For many reasons I have long bemoaned the lack of an alternative radio station in Tauranga.

There have been various attempts to start such a venture here; the latest by the still sadly missed KISS-FM, but all have been with transmitters of such limited range that they have never been able to reach much of the area. I'm sure the radio station based out of the polytechnic plays some interesting stuff – primarily focused on the music produced at the institution - but I've never been anywhere I could actually pick it up.

But what it ultimately means is that all the stations we can pick up in the Bay play a middle-of-the-road mix of mainstream music. It may be slanted more towards pop or rock or oldies but it's all basically the same stuff: no bFM - or other student radio, no specialist blues or country shows, no exposure for local bands, no alternative music - or alternative types of music whatsoever.

What we get here is ‘Nature's Best' music, the popular favourites, the stuff that will soon be coming to you in the background of yet another ‘proud to be Kiwi' television ad.

Were things different we might have had a little more exposure to the music Dylan Parry has been collecting and releasing, for the last three years under the name Nature's Worst.

Nature's Best was a compilation of Kiwi music that came out in 2001. It was a selection of songs voted for by APRA members, the country's songwriters. It was incredibly popular and has spawned subsequent volumes.

Dylan is a Tauranga musician. He played in a local alt-country band for a bit, but it was very frustrating. So he worked on his own as ‘DiscJockey Joebloggs' and released songs via the internet and on alt/lo-fi compilations in Europe and the US. He was an APRA member, but didn't vote.

'I should have,” he now says. Nature's Best seemed like a compilation that represented music tastes of the Baby Boomer generation of NZ musicians. I thought it would be fun to cover the top 20 songs from that album.'
Ten years later the idea was still there but had morphed a little.

'I decided to go with the Nature's Worst title and put together a tongue-in-cheek compilation about the crap little things about life in NZ. So most of the songs are obviously meant to be funny -and not too serious. But they really do span a wide variety of genres, skills and recording technology.”

He says that most of the songs on Nature's Worst 1 were already recorded and he just approached bands on their Myspace pages about using their tracks, which they were more than happy about. Nature's Worst 2 and 3 have been different - all the songs were written purely for the compilations.

'I don't really have to hunt for songs any more. They usually find me.”

The latest volume was released in September and is a manifold joy, spanning genres and recording budgets, and continually surprising, with its outrageous wit and the sheer musical and lyrical imagination of the contributors. It's also a pleasure to hear so many songs about New Zealand, the good the bad and the ugly of it, but all about here and us. We get so used to songs that reference places we've never been, or seen, that to encounter so much music rooted in our homeland is almost a shock to the system – I love it!

‘Hot chips! Hot pies!' over a crunchy guitar riff, are the first words you hear on ‘The Drab Doo-Riffs', ‘(Now You're Working For) Count Homogenised' while ‘I Am Dunedin' from Dick Jokes, lists everything you ever wanted to know about the Edinburgh of the South, and has a psycho instrumental break, all in under two minutes.

Better still, is the very articulate spoken, semi-rap of ‘Mince and Cheese Pie' and the scathing ‘Old Boy's Network' with refrain of ‘go knight yourself' (and some surprisingly sophisticated harmony guitars).
But they're just among the first half dozen of 24 often short, always surprising, songs.

Check these albums out immediately, they really are wonderful!

If you want to get physical CDs you can email Dylan at naturesworst@gmail.com; to listen or buy downloads, go to www.naturesworstrecords.bandcamp.com.