Split Enz celebrate the 50th anniversary of their groundbreaking debut ‘Mental Notes’ with ‘ENZyclopedia Volumes One & Two’, a comprehensive archival project presenting a tribute to New Zealand’s most visionary and influential band. Formed in 1972 in Auckland, New Zealand, Split Enz were, and remain, utterly unique. As the first band from New Zealand to achieve major success beyond the Southern Hemisphere, they blazed a trail with a sound and style entirely their own. Evolving from folk-inspired beginnings into a fusion of art-rock, new wave, and theatrical performance, Split Enz didn’t just follow trends, they genuinely created them. The deluxe 5-CD box set, also available as a 3-LP plus Blu-Ray edition, has been curated in close collaboration with the band and offers an in-depth look at their formative years.
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 the band’s Eddie Rayner, which was recorded at Basing Street Studios in London with Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera while Bob Marley and The Wailers were making ‘Exodus’ in the downstairs studio. 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 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a tri-fold sleeve within a rigid slipcase, complete with an obi-strip and a lavish 40-page booklet featuring previously unpublished photographs, rare memorabilia, and in-depth commentary from Tim Finn, Eddie Rayner, Wally Wilkinson, Mike Chunn, and Phil Manzanera.
Lead singer Tim Finn shares: “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 sixties 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.” Of the task of remixing tracks from the mid-70s, keyboard player Eddie Rayner says, “The original 1976 mixes 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. Hearing the raw tracks again, I was hit by how inventive and fearless the arrangements were, and how good the band actually was.”
Split Enz announced they will reunite for their first tour in nearly 20 years on the Forever Enz Tour. The live lineup will feature Tim Finn, Neil Finn, Eddie Rayner and Noel Crombie plus Matt Eccles on drums and James Milne on bass. The Forever Enz Tour commences on May 13 at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne followed by ICC Theatre in Sydney on May 18, RAC Arena in Perth on May 22 and concluding on May 25 at Adelaide Entertainment Centre. Split Enz will also headline at Bluesfest 2026.
