The collaboration began with the Phil Bowering/Low Profile album Quiet Streets, which
was released in 1983, with a video clip of the track Glass Cage being shown on
Radio With Pictures. The participation of other musicians, including guitarist Mike Farrell
and keyboard player Tom Ludvigson in the realisation of further compositions was continued
through 1983, resulting in the highly acclaimed Elephunk in My Soup E.P., which was
released in New Zealand in 1984 and in Australia in early 1985. An entertaining clip
of the title track was a finalist in the 1984 New Zealand Music Awards.
Phil Bowering spent a good part of 1985 in Britain and Australia approaching record
companies with demos of tracks which were released on the 12" single The Cutting Edge
(1986) and Simon Says EP (1987). In the U.K. both Virgin Records and E.G.
Records expressed an interest in the music being produced and work began on completing
a debut album in 1986, with a view to obtaining overseas releases once the album was
completed. The album Elephunkin' was released in New Zealand and Australia in late 1987. At this
time Phil Bowering made another trip to Australia to promote the album and the video clip
of Simon Says was shown on the SBS programme The Noise.
Early in 1988 the possibility of releasing another single with a video clip was considered
and Jayrem Records Limited boss JAMES MOSS travelled to Britain and Europe with a view to
securing licencing agreements for Elephunkin' and other Jayrem Product. Yet despite
critical acclaim and overseas interest, this material has only been released in New Zealand
and Australia to date. The innovative nature of this body of work is now more widely
acknowledged. LOW PROFILE were experimenting with how the recording studio could be used as
a creative tool and with how the music thus produced could be promoted by working with talented
film makers. They were also exploring the development of technologically driven dance-orientated
music and the use of rapping long before both of these genres became much more popular.
