Obscure Desire - Obscure Desire (2025) [Hi-Res]

Prime mid ‘80s synth-pop from off the beaten track, reissuing classy numbers by Kiwi project Obscure Desire, a duo derived from the Auckland salon of same name, and produced by Antipodean hit-maker Trevor Reekie.

Obscure Desire’s handful of European-sounding club songs made up their sole record, issued in 1986 and now dead hard or spenny to find on original 12”. The sleek vibe and stylings were intended to reflect the feel of Obscure Desire, a fashion boutique meets salon where Andrew Walgreave worked and met Grant Mitchell & Giselle Trezevant, subsequently forming the band of the same name.

Initially self-organised and building acclaim in Auckland, New Zealand, the band’s encounter with Trevor Reekie, known for knocking out dozens of big tunes in that part of the world, spawned their eponymous calling card; a fruity boost of funk bass and tinny drum machine synched with Trezevent’s hair-kissing vox, that would prompt a choppier ‘Harlequin Mix’ that accentuated its freestyle-adjacent pull, along with instrumental cuts such as the bright and lustrous synth funk of ‘Bullet’, and a dead charming pearl ‘I Wonder’ making ace use of Trezevent’s vox in a sweeter context, along with her evocation of sultrier french vibes on ‘4A’.

Tracklist:
1-1 Obscure Desire - Obscure Desire (English Extended Mix)
1-2 Obscure Desire - Obscure Desire (Harlequin Mix)
1-3 Obscure Desire - Bullet
1-4 Obscure Desire - I Wonder
1-5 Obscure Desire - 4A
1-6 Obscure Desire - Obscure Desire (Instrumental Mix)