Favourite Five Recently Reviewed CDs
Five of the best albums from the recent postings at New Music From Elsewhere. Music too good to let slide into the archives. The Elsewhere place if you are looking for a quick fix of great and interesting albums.
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Kiasmos: Kiasmos (Erased Tapes/Southbound)
23 Feb 2015
One of the most interesting, if not visually engaging, artists at Laneway was electronica boffin Jon Hopkins who added edge and scratchy beats to elevate his sound above the quasi-ambience of his albums. As with Hopkins, you suspect this duo of Iceland's Olafur Arnalds and Faroe Islander Janus Rasmussen, could also up their game for a live audience. Because here across eight... > Read more
Sleater-Kinney: No Cities to Love (Sub Pop)
11 Feb 2015
If you are bit over bands reforming to tour their classic album or just to pick up the cheque, then put aside such cynicism for this, the return album from former riot grrrls Sleater-Kinney who broke up a decade ago and seemed to have gone their own ways. But from the thrilling, fuzzy riff on the opener Price Tag here right through the furious 33 minutes which follow, here's a band which... > Read more
Bob Dylan: Shadows in the Night (Sony)
9 Feb 2015 4
No one should be surprised by this 36th studio album from 73-year old Dylan being covers of standards. Even when he first appeared he was looking backwards (to old folk and blues), during his retreat in 66 he and the musicians who would become The Band played around on 50s pop and standards, he contributed a gorgeous version of You Belong To Me (from 52) to the Natural Born Killers... > Read more
Various Artists: The Active Listener Sampler 28 (activelistener)
2 Feb 2015
The generous Nathan Ford out of Wellington continues his unique vision of psychedelic-cum-tripfolk compilations with this wee gem, one of the most persuasive in his already vast catalogue. A labour of love, The Active Listener (see here, and an interview with Nathan here), really is quite a find for those of us who have limited time but know there is a galaxy of such music out there we can... > Read more
Curtis Harding; Soul Power (Warners)
1 Dec 2014
Back in early June we posted a review of this album under our ONE WE MISSED banner because it had appeared through the indie distributor Southbound the previous month. Well, seems everyone is now playing catch-up because it is out again through Warners and suddenly the reviews are tumbling in. So we'll just re-post what we said five months back . . . This fascinating, genre-defying... > Read more