Between late 1991 & late 1994 this iconoclastic trio (J-mz Robinson, Peter Wright & Richard Calder) subverted pop music mores with an unsurpassed wit & originality. Much more than a punk band with a drum machine, TMA-1's embracing of technology, accident & the home recording ethos led to the creation of an enthralling body of music which has influenced kRkRkRk ever since.
Indeed, kRkRkRk was the brainchild of J-mz & Peter - a pseudo-label under which they could organise & disseminate a growing pile of home recordings in a partly calculated, partly accidental parody of the workings of the real music industry. Self deprecating satire was an enduring feature of TMA-1. Always broke, always on the fringes of a local music scene with the usual quota of self-important, self-deluded musos trying to make it - in retrospect the trio can be viewed as an almost necessary undermining & subversion of that scene.
Politics, however, was never TMA-1's primary focus. Making music (or even just a fucking racket) was always the main aim of the group. To some degree (& like so many other kRkRkRk projects), their music functioned as a release valve against the pressures of living amidst the stifling conformity of a small, middle class city like Christchurch. Yet playing & recording music was also enormously satisfying for its own sake. TMA-1's DIY philosophy, their intuitive & spontaneous attitude towards creating music & their enthusiasm for the possibilities of technology (especially the malfunctioning kind) has remained with kRkRkRk to this day.
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