Split Enz announce landmark archival project

Split Enz, the first band from New Zealand to achieve major success beyond the Southern Hemisphere, celebrate the 50th anniversary of their groundbreaking debut, Mental Notes, with the first instalment of a landmark archival project.

Enzyclopedia Volumes One & Two is a comprehensive tribute to the visionary outfit who blazed a trail with a sound and style entirely their own.

Formed in 1972, Split Enz evolved from folk-inspired beginnings into a fusion of art-rock and new wave. While no one sounded like them at the time, countless acts have drawn inspiration from their legacy over the past five decades.

Crowded House frontman Neil Finn, said of the cult band co-founded by his older brother Tim, “I was absolutely enchanted and inspired by Mental Notes as a 17-year-old. It made me believe anything was possible. Fifty years later, it sounds as unique and timeless as it did then.”

Housed in a deluxe 5CD boxset (also available as a 3LP + Blu-ray edition), this release has been curated in close collaboration with the band. It offers an in-depth look at their formative years, showcasing the evolution of a group whose creative spirit reshaped the boundaries of popular music from New Zealand.

Visionary Outfit

In 1975-76, Split Enz featured  Tim Finn (vocals, piano), Phil Judd (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandolin), Eddie Rayner (acoustic and electric piano, mellotron, synthesiser, organ, clavinet), Mike Chunn (bass), Emlyn Crowther (drums) and Noel Crombie (percussion), with Wally Wilkinson (lead guitar on Mental Notes) and  Robert Gillies (on saxophone for Second Thoughts).

Tim Finn said, “Mental Notes was an album we carried around in our heads and hearts for a few years before we actually got the chance to make it. Phil and I had imagined epic and luxurious soundscapes that would stand alongside the masterpieces from the 60s we had fallen in love with in our most impressionable years, far removed in a land at the bottom of the world. Which is why, thinking we had fallen short, we tried to make our first album twice. Once in Sydney and again in London in 1976. So the ‘real’ Mental Notes is still hovering somewhere between two records, never to be fully realised. However, nowadays I can hear beauty in the flaws, and completeness in the imperfections.”

The band’s second studio album, Second Thoughts, was recorded with Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera at at Basing Street Studios in London, while Bob Marley and The Wailers were making Exodus in the Downstairs studio. Phil recalls: “We (Roxy Music) arrived in Sydney after this horrendously long journey via Mumbai and all sorts of stopovers and I get into my hotel room, turn on the TV and there was Split Enz, playing live. I was absolutely blown away when I found out they were playing with us at the Hordern Pavilion there in Sydney.  At the gig, I decided to watch from the side of the stage and was very impressed.

“My recollection is that when the band came off stage, I passed by their dressing room, put my head in and said ‘Hey guys that was terrific. If there is anything I can do to help let me know’. How it came about that they came to London, I don’t know, but I organised the recording of what became the album Second Thoughts at Basing Street Studios in Notting Hill Gate. During the recording I was amazed by how together and accomplished they all were with the song arrangements, but of course I didn’t really appreciate how long they had been gigging. It was a joy to work with them.”

Enzyclopedia Volumes One & Two

The five-disc set is housed in a tri-fold sleeve within a rigid slipcase, complete with an obi-strip and a lavish 40-page booklet featuring previously unpublished photographs, rare memorabilia, and in-depth commentary from Tim Finn, Eddie Rayner, Wally Wilkinson, Mike Chunn, and Phil Manzanera.

CD1 features a 2025 remaster by Phil Kinrade at AIR Studios, from the original master tapes of the band’s 1975 debut, Mental Notes. Disc Two has a brand new remix of Second Thoughts by Eddie Rayner. CD3 has a remastered version of the original mix of Second Thoughts. The penultimate disc collects together the band’s earliest singles and rare tracks from their formative years. Disc Five, Wide Angle Enz, is an archive of unreleased and rare material, including never-before-heard live recordings from the 1975 Ormond Hall show and rough mixes from the Second Thoughts sessions, recently uncovered in the Chrysalis archives.

The 3LP vinyl set features newly remastered editions of Mental Notes, Second Thoughts (Eddie Rayner 2025 Remix), and The Beginning of the Enz, pressed on three 140g LPs. The package mirrors the CD edition with a rigid slipcase, heavy-stock inner sleeves, obi-strip, and the full 40-page booklet.

The Blu-ray, features Atmos and 5.1 mixes of Second Thoughts by Michael Carpenter, as well as hi-res stereo versions of the new Eddie Rayner remix and the original 1976 stereo version—a hi-res stereo version of Mental Notes and three music videos. Order the Blu-ray here

Of the task of remixing tracks from the mid-70s, the band’s keyboard player, Eddie Rayner, says “The original 1976 mixes (of Mental Notes) always felt right to me – no need to touch them. But in early 2025, while sifting through digital transfers from the Chrysalis archives, the sessions quietly called to me… and curiosity got the better of me. At first, I thought a remix might just be an interesting curio for die-hard fans. Remixing something that didn’t need fixing was daunting. Phil Manzanera and Rhett Davies had nailed it the first time around. But hearing the raw tracks again, I was hit by how inventive and fearless the arrangements were – and how good the band actually was.”

Enzyclopedia Volumes One & Two will be released on 14 November, via Chrysalis.

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Featured image credit: Peter Hill-Travis

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