Bailter Space - Wammo LP

This year Matador’s Revisionist History series concludes with Bailter Space’s ‘Wammo’, now celebrating its 25th anniversary.

‘Wammo’ has been remastered from the original tapes and returns to us pressed on translucent orange vinyl.

Formed in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1987 as Nelsh Bailter Space, the band’s musical family tree touches on some of the nation’s most revered weirdo luminaries – including Flying Nun mainstays like the Skeptics, the Clean, and the Gordons.

Bailter Space (aka bailterspace) embraced chaos, but celebrated precision, finding melody amid networks of brooding noise and feedback. After relocating to New York City, the band – who by then included Alister Parker, John Halvorsen, and Brent McLachlan – arrived on Matador in in time for the US release of ‘Robot World’ (1993). ‘Wammo’ was the trio’s third and final full-length with the label (their fifth album overall) and was among its most tuneful efforts (relatively speaking!).

At the time, music scribes were a bit puzzled by the record’s “accessibility.” In the rear view, though, we can recognize ‘Wammo’ for the perfectly melancholy and drone-laced brain-zap that it is.