Oldish Psych and Prog

New Zealand's Split Enz began their recording career in pleasantly uncommercial fashion, writing gently eccentric tunes that echoed the softer side of Foxtrot-era Genesis. A compilation of demos, Mushroom's The Beginning of the Enz chronicles those earliest days and finds Tim Finn's bittersweet singing style starting to work its magic.
For Mental Notes--their first proper album--the Enz took shape as a sprawling seven-piece, including spoons player Noel Crombie. They had grown overtly weird and flamboyant, with many tunes resembling little, distorted symphonies. The effects don't always work, simply because flakiness carried past a certain point can't be taken seriously on any level. The Genesis parallel holds here as well.

By the time Roxy Music's Phil Manzanera produced the second Mental Notes, the Enz were ready for the world beyond. Bizarre carnival costumes and distorted upsweep hairdos served as colorful attention-grabbers. Tim Finn's wistful voice adds a sweet patina to disoriented and lyrically offbeat outings like "Stranger Than Fiction" and the morbid "The Woman Who Loves You."

Dizrythmia made a distinct lurch towards the mainstream, thanks primarily to the departure of co-leader/guitarist Phil Judd, replaced by Tim's brother Neil. With Tim in full command, the melodically intricate material went from coldly quirky to genuinely appealing, even cute. Highlights: the dizzy "Bold as Brass" and "Crosswords," at once bristling and ornate.

The second LP to be called Beginning of the Enz is a distillation of tracks from Chrysalis' Mental Notes and Dizrythmia.

Financial woes subsequently forced the band to work on a diminished budget. With Neil Finn contributing songs and vocals as well as guitar, the Enz cut Frenzy, poppier still and less elusive than before. It's hampered by cheap sound, but "I See Red" spins a delightfully tuneful whirlwind, and "Mind Over Matter" re-creates the warmly majestic quality of the best of Dizrythmia. The US/UK version of the LP differs from Mushroom's by half.