Loose Unit – Limited Edition Bootleg

Loose Unit
Limited Edition Bootleg
1996 (no label)
Auckland, New Zealand

Ricki – Guitars?, lead vocals?
Steve – Bass?, bgv’s?
Scott – Drums?, bgv’s?

1. Away
2. Porno King
3. Gurus (live)
4. Down on the Farm (live)

New Zealand’s Loose Unit seemed to have gotten some attention back in the day – I had heard of the tape before this one (1993’s You’ll Find It Under U) a long time ago. I’m working on that one next. But for some reason, little of their music has made it out there until now, except for a song from their last demo that made it on to HM magazine’s Pick of the Liter Volume 1 compilation. This tape has two new songs, and then live versions of two songs off of their two 1993 demos (there was also another in 1993 called Skots Room that I still don’t have). The sound here is a modern 90s heavy sound with some grunge, some groove, some humor, and some other styles occasionally thrown in here and there (like reggae on “Porno King”). I would overall call this groove metal, though. The cover only lists three members (their 1993 demo listed Shae as well) and doesn’t really say what they do, so I put their instruments from their last demo above as guesses. Also, it seems like there was a long time between 1993 and 1996, but I don’t know if there were other releases in that time or not.

Missing Information: Who played what?