Burning Up Years

Burning Up Years (1969) is the explosive debut from The Human Instinct and a landmark of New Zealand's late‑60s underground rock scene. Fronted by Maurice Greer and powered by the incendiary guitar work of Billy TK, the album dives deep into heavy psych, blues‑rock and raw, free‑form improvisation. Its mix of originals and reworked covers is delivered with a fierce, live‑wired intensity that set the band apart from anything else emerging locally at the time.

From its fuzz‑drenched jams to its sprawling, feedback‑laden solos, Burning Up Years captures a band pushing boundaries and carving out a sound that would become hugely influential. Still regarded as one of the essential NZ rock albums of its era, it remains a vivid, uncompromising document of a group discovering just how far they could stretch their music.