos) for ?Speeding', ?Make Way for the King', ?Beaten Again', ?Cried All Night' and ?Days on End', all of which received considerable airing on B-net and ChannelZ radio, as well as C4 and Juice TV.

Pine will already be known to many New Zealanders through their first EP Speeding (2001) and debut album Longplayer (2002). These yielded the singles (and some videos) for ?Speeding', ?Make Way for the King', ?Beaten Again', ?Cried All Night' and ?Days on End', all of which received considerable airing on B-net and ChannelZ radio, as well as C4 and Juice TV. Many favorable reviews were written on these releases and the band toured up and down the country ? sometimes in small bright orange 1970s ford escort. In the northern summer of 2003 Pine headed to London and New York to play five shows ? including Summerstage in Central Park and the infamous CBGBs.

Early on it was decided that album number two, Akira Sunrise , should continue down the path of DIY, home recording teko-soundfoolery. A perfect space in the middle of Christchurch city was soon located: polished floors, brick walls and a studio full of speaker bins ? including flashing lights and interesting dials. It all seemed too good to be true. And it was. Unbeknown to Pine the new studio shared space with a death metal band 2 doors down, a tone-deaf trumpet beginner next door and the 9 - 5ers of the city businesses below. This proved problematic. The low-decibel (but high-quality) Pine had to radically re-organise recording schedules. Much of the album was recorded between 6am and 9am as the city woke up...the biggest hurdle was the sound of street sweepers and the quality of the coffee.

Hoarding up on hefty smelling mixers and a flashy laptop, Akira Sunrise was recorded by Pine. This was an intensive process with each month causing a further delay, some fine-tuning and a new song or two. A summer album was always promised - it just ended up being one summer later than planned. The recording was interspersed with a number of journeys north to Platform Studios. Here the album was finally mixed and mastered by studio whizz Dale Cotton (HDU, Conray, Sleepers Union, Mestar and others)

?Akira Sunrise' retains much of the low-key chime and melodic charm of the bands previous releases, but there are also some new and additional sounds. These include a more fuzzed up hypnotic bass, loops, shimmering guitars and even a few songs longer than the previously favored two-minute pop snapshot.