Fifty years after Mental Notes rewired what the world knew of New Zealand music, Split Enz are celebrating their groundbreaking debut with a sprawling new archival project and a reunion tour.
Formed in Auckland in 1972, Split Enz (originally Split Ends) operated in their own universe from day one, stitching together folk, art-rock, theatrical flourishes and new wave long before any of it had names. They didn’t chase trends; they set them. Their influence runs right through the past five decades of Australasian music, even as their catalogue has remained as idiosyncratic and inventive as ever.
Neil Finn still remembers the moment the band changed his life. “I was absolutely enchanted and inspired by Mental Notes as a 17-year-old. It made me believe anything was possible,” he said. “Fifty years later, it sounds as unique and timeless as it did then.”
Released today, ENZyclopedia Volumes One & Two is the first instalment in a major archival series, curated closely with the band. Available as a deluxe 5-CD box set or a 3-LP + Blu-ray edition, the collection digs deep into the group’s formative years, charting the evolution of a band whose creative fearlessness pushed New Zealand music into new territory.
The set opens with a 2025 remaster of Mental Notes, handled from the original master tapes by Phil Kinrade at AIR Studios. A newly mixed version of Second Thoughts — helmed by Eddie Rayner, who originally recorded the album at London’s Basing Street Studios with Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera — follows, alongside a remaster of the classic 1976 mix. A disc of early singles and rarities captures the band in their earliest permutations, while Wide Angle Enz, the fifth disc, pulls from previously unheard archives: live cuts from their 1975 Ormond Hall show, rough mixes from the Second Thoughts sessions, and other long-lost material recently unearthed from the Chrysalis vaults.
Both the CD and vinyl editions are packaged with a 40-page booklet loaded with unpublished photos, memorabilia and commentary from Tim Finn, Eddie Rayner, Wally Wilkinson, Mike Chunn and Phil Manzanera. The Blu-Ray — exclusive to SuperDeluxeEdition.com — features Dolby Atmos and 5.1 mixes of Second Thoughts by Michael Carpenter, plus new stereo mixes and high-resolution versions of Mental Notes, along with three music videos.
For Tim Finn, revisiting the band’s early work brings a complicated kind of clarity. “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,” he says. “Phil and I had imagined epic and luxurious soundscapes… 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.”
Love Music?
Get your daily dose of everything happening in Australian/New Zealand music and globally.
Manzanera remembers discovering the band by accident — jet-lagged, in a Sydney hotel room, turning on the TV. “There was Split Enz, playing live on GTK. I was absolutely blown away,” he says. “At the gig, I decided to watch from the side of the stage and was very impressed… It was a joy to work with them.”
Rayner approached his new remix work with reverence. “Remixing something that didn’t need fixing was daunting… But hearing the raw tracks again, I was hit by how inventive and fearless the arrangements were — and how good the band actually was,” he says. He gives credit to the full 1975/76 lineup: Tim Finn, Phil Judd, Eddie Rayner, Mike Chunn, Emlyn Crowther, Noel Crombie, Wally Wilkinson and saxophonist Robert Gillies.
The celebrations don’t end with the box set. Earlier this week, Split Enz announced they’ll reunite for the ‘Forever Enz’ Tour, their first run of shows in almost 20 years. The lineup brings together Tim Finn, Neil Finn, Eddie Rayner and Noel Crombie, with Matt Eccles on drums and James Milne on bass. The tour kicks off May 13th at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena, before hitting Sydney (May 18th), Perth (May 22nd) and Adelaide (May 25th). The band will also headline Bluesfest in 2026.
‘ENZyclopedia Volumes One & Two‘ is out now through Warner Music.
