World of Echo announces ‘Fully Nowhere: A World Resources Archive’, out August 7
“Fully Nowhere: A World Resources Archive” collects Surface of the Earth’s New Zealand label World Resources on double vinyl and digital, out August 7, 2026.
London label World of Echo will release “Fully Nowhere: A World Resources Archive” (WOE025) on double vinyl and digitally on August 7, 2026. The 25-track compilation draws on lathe-cut 7″ singles and LPs released by the New Zealand label World Resources, predominantly across the 1990s, and centers on the Wellington free noise trio Surface of the Earth and the musicians around them.
World of Echo have shared two tracks ahead of release: “Winter Call” by Lucky Stars, Donald Smith’s noise pop project, and “Strontium” by Gorgecop, Paul Toohey’s project that launched World Resources.
World Resources’ catalogue was small and released in miniscule editions, its lathe-cuts made by DIY vinyl manufacturer Peter King in the Southern Alps town of Geraldine and rarely circulating beyond a small group of collectors.
Interest in the material grew after Surface of the Earth’s 1995 double LP was reissued on CD by Bruce Russell’s Corpus Hermeticum, then on Utech, and finally on vinyl by Black Editions. Paul Toohey’s K-Group project resurfaced in 2017, followed by a World Resources retrospective exhibition in Hastings, new recordings from Surface of the Earth, K-Group and Donald Smith’s Destrifan, K-Group live dates in Europe in 2019 and 2023, and a Surface of the Earth European tour in 2025. World of Echo hosted a K-Group instore during the 2023 European dates, where the plan for “Fully Nowhere” was made.
‘Fully Nowhere’ tracklist
The compilation is arranged loosely chronologically across four vinyl sides. It opens with Gorgecop’s early singles, moves through Lucky Stars’ noise pop, and includes Tony McGurk’s solo project Sewer, excerpts from two New Zealand Guitar Orchestra free-noise recordings (“The Bad Shed” and “Skoda”), K-Group, a K-Group collaboration with New Zealand home-electronics artist Omit, and Surface of the Earth material spanning a 1990s “Shield” edit through to 2024 sessions recorded at Hastings Art Centre. It closes with a recent Destrifan piece.
Side A: “Quapa-Extension”, “Slower Power”, “Squid”, “Strontium”, “K-Group”, “Section Across Europe” (Gorgecop); “Winter Call”, “Nuclear Famine” (Lucky Stars). Side B: “Rushlights”, “Watch Your Step” (Lucky Stars); “Smell of Man’s Room”, “Hospital” (Sewer); “The Bad Shed [Excerpt]”, “Skoda [Excerpt]” (New Zealand Guitar Orchestra); “Shield” (Surface of the Earth). Side C: “Commandcom”, “Visa 2” (Surface of the Earth); “Screen”, “Cars and the Soft Network” (K-Group); “Vacuum” (Sewer). Side D: “Decodes” (K-Group & Omit); “Fuel” (Sewer); “Programme+”, “2.2” (Surface of the Earth); “Sirens” (Destrifan).
About Surface of the Earth and World Resources and World of Echo
Surface of the Earth are a Wellington, New Zealand free noise trio of Donald Smith, Paul Toohey and Tony McGurk, whose slow-built guitar and electronic drones drove the World Resources label the three musicians ran through the 1990s. Toohey’s Gorgecop project issued the label’s first 7″ singles; reviewing them at the time, New Zealand fanzine de/create’s Nick Cain wrote that they sounded “fully nowhere”, the phrase that gives the new compilation its title.
Toohey went on to record as K-Group, while Smith’s Lucky Stars project produced noise pop songs that circulated only in fragments via online compilations until now, and McGurk recorded as Sewer.
World Resources’ recordings stayed largely unheard outside a small circle of collectors until Surface of the Earth’s 1995 double LP was reissued by Corpus Hermeticum, Utech and Black Editions, prompting the label’s gradual resurfacing from 2017 onward through new K-Group and Destrifan recordings, a Hastings retrospective exhibition, and European live dates by both K-Group and Surface of the Earth. “Fully Nowhere: A World Resources Archive” is the fullest document of that catalogue to date, released via World of Echo on August 7, 2026.
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