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Daisy Chain Halo

Hamilton rockers (who describe themselves as having a heavy acoustic sound) Daisy Chain Halo are a trio comprised of ex-Wellington group Porch members Carl Watkins and Corrina Watts, along with a succession of drummers, eventually settling on Hamilton-native Luke Hale in mid-2002.

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Don’t Make Noise

Christchurch free-noise group featuring future Breathing Cage bandmates Greg Malcolm and Michael Kime, plus Into the Void’s Paul Sutherland and the drums of John Kennedy.

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The Dialtones - Better Late

The Dialtones

Long-running country-folk flavoured rock band from Christchurch featuring singer-songwriter Fleur Walden (aka Fleur de Lis). After forming in 1997 it took until 2004 for their debut album was released – a strong selection of songs that date right back to the bands formation.

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Dribbling Darts

Dribbling Darts was Matthew Bainnsters post-Sneaky Feelings song-writing vehicle from 1989-1993. Known for their catchy singlecand silly video ‘Hey Judith’.

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Double Happys

Double Happys brought together former Bored Games bandmates Shayne Carter and Wayne Else – originally with an unreliable drum-machine (named ‘Herbie Fuckface’), but eventually replaced with their High School friend John Collie. A wonderful, sometimes confrontational group who came to a tragic conclusion with the accidental death of Wayne Elsie in June 1985.

The Dance Asthmatics

Christchurch-based 4-piece mixing up a bit of Dunedin-jangle, punk vocal attitude and Krautrock or post-punk groovy rhythms. A superb band of musically gifted individuals producing catchy and at times challenging music.

Fronted by Stephen Nouwens with the very handy Brian Feary on the drums, Joe Sampson on guitar and Ben Odering on bass. Feary and Sampson created the Melted Ice Cream label to release the bands recordings, and subsequently the label has become a big part of Christchurch’s underground music community.

Doctors

Doctors was a slick and prolific band formed by Christchurch musician Rhett Copland who put out a whole heap of releases between 2009 and 2012, however Copland has now disappeared from the web, deleting all the previously available releases.

Fleur De Lis

Front-Woman for long-running Christchurch group The Dialtones. De Lis put out a very rare lathe cut 10″ EP on the late-great Mikey Hex’s Noseflute label in 1997; but it’s impossibly hard to come by these days (it wasn’t even listed on Discogs).

Half of the songs released here resurfaced on The Dialtones album, though with full band backing.

Fleur has also been a fixture in the Christchurch music scene since the 1990’s and has contributed guitar to Coal’s live performances, plus several other local groups. De Lis (who’s real last name is Walden) is the daughter of 1950’s/60’s vocalist Paul Walden.

Dillinger’s Brain

Christchurch trio fronted by The Puddle’s Norman Dufty. Urgent, shuffling indie-rock, with warbly vocals (part Morrissey, part Stephen Cogle) and the occasional clarinet (from Dave Woods) sneaking through.

Onset/Offset Records founder Campbell McLay (bass) and Donna Lawson (drums) complete the trio; who released an LP split with Lawson’s other group Junkanoo in 1986, then followed it up with a couple cassettes in 1987.

Thanks to German label Unwucht re-issuing a heap of old Onset/Offset releases their appearance on the Krypton Ten compilation is now (slightly) more accessible.

Drowning Is Easy

Short-lived Christchurch punky group from 1981/2, made up of a bunch of English Immigrants still not quite old enough to drink in pubs. The would form a vital cog in the story of Scorched Earth Policy and te Terminals.

The Digits

The Digits were a Wellington proggy post-punk outfit that evolved out of the earlier group Smashed Executive.

Featured on the ‘Wellingtonzone’ compilation – a not quite as successful follow-up to the acclaimed ‘****’ release from the previous year.

Dark Tower

Popular Hip-hop duo coming out of Opawa, Christchurch.

Jody ‘The Earl’ Lloyd and Eli ‘The Eel’ Foley started performing together while still in high school, and with the help of brilliant debut video, the duo became something of a cult of personality with the ethos of the single ‘Zeal Man’.

Dawn of Azazel

Auckland black metal group lead by bassist/vocalist Rigel Walshe. From 1997 till 2017 the group went through several line-ups and produced a number of well-received, polish albums; touring across the world.

Datura

Totally under-the-radar stoner rock band that formed in 1992 in Hamilton.

They were a trio comprised of Craig Williamson (bass and vocals – now performing in a solo capacity as Lamp of the Universe), Brent Middlemiss (guitar) and Jon Burnside (drums), and that they released 2 albums of drawn-out stoner-psych jams on the unknown Cranium label, and actually reissued on U.S. label Brainticket.

Desperate Measures

Desperate Measures were Christchurch’s answer to pop punk, a couple of years after the whole Sex Pistol thing, but they were fun and had a few good songs for all the punk posturing. They had a reasonably heavy following, or it seemed so at the time.
– Rob Mayes