Music at Elsewhere

!!!: Shake the Shudder (Warp)

24 May 2017 | <1 min read

Cali-founded band !!! (aka Chk Chk Chk) – now in their natural home of New York's dance clubs – are not so retro in their disco/funk crossover that they are a signpost to the future. They are just enjoyably channeling the tropes of black and gay clubs in the Seventies and here – with a revolving door of female singers assisting – provide mirrorball movers which... > Read more

Dancing is the Best Revenge

IN BRIEF: A quick overview of some recent international releases

22 May 2017 | 3 min read

With so many CDs commanding and demanding attention Elsewhere will run this occasional column which scoops up releases by international artists, in much the same way as our SHORT CUTS column picks up New Zealand artists. Comments will be brief. . Arca: Arca (XL/Rhythmethod) People like Bjork, Anohni and this Venezuelan-born and London-based producer (Alejandro... > Read more

Mark Mulcahy: The Possum in the Driveway (Mezzotint)

22 May 2017 | 1 min read

If American Mark Mulcahy is known at all in New Zealand it might only be for his part in the indie.rock outfit Miracle Legion who broke up in '96 after more than a decade and then reformed last year. (Maybe just briefly given a pointed lyric here in The Fiddler). You'd prefer Mulcahy however to be known for his excellent solo album Dear Mark J Mulcahy I Love You of four years ago.... > Read more

Catching Mice

Asgeir: Afterglow (Inertia/Rhythmethod)

22 May 2017 | <1 min read

Given the genre – somewhere between orchestrated electronica, ambient and embellished folk – this second album from Iceland's Asgeir should grip at Elsewhere. But it just doesn't. Because you sense behind some of the glitch-electro and airy vocals this is very familiar and much traversed territory. Where its predecessor Into the Silence had evocative and dream-folk... > Read more

Nothing

Matthew Smith: Matthew Smith (Lyttelton/Southbound)

16 May 2017 | 1 min read

Former rock frontman (of the atmospheric and crunching Von Voin Strum), Matthew Smith here (mostly) gets the knobs turned down and – with a small band, some important and sympathetic colleagues including co-producer and mixer Ben Edwards in the Sitting Room, mastering by Chris Chetland – initially brings an unexpected and intimate low-lights indie.folk voice to the fore on... > Read more

Why Are We Waiting

Larry Morris: Anthology (Frenzy)

15 May 2017 | 1 min read | 1

Larry Morris would be the first to admit that his was a wild ride for a decade after Larry's Rebels gatecrashed the New Zealand music world of the Sixties with a harder edge, a proper rock'n'roll attitude to pop, a string of memorable singles (many of them covers but with their own stamp) and excellent live shows. Morris was only in his mid teens when all that started but a decade on... > Read more

Here and There

Penguin Café: The Imperfect Sea (Erased Tapes/Southbound)

12 May 2017 | 1 min read | 1

The former Penguin Café Orchestra under the baton of the late Simon Jeffes were never for just anyone, they were for everyone. Their string minimalism and quirkiness (try the odd Telephone and Rubber Band from their self-titled second album in ’81) found them labelled as classical, avant-garde, indie.folk, ambient . . . Jeffes – who died in ‘97 -- even... > Read more

Ricercar

IN BRIEF: A quick overview of some recent international releases

8 May 2017 | 3 min read

With so many CDs commanding and demanding attention Elsewhere will run this occasional column which scoops up releases by international artists, in much the same way as our SHORT CUTS column picks up New Zealand artists. Comments will be brief. . Willie Nelson: God’s Problem Child (Sony) At 83 and with the passing of recent companions and fellow musicians... > Read more

Fazerdaze: Morningside (Flying Nun)

5 May 2017 | 2 min read

There’s a gentle and typically thoughtful pop song Take It Slow at the midpoint of this excellent debut album. In it Auckland singer-writer Amelia Murray (aka Fazerdaze) sings, “It seems so far already, seems so far to go, I don’t know if I’m ready . . . I’ll take it slow”. It could be a song about reticent commitment in a relationship but anyone... > Read more

Take It Slow

Slowdive: Slowdive (Dead Oceans/Rhythmethod)

5 May 2017 | 1 min read

We’ve said it before but it does bear repeating: there seems to be a (welcome) return of shoegaze . . . and when we essayed the absolutely terrific retrospective box set Still in a Dream we specifically mentioned UK band Slowdive with singer Rachel Goswell and “the great Neil Halstead”. As singer/guitarist Halstead observed some years after Slowdive broke up in the... > Read more

Don't Know Why

Clap Clap Riot: Dull Life (CCR)

3 May 2017 | 1 min read

Elsewhere’s penchant for classic pop-rock with allusions to punk bristle and power pop elevation gets another shot of pleasure from CCR (our one, who previously appeared in one of our best of the year lists). And again they deliver a vinyl-length collection of smart and memorable songs (11 in 38 minutes). In their bag of memories (conscious and unconscious) they have bits of Big... > Read more

Tired of Getting Old

IN BRIEF: A quick overview of some recent international releases

30 Apr 2017 | 3 min read

With so many CDs commanding and demanding attention Elsewhere will run this occasional column which scoops up releases by international artists, in much the same way as our SHORT CUTS column picks up New Zealand artists. Comments will be brief. . Rhiannon Giddens: Freedom Highway (Nonesuch) As America turns even more deeply divided along lines of race and class... > Read more

SHORT CUTS: A round-up of recent New Zealand releases

28 Apr 2017 | 2 min read

Facing down an avalanche of releases, requests for coverage, the occasional demand that we be interested in their new album (sometimes with that absurd comment "but don't write about it if you don't like it") and so on, Elsewhere will every now and again do a quick sweep like this, in the same way it does IN BRIEFabout international releases. Comments will be brief.... > Read more

David Dallas: Hood Country Club (Universal)

25 Apr 2017 | 1 min read

Davis Dallas is one of the most important artists in contemporary New Zealand because he broadcasts from a deep culture and articulates important ideas from within it. His song Southside (with Mareko and Sid Diamond) from his last album Falling Into Place four years ago title is essential listening and a voice that demands to be heard. This time out on... > Read more

Don't Rate That

Paul Gurney with The De Sotos: Shadow of Love (Tailgator/Aeroplane)

24 Apr 2017 | <1 min read

On this third album by the long-running De Sotos out of Auckland, their singer-songwriter gets his name out front for the first time but their gentle country-rock with pedal steel (by guest Janek Croydon) remains largely intact. Singer, guitarist, banjo and mandolin player Gurney writes understated and melodic songs and the band deliver them with sensitivity. There's also a modesty... > Read more

Trace

Tinie Tempah: Youth (Warner)

24 Apr 2017 | 1 min read

To hear London-based, award-winning grime master Tinie Tempah tell it, after his stunning debut Disc-Overy and then the lesser follow-up Demonstration he struggled to reconnect with the source of his initial inspiration. So he says he went right back to hip-hop/synth-pop and dubbed up style . . . and yet for this outing four years on from Demonstration he also hooks in Jake Bugg, Guy... > Read more

Girls Like (w Zara Larsson)

RECOMMENDED REISSUE: Dave Dobbyn: A Slice of Heaven; 40 Years of Hits (Sony)

24 Apr 2017 | <1 min read

Not really a reissue and not his first such collection, but here are 21 familiar songs -- one apiece from Th'Dudes and DD Smash, with a few in their 2009 versions – and an acknowledgement of a remarkable and productive career. From rock (Be Mine Tonight) to ballads (the gorgeous blue-eyed soul of You Oughta Be in Love) to experiments in pop (Lap of the Gods, Blindman's Bend) to... > Read more

You Oughta Be in Love

The Jesus and Mary Chain: Damage and Joy (Warner)

14 Apr 2017 | 1 min read | 1

One the interesting things about post-punk bands like Wire is how they acknowledge and sometimes even refer to their past, but use it as a platform to push into other areas. You can’t really say that about too much of this new JAMC album, their first in almost 20 years. Their take on fuzzed-up classic but often downbeat pop remains intact – if recorded a... > Read more

Facing up to the Facts

Jen Gloeckner: Vine (jengloeckner.com)

14 Apr 2017 | <1 min read

Pitched somewhere between ethereal ambience, appealingly drone-like minimalist folk songwriting and astral electronica, this album by Iowa’s Gloeckner – recorded in her bedroom – also includes some eerily evocative sonic backdrops (the disconcerting Firefly) and nods towards economic prog-rock (Prayers) courtesy of her loops and programmes, guests like guitarist John... > Read more

Row with the Flow

IN BRIEF: A quick overview of some recent international releases

10 Apr 2017 | 3 min read

With so many CDs commanding and demanding attention Elsewhere will run this occasional column which scoops up releases by international artists, in much the same way as our SHORT CUTS column picks up New Zealand artists. Comments will be brief. Coco Montoya: Hard Truth (Alligator/Southbound) Longtime rock and blues fans know that John Mayall was a very good picker when... > Read more