Reviews
Fresh-cut review
Dominic Blaazer, New Zealand Musician, Oct/Nov 1999.
Now this is odd, but cool. Made at home, this 14-tracker comes from one of Palmy
North's less 'conformist' musicians, Bing Turkby, who was last pictured on these
pages wearing a full-length cardboard box. There's a toolbox full of lo-fi trademarks
and this genre will always be strewn with talent (Darcy Clay, anyone?). This is
far more palatable than some of The BTE's even more low-fi peers due to the fact
that Bing can actually play his guitar. The radio-style self critiques (2XS Jingle)
are hilarious and on the whole lyrically, 'Summer Party' is witty, juvenille and
in the case of The Shop (an opera in 2 bits), it pushes the conceptual envelope
just a little bit more. Added to this, Bing, like Darcy (yes okay, and Chris) also
knows a good tune. People overhearing this CD have said "Is this comedy?" and "It's
crap". I believe it is both, as well as being really inventive, cleverly self-deprecating
crap which lifts it into a different league. It's BTE, not BTO.