THE MAGAZINE FOR CURIOUS PEOPLE
Elsewhere is a concept and a place, and Graham Reid goes there for his wide angle travels, writing, music review and interviews with writers, musicians and artists.
Elsewhere is an on-line magazine for new music (we filter out the mundane and spotlight the more interesting albums), different travel, arts and more. It is dedicated to the diversity and possibilities of Elsewhere. It's an equal opportunity enjoyer. Subscribe here (it's free) for a weekly newsletter. Welcome . . .
Latest posts
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO RATSO (2025): Loud, fast, here and gone
13 Jun 2025 | 2 min read
Auckland band Ratso weren't here for a long time, but they were here for a good time. Like a Space-X rocket they were loud, fast and explosive. And then they did explode. It was all over bar the memories of small gigs in confined space where garageband rock is at its best. We reviewed an Auckland gig and bought their limited edition vinyl live album which was... > Read more
Live for Nothing
THE ART OF NOISE (2025): Grecco Romank's subversive sound and visuals
11 Jun 2025 | 2 min read
You have to admire not just the ambition, but the vision of Auckland underground band Grecco Romank: their new album of edgy techno-rock Arts Colony is just one aspect of the culture they are trying to expand, explore and critique. They put it this way: “We're trying to tap into this vein of slop-culture that's being created in the world, that we're inundated with... > Read more
Bootlicker
GRAHAM BRAZIER, LEFT TURN AT MIDNITE, DISCOVERED (2017): Long gone for good
10 Jun 2025 | 3 min read
To be honest, I didn't know of the existence of this album by the legendary Graham Brazier until I ran into producer Alan Jansson at the 2025 music awards. Jansson is perhaps best known for producing OMC's classic How Bizarre, the Proud collection (including the hit In the Neighbourhood for Sisters Underground) and Nathan Haines' breakout album Shift Left. Of the... > Read more
Round the Bend
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . . BABS GONZALES: The Boswell of Be-Bop
9 Jun 2025 | 3 min read | 1
The first things we need to know about Babs Gonzales is his name wasn't Babs Gonzales. Nor was it Ricardo Gonzales or Ram Singh, names he also adopted. And that he was man, although when called up for military service he arrived at the office dressed as a woman. This Corporal Klinger cross-dressing ploy worked and he was declared unfit for service. So who was the... > Read more
The Bebop Story
Diane Hildebrand: You Wonder Why You're Lonely (1969)
9 Jun 2025 | 1 min read | 1
Record Store Days can make a major gouge in my bank account, but even so there were always some accidental bargains in my bag. While waiting in the queue at Southbound Records a few years ago with some pricey gems I found myself by their discount bin and so, idly flicking through the selections, I . . . Yes, the album by Diane Hildebrand made itself known to me for a... > Read more
BILLY CHILDISH: ARCHIVE FROM 1959, CONSIDERED (2009): His rowdy and rough wayward ways . . .
9 Jun 2025 | 4 min read | 3
While it's feasible to live a happy and productive life never having heard a note of Britain's Billy Childish (b. Steven Hamper, 1954), the question is, “Why would you?” Perhaps the most off-putting reason would be, “But where would I start?" And that's fair enough because Childish has released – under his own name and that of his many... > Read more
Evil Thing
Jenny Mitchell: Forest House (digital outlets)
9 Jun 2025 | 1 min read
As we noted recently when writing about the rise of certain genres, in that instance dream pop-cum-shoegaze, “Anyone who steps back and observes the changing tides of popular music would have seen the success of country music coming a little while ago. “And the reasons were simple: country music tells stories, has some stock imagery and metaphors, familiar... > Read more
Little Less Lonely
I MUST GO DOWN TO THE SEA AGAIN . . . “we are strangers in your silent world, to live on the land, we must learn from the sea”
8 Jun 2025 | 4 min read
I grew up with the sea. My dad was a radio operator in the British Merchant Navy in World War II and had a passion for the ocean. He gravitated to the sea at any opportunity; we sailed back and forth between Britain and New Zealand on the Rangitiki and my dad was friends with dozens of people from “the Rangi boats” in the New Zealand Shipping Company... > Read more
RECOMMENDED RECORD: Fly My Pretties: Elemental (Loop/digital outlets)
8 Jun 2025 | 1 min read
From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this which comes with full credits, photos and background notes about the concept on the inner sleeve. Check out Elsewhere's other Recommended Record picks . . . . There are some highly successful business models in New Zealand music, among them the Phoenix... > Read more
See Me Flying
Marc Ribot: Map of a Blue City
6 Jun 2025 | <1 min read
As a session guitarist (Waits, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Costello, John Zorn, Jeff Bridges and others), Marc Ribot brings an evocative angularity. But left to his own devices he can be challenging, playing with jazz musicians and left-field avant-types like himself. His 2023 Connection album with Ceramic Dog was close to Hüsker Dü and Sonic Youth. This new... > Read more
For Celia
Various Artists: Archipelago; Cosmic Fusion Gems from France 1978 – 1988 (Isle of Jura, digital outlets)
6 Jun 2025 | <1 min read
Something elsewhere for you . . . Isle of Jura is a label out of Adelaide, Australia run by Kevin Griffiths who performs as Jura Soundsystem. The label digs through crates and bins for rare gems to reissue and compile, and has the Temples of Jura imprint for new original work by a roster of artists. This compilation is what it says on the box: dreamy, dubby and... > Read more
AND THE WINNER . . . ISN'T ME: How to lose friends and infect people
6 Jun 2025 | 2 min read
I remember my first music awards event, and for years a few people wouldn't let me forget it. It was 1987 and I'd just started at Herald (which is another story) when the entertainment editor Colin Hogg suggested an idea for a piece about the awards. He said that if we looked at the track record of those who'd won awards in previous years it seemed like the kiss of... > Read more
Favourite Five Recent Releases
Bub: Can't Even (digital outlets)
6 Jun 2025 | 1 min read
Singer, songwriter and guitarist Priya Sami made a brief, high profile appearance with siblings Madeline and Anji as Sami Sisters with their Happy Heartbreak! album over a decade ago. (Not to be confused with the fictional Katene Sisters of Annie Crummer, the late Nancy Brunning and Lisa Crittenden created for a Shortland Street episode and who went top 5 with... > Read more
Bored
Arjuna Oakes: While I'm Distracted (digital outlets)
6 Jun 2025 | 1 min read
Singer/writer/producer Arjuna Oakes – who seems to divide his time between Britain and Aotearoa New Zealand – has appeared a few times at Elsewhere, but always in association with others. He collaborated with his mentor, the classical composer John Psathas, on the It's Already Tomorrow project, played and sang on albums with Serebii, Nathan Haines (on his... > Read more
Catch Me
BUY NOW by MICHAEL BROWN
2 Jun 2025 | 5 min read
The Bloomsbury Academic 33⅓ imprint is an excellent series where serious writers turn a laser focus on a particular album. This is a considerable step up from previous superficial album considerations because the writers bring into focus the context of the artist's life and work, locate the album in the bigger picture of contemporary music and drill down into the... > Read more
Pinot Noir
LISA MARIE PRESLEY REMEMBERED (2025): A child of her time
2 Jun 2025 | 2 min read | 1
Mercer Ellington did it, so did two of Sinatra's kids Frank Jnr and Nancy. Two Lennon's and George Harrison's son Dhani did it too (in fact every Beatle has a kid who's done it). So did a few Marleys, Judy Garland's daughter Liza Minnelli and Steve Earle's boy Justin Townes. They all went into the family business. If we suspend our scepticism about this and... > Read more
Soften the Blows
GALLAGHER: THE FALL AND RISE OF OASIS by PJ HARRISON
2 Jun 2025 | 3 min read
Author, musician and Oasis uber-fan Harrison had his Beatles/Sullivan Show-like epiphany when hearing Rock'n'Roll Star as a teenager on a school trip. “Oasis changed my life. The first time I heard them it felt like someone had fired a starting gun in my brain and real life had begun”. And later he writes “the impact Oasis had on people my age,... > Read more
Some Might Say
Jameszoo and Asko Schönberg: Music for 17 Musicians (Brainfeeder/digital outlets)
2 Jun 2025 | 1 min read
A challenge perhaps and the title is the clue as it references Steve Reich's famous Music for 18 Musicians. In 2022 contemporary Dutch composer Jameszoo (Mitchel van Dinther) released the album Blind (which came with tarot deck and a short film), mostly improvised music which used vintage synthesizers alongside disklavier (a motorised piano) and which also used other... > Read more
Big Game
Throw: Dreambaby Goodbye (Failsafe/digital outlets)
2 Jun 2025 | 1 min read
Anyone who steps back and observes the changing tides of popular music would have seen the success of country music coming a little while ago. And the reasons were simple: country music tells stories, has some stock imagery and metaphors, familiar melodic patterns and allows the writer to insert their own narrative. Those stepping back to look at that bigger picture... > Read more
Freefall
Karen Dalton: God Bless the Child (1966)
2 Jun 2025 | 1 min read
The new wave of folk artists have belately come to Karen Dalton, who palled around in Greenwich Village in the early Sixties with the likes of the young Bob Dylan (who was hugely impressed with her singing and guitar playing) and Fred Neil. It's said that she is the subject of Robbie Robertson-Richard Manuel song Katie's Been Gone on the Basement Tapes with Dylan. She... > Read more