Bevis Langman Painter

Bev, as he was known, came to Hamilton by way of Auckland in 1996. He originally became involved in the NZ underground music scene when he was working in Mark Wallbank and Mike Rea's record shop Bizarre Beats alongside Rhys Braddock (of Nazi Disco) and Greg Broadmore, with whom he shared a flat on Queen Street. He had previously been the keyboard player and drummer in Auckland bands such as Pitviper, Snake Foundation and Copperhead alongside Tim Beatson, Andrew Lambert and various other musicians. Pitviper's shows commenced with a-rhythmic noise-scapes until such time as Bev found a chord he liked, taped down all the keys and commenced drumming.

He was introduced to the Hamilton scene by Greg Broadmore and Logan Poppelwell. In Hamilton he was a regular host on Contact 89FM where he created problems by playing bludgeoning turgid noise very early in the mornings and ignoring the station's playlists. He also sometimes co-hosted The Industrial Show on Tuesday's Hard Night Out feature alongside Raewyn Poole.

He was closely involved with the work of Disjecta Membra and Genitus Lung, sharing flats with various members of these bands. He also helped organise a number of shows around Hamilton featuring these and other projects like Usine, FALLen, Lure et al. He was an additional member of a short-lived Logan Poppelwell/Michel project known as Falling Cynic before moving to Wellington in 1997.

In Wellington he helped on tours and shows for Disjecta Membra and local goth band Reserved For Emily, mainly as a driver and roadie.

After leaving Wellington Bev moved back to Auckland and shared a flat with Alisha Judge. He worked in a band called Audiofile with Matt Roser. He also did late night shows on Auckland's student radio BFm.

He formed AVOTOR in 1998 with Hamish Walker (of Genitus Lung and siHn). They were introduced to the Auckland electronic label Kog Transmissions by Adrian Wallace. With Kog's support they released two albums Looming and Billion, an EP Illooming and contributed tracks to several compilations. On tour during this period they were accompanied by drummer Jasper De Roos (of Auckland band Meterman), who also contributed live drums to all tracks on Billion. Tamlyn Martinovich provided samples for one track on Looming (Climate Change) and Callum August provided turntable scratches on another track (Animal Bouquet).

Bev left New Zealand for Japan in 2005.