Absolute Elsewhere
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SORRY, YOUR BEST ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH (2023): When it becomes the singer not the song
11 Sep 2023 | 3 min read | 1
Some years ago I was sent a CD for review. It came from a young woman and had been recorded in the South Island. It was spare acoustic folk and pretty grim. Every song opened with either “I” or “you” and over however many songs – far too many to my ears – she seemed to be either tearful or angry about the relationship. I pointed this out in a review... > Read more
Dissolve Like Salt, by Violet Hirst
THE WIDE BRIDGE NEVER THE TIGHTROPE (2023): The plague of risk-averse pop
10 Sep 2023 | 4 min read
A week or so ago over lunch, a couple of us were talking about the state of local music. “There's just a lack of risk,” he said with obvious exasperation. And that's something I'd been thinking about for a while. We could blame Spotify and young pop artists' pursuit of scoring a breakout on one of the curated playlists. To achieve that you aren't going to do anything... > Read more
THE NOMAD, RESPECTED AND A RETROSPECTIVE (2023): The electronica pioneer celebrated 25 years on
3 Sep 2023 | 1 min read
The Nomad – Daimon Schwalger – earned his pseudonym: he took his vision for drum'n'bass and inventive electronica from Dunedin to Europe but also remained grounded here through numerous collaborations (with members of Fat Freddy's and Black Seeds as well as Luciano, King Kapisi, Pearl Runga and Tiki Taane among them). Since the late Nineties there were also much admired albums... > Read more
Musical Direction
STING, INTERVIEWED (1996): Stayin' alive at 45
31 Aug 2023 | 1 min read
When there is time, Elsewhere will be sourcing a rich vein of its archival material which was published in various places during the Eighties and Nineties which are not available on-line. These will most often be reproduced as they appeared in print. Some may be a little fuzzy in the reproduction but we think the story or interview are worth it for researchers or fans. Best read on a... > Read more
PETER GABRIEL, INTERVIEWED (1994): This charming man
30 Aug 2023 | <1 min read
When there is time, Elsewhere will be sourcing a rich vein of its archival material which was published in various places during the Eighties and Nineties which are not available on-line. These will most often be reproduced as they appeared in print. Some may be a little fuzzy in the reproduction but we think the story or interview are worth it for researchers or fans. Best read on a... > Read more
RECOMMENDED RECORD: CLEMENTINE VALENTINE AND VICTORIAN ROMANTICISM (2023): Soul dreams and sleepers wake
28 Aug 2023 | 4 min read
From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this which comes on red vinyl with a lyric sheet and, which we wish all vinyl purchases included, a download code for a digital copy. And it has a framable cover, which we talk about specifically because it is clue to the contents. Check out Elsewhere's other Recommended Record picks . . .... > Read more
The Understudy
HERBS, ALL BOXED UP (2023): This were whats' be happened
28 Aug 2023 | 4 min read
Herbs, one of this country's most important bands, certainly deserve their box set: all five albums on coloured vinyl with liner notes in a limited edition box. Aside from being in the vanguard of Pacific reggae – which they could fairly claim to have invented and refined on their debut EP Whats' Be Happen? and the album Light of the Pacific – Herbs were also that rarity: an... > Read more
THE THOKEI TAPES CONTINUANCE (2023): Home sounds from abroad
28 Aug 2023 | 2 min read
As Elsewhere has regularly done, we here again happily bring to attention the on-going project of Thomas Keitsch in Hamburg who presents music by New Zealand artists on his cassette label Thokei Tapes. The cassettes are the collector's items but the music is also available on bandcamp where downloads are also available. The extensive Thokei catalogue is here and Elsewhere has written... > Read more
BONNIE RAITT INTERVIEWED (1994): Raitt here, Raitt now
28 Aug 2023 | 1 min read
When there is time, Elsewhere will be sourcing a rich vein of its archival material which was published in various places during the Eighties and Nineties which are not available on-line. These will most often be reproduced as they appeared in print. Some may be a little fuzzy in the reproduction but we think the story or interview are worth it for researchers or fans. Best read on a... > Read more
SHAYNE CARTER, INTERVIEWED (1994): The Fits quits
25 Aug 2023 | <1 min read
When there is time, Elsewhere will be sourcing a rich vein of its archival material which was published in various places during the Eighties and Nineties which are not available on-line. These will most often be reproduced as they appeared in print. Some may be a little fuzzy in the reproduction but we think the story or interview are worth it for researchers or fans. Best read on a... > Read more
JOHN ZORN, THE UPDATE (2023): Zorn again
21 Aug 2023 | 2 min read
John Zorn albums are like buses, if you miss one another will be a long soon. Or three will arrive at the same time. New York's John Zorn – now just days away from turning 70 – went from avant-garde outsider to avant-garde insider whose early saxophone style didn't much impress serious jazz critics but captured the kind of post-No Wave downtown scene where all kinds of... > Read more
THE INBETWEENS, REISSUED AND DISCOVERED (2023): Play that funky music guitar boy
13 Aug 2023 | 3 min read | 2
When you've written about music for almost 50 years – often in very visible outlets which run your photo – you have to expect a bit of flak when out in public and minding your own business. The disgruntled friend of band member in a bar is usually easy to talk down after a disarming handshake, the genuinely menacing emails are something different. The most annoying thing is... > Read more
OUT OF THE CORNERS, AT AUDIOCULTURE (2023): "Because women weave the world"
3 Aug 2023 | 2 min read
Looking back at the women’s movement in the socially volatile 1970s and 80s, they were comparatively simpler times. Even though feminism was complex – a more militant, separatist faction would emerge – at its core was equality. Equal rights, equal pay, equal opportunity. As an insight into the culture of the period, music was a male-dominated and male-centric microcosm.... > Read more
Waiting on Information, by Jesse Hawk Oakenstar
VICTORIA KELLY, SOUNDTRACK COMPOSER. AT AUDIOCULTURE (2023): Lights, camera, Kelly
31 Jul 2023 | 1 min read
In 2014, composer Victoria Kelly won the APRA Silver Scroll for Best Original Music for a Feature Film, for Field Punishment No.1. It was nice for her to be on that podium at last; she had 10 previous nominations at various film and television awards, and was busy backstage or looking on as the Scrolls’ music director from 2003 to 2007, the last two years with Joost... > Read more
GOLDEN HARVEST, AT AUDIOCULTURE (2013): From club to a following by the cult
29 Jul 2023 | 2 min read
For a late 70s band which delivered polished, radio-friendly pop with a hint of disco on their hit ‘I Need Your Love’, Golden Harvest had some unexpected admirers. Simon Grigg was on the sharp end of the Auckland punk scene at the time: “The first time I saw Golden Harvest was in 1978 during the punk era in Auckland’s Downtown Centre. Several of us went... > Read more
VICTORIA KELLY, AT AUDIOCULTURE (2023): A woman for all seasons
27 Jul 2023 | 1 min read
Just five weeks after the Auckland Town Hall premiere performance of her Requiem with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra in March 2023, composer Victoria Kelly – whom we might describe as “arranger to the stars” – was on Facebook eliciting help. “Hello friends,” she posted, “I would like to break my listening habits and would very much... > Read more
ROCK IN THE REAR-VIEW (2023): Country-rock, from Garth, Bruce, Bon Jovi and Tom to Lucinda
24 Jul 2023 | 5 min read
Decades ago Elsewhere learned some important lessons about who and what not to review: you never review charity singes or albums and never ever never go near amateur theatre productions. For the latter if you say something slightly uncharitable you will be met with a chorus of voices yelling at you, "lighten up man. They're just amateurs doing their best,. Jeeziz!". And with... > Read more
SETH HAAPU, PROFILED (2023): Time has come, today
21 Jul 2023 | 2 min read
Since 2011, Whanganui's Seth Haapu (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Atihaunui a Pāpārangi) has released three EPs and a self-titled album, winning a following for his sophisticated singer-songwriter/spiritual soul. His 2018 piano ballad New Wave (also appearing in te reo Māori, Ngaru Hōu,) won him Kaitito Waiata Māori Autaia (Best Māori Songwriter) at the Waiata Māori Music... > Read more
SUBTERRANEAN HOMESICK BLUES, REVISITED (2023): The sources, the song and the trickle-down
19 Jul 2023 | 6 min read | 1
In 1965 Bob Dylan wrote Subterranean Homesick Blues and its innovative video (actually a film, this was before video clips) was much imitated (look down the bottom of this link to just how many!) In subsequent decades some claimed it as the first rap song (it's not, but you can see the argument) and many many times this spoken word/rant style was much copied. It appeared as... > Read more
CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE, REMEMBERED (2023): Sad truths in postcards and phone calls home
17 Jul 2023 | 2 min read | 2
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone (aka Owen Ashworth) delivered one of Elsewhere's longtime and saddest favourite albums with Etiquette in 2006, an Essential Elsewhere album. Critics speak of Leonard Cohen's insight in hushed tones and the emptying soul of Ian Curtis in Joy Division's songs. But for our money they don't come close to the raw realities of Ashworth's poignant short stories... > Read more