5 minute read
Bandstanding: ‘Stinky Grooves Jim: way too clunky’
Stinky Grooves Jim: way too clunky ...
Resident in Tāmaki Makaurau for over three decades now, Jim Pinckney, aka Stinky Jim, arrived from London in ’88 and promptly immersed himself in our scene.
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The “recidivist record shop geezer” took up employment in our best-known stores, hosted a radio show on our coolest station, edited and wrote for our hippest mags, DJ’d live sets at our hottest clubs and bars and performed in some of our most progressive electronic live acts. Somewhere along the way he also established a record label and now it’s time for something more – which comes to us in the form of his debut album It’s Not What It Sounds Like.
“I’ve always been obsessed with music. My earliest musical memory is probably Scottish pipe and drum bands which I loved as a nipper. Then Bowie, punk rock and everything sent me off to the deep end, dubious post punk bands and early experiments into dubbed out country music that were released on cassette in my teens.”
Escape from family turmoil and the prospect of a lifetime of sitting on Tubes and dealing with London landed Jim on our shores but his obsession continued. His notorious 95bFM radio show Stinky Grooves began in 1990 and has been broadcast every week since. “I’ve been writing and reviewing since around the same time, first with Planet and The Fix, then Rip It Up, Real Groove, some overseas publications and finally The Listener.”
Helping ’90s electronic act Nemesis Dub Systems out with some stuff spawned Jim’s live act Unitone Hi-Fi, which he founded with fellow Titirangian Joost Langeveld. Their sound was a mix of dance hall, hip-hop and local flavours that was new and exciting. Two more live acts Soundproof and Phase 5 grew out of Unitone HiFi. “It’s taken me from Aotearoa to Jamaica, New York, Fiji, all over Europe, Australia … I wouldn’t have it any other way but that’s the unsustainable past now.”
Jim’s label Round Trip Mars was started in 1999 as a vehicle to release the music of Soundproof and Phase 5 “but there were a bunch of artists that didn’t fit in anywhere else who I loved and that distracted me for the next 15 years. The label is not active at present. Never say never but the idea of a discerning, non-commercial, creativity-led, genuinely independent label in 2021, in a world dominated by streaming and vanity vinyl, is too ridiculous to contemplate.” Making music every day “for the cathartic enjoyment of it”,
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www.kenturnermotors.co.nz Jim had no real release intentions for any of his more recent creations. But “the combination of lockdown last year, Bandcamp Fridays (where Bandcamp forgoes its share of returns for one day a month so it becomes like a digital Record Store Day) and my better half giving me a nudge to actually get something out, all combined to get me chucking out a bunch of one-offs for free last year. Once that starts happening, you think about an album … and then this happens. “I upgraded my studio computer and did a stock take revealing over 200 songs. After over a week’s worth of going through, assessing and ranking I could see an album in amongst the rubble.
“I did as much as possible here in Titirangi and then I took the 10 songs that make up the album down to (producer/engineer) Angus McNaughton in Dunedin and spent a few days mixing them at his amazing studio on the Peninsula.”
Native Instruments’ ‘Maschine’ is Jim’s production weapon of choice “along with a lot of new toys and a few old delays, effects, synths and instruments. Who knows what these latest malodorous melodies grew out of, but everything I touch has a dubwise element. Beyond that it’s very much like Stinky Grooves – an intensive exploration into the sounds and feels that inspire, motivate and interest me.
“I’ve been fortunate to work with some exceptionally talented, knowledgeable people over the last four decades but it’s a totally different ball game doing it on your tod. It’s daunting but ultimately very rewarding and humbling.”
At time of writing Jim’s track Frying Symbols is number one on the 95bFM top 10. A couple more tracks should soon emerge. “I’ve been back down to Dunedin for a couple of DJ-ing gigs and to have two more tracks mixed. One of these should be getting a bit of a vocal version furnished from an overseas artist. The other is a nineminute dub track Runs On The Board dedicated to the Black Caps as it was finished in the haze of a day following the all-nighter of their World Test Championship win – and you can’t buy vibes like that.”
A lover of our West in all aspects (“we never tire of the architecture, space and bush, the clean air, predominantly unpretentious locals and access to gobsmacking nature all around”), Jim’s latest lockdown best friend “is my Big Green Egg smoker. I’ve had it for over a decade and reckon I’m getting close to knowing what I’m doing. Nothing makes me happier than sticking some enormous, obscure cut of meat in there and leaving it for a ridonkulous amount of time – 24 hours is my record.”
And of the moniker Stinky Jim? “When I started my radio show on 95bFM it needed a name pretty quickly as the station had a sponsor lined up. Stinky Grooves was a natural fit as everything stinks and no stink equals no funk. It also left more room to grow than calling myself a genre specific name or DJ Fantastico or whatever. It started appearing on posters as Stinky Grooves Jim, which is way too clunky so Stinky Jim it became”. (Search for ‘stink’ and ‘funk’ in relation to ‘music’ online and all will become clear.)
Jim’s not a fan of streaming platforms like Spotify and YouTube but you can buy It's Not What It Sounds Like from stinkyjim.bandcamp.com “for a piddling $10”. Check out all things Stinky Jim at www.stinkyjim. com and subscribe at mixcloud.com/StinkyGrooves for early access to Jim’s Stinky Grooves show, as well as weekly exclusives, mixes and archive shows.
