The seed from which House of Squirm grew was Squirm, an early 80s Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand trio of Chris Burt, Steve Roach and Ramon York (York of precocious early-seventies progressive rock band Ragnarok).  

Squirm’s early 1983 six track cassette release Squirmsongs (SQ001) heralded the distinctive graphics style of the label during its early years,  in keeping with the DIY ethos of the underground music scene of the time. 

In late 1983, from his cassette-based studio in Auckland, Steve Roach created and distributed Gorgonzola, an individually numbered 45 minute cassette, an eclectic collection of sonic work emblematic of the industrial times and the first named House of Squirm release (SQ002) It was accompanied by a highly detailed, hand-drawn booklet of lyrics and original artwork. 

At the same time he and Chris Burt had formed the genre-morphing Stridulators, performing live and releasing a minor cult classic 3 track 7” in 1984 (HOS245).  

Soon after, Roach and Ben Hayman formed the Industrial outfit Massive Stereo Sellout, releasing the  EP (FN095) through NZ’s Flying Nun Records label in 1988. A further EP’s worth of material and a set of live recordings of MSS from that time remains in the HoS vault pending curation and release. 

MSS has made new work since, and Hayman – now resident in the UK – records and performs as the industrial-ambient act Ethersonic and the Post Punk outfit Unexpected Item.