LOW PROFILE: BACKGROUND INFORMATION

LOW PROFILE was a studio orientated musical partnership of Steve Garden and Phil Bowering (pictured left), which operated between 1982 and 1987. Steve and Phil first worked together in the jazz rock group Outlines, which recorded tracks for the Concert Programme in 1980. They then worked on recordings of original songs for the Pacific Song Contest and made demo recordings under the name Low Profile Urban Guerillas. An aim to record with skilled musicians and release music that was proving more difficult to perform live was first realised with the release of the Phil Bowering/Low Profile album Quiet Streets in 1983, with a video clip of the track Glass Cage being shown on Radio With Pictures at the same time. The participation of other musicians, including the late Mike Farrell on guitar and keyboard player Tom Ludvigson in the realisation of further compositions was continued through 1983, resulting in the highly acclaimed Elephunk in My Soup, 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 subsequently released on The Cutting Edge (12" single, 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. However, despite critical acclaim and overseas interest, LOW PROFILE recordings have 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 independent film makers to create music videos. 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.

                        Earlier Work