Music at Elsewhere

Subscribe to my newsletter for weekly updates.

Alan Fletcher: The Point (MGM/digital outlets)

12 Feb 2023  |  <1 min read

Not having seen Neighbours since Kylie left, the fact that 65-year old Alan Fletcher played Karl Kennedy in it means nothing to me. Probably doesn't to you either although my information says he'd been there for 27 years. So we forgive him the day job because what we have on this debut solo album is of much more interest. He mostly writes and sings in that low-rumble... > Read more

Various Artists: The Kiwi Music Scene 1970 (Frenzy)

12 Feb 2023  |  1 min read

The diligent Grant Gillanders continues his chronological excavation of New Zealand music and arrives at 1970 – by which time pop and rock had long parted company. This 53 song double album includes a few familiar songs (Fourmyula's stoner suggestions on Otaki and the lovely Turn Your Back On the Wind, Quincy Conserve's terrific Ride The Rain) but mostly brings to light material by... > Read more

The Eyes of Love, by Bunny Walters

RECOMMENDED RECORD: John Cale: Mercy (digital outlets)

5 Feb 2023  |  1 min read

From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this one which comes as a double album in a gatefold sleeve with lyrics. No download code unfortunately. Check out Elsewhere's other Recommended Record picks . . . . John Cale's remarkable career began in avant-garde classical music and, in the 55 years since his tenure in the Velvet... > Read more

Miriam Clancy: Black Heart (digital outlets/Southbound)

5 Feb 2023  |  1 min read

In late 2019 when expat Miriam Clancy returned from her Pennsylvania home of five years to promote her third album Astronomy, she was a very different artist than the singer-songwriter of previous albums. Astronomy was abrasive electropop-cum-Goth rock, and solo on stage she hammered foot pedals in an extraordinarily physical performance. “I got really frustrated with the... > Read more

Belle and Sebastian: Late Developers (digital outlets)

30 Jan 2023  |  1 min read

In 2004 this Glaswegian indie-pop band was nominated for Britain's Mercury Prize and the following year voted Best Scottish Band Ever in the online magazine The List. They are however an acquired taste: some hear their lighter songs as mannered. But over 11 previously acclaimed albums since 96, they've created a body of lyrically clever and literate work wrapped in catchy melodies.... > Read more

Iggy Pop: Every Loser (digital outlets)

30 Jan 2023  |  1 min read

At 75, the “Godfather of Punk” Iggy Pop lives a quiet life of exercise, eating well and longtime sobriety in Florida. But put him on a stage or in a recording studio and he can access his search-and-destroy persona of The Stooges, the band that burned his outrageous reputation into rock more than half a century ago. In his solo career – Every Loser the 19th album under his... > Read more

Numün: Book of Beyond (Shimmy-Disc/digital outlets)

27 Jan 2023  |  <1 min read

From our distance, this New York trio could probably not be more obscure and unfamiliar. Their label Shimmy Disc (Bongwater, Kramer, Jad Fair, Daniel Johnston etc) might be the sole connection. But unfamiliarity has never stopped Elsewhere from turning an ear, so let us introduce Bob Holmes (from SUSS) with Christopher Romero and Joel Mellin (from Gamelan Dharma Swara) who are... > Read more

Lighter

Deceptikonz: In Perpetuity (digital outlets)

22 Jan 2023  |  2 min read

The Deceptikonz rap crew out of Manurewa helped define the sound and unique culture of South Auckland when signed to the Dawn Raid label in 2001. If rap gives voice to the voiceless, Deceptikonz – Mareko, Savage, Frisko and Devolo – told their stories across three albums, Elimination in 02, Heavy Rotation (06) and their farewell Evolution: Past, Present and Beyond (10).... > Read more

SUSS: SUSS (Shimmy-Disc/digital outlets)

18 Jan 2023  |  <1 min read

The adjective “atmospheric” is perhaps too liberally applied these days, but it is certainly the appropriate word for the sound of this New York three-piece of Jonathan Gregg (pedal steel, dobro), Bob Holmes (mandolin, guitars, harmonica, violin, keyboards) and Pat Irwin (guitars, harmonium, keyboards, melodica, loops). Describing themselves as “ambient... > Read more

Kingman, AZ

Liela Moss: Internal Working Model (Bella Union/digital outlets)

16 Jan 2023  |  <1 min read

British fashion muse, serial collaborator (Heritage Orchestra playing Giorgio Moroder, Nick Cave and others) and member of the indie-rock guitar band Duke Spirit, the striking Liela Moss here again works some of the brittle electronica end of the spectrum with this album propelled by the urgency of global issues, from the economic meltdown to the climate crisis and social division. With... > Read more

ONE WE MISSED: Sylvie: Sylvie (digital outlets)

16 Jan 2023  |  1 min read  |  1

We discovered this delightful, gentle album by chance, and it confused us. A friend passed on one of those cover-mount compilation CDs which came with an English music monthly late last year. As we heard it, one of the songs was called Sylvie by someone called Sylvie (but it was a male singer) from the album entitled Sylvie, although the song itself was an old one written by Iain... > Read more

Sylvie

Lord of the Isles: Subtle Thoughts (digital outlets)

9 Jan 2023  |  1 min read

You don't need to know much about British history to guess that electronica composer Neil McDonald – who goes by the name Lord of the Isles – is a proud Scot. Lord of the Isles was the ancient title handed down to ruler of the islands and some of the mainland in Western Scotland, today the Lord of the Isles is Prince William. The original clan which held the title were the... > Read more

RECOMMENDED RECORD: Arooj Aftab: Vulture Prince Deluxe Edition (vinyl only)

6 Jan 2023  |  <1 min read  |  1

From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this one originally released in 2021 which now comes on heavyweight vinyl as a double album with an additional track not on digital platforms. Check out Elsewhere's other Recommended Record picks . . . .  This beautiful album – which was in Elsewhere's best of 2021 selection... > Read more

Various Artists: To the Moon and Back, a Tribute to Ryuichi Sakamoto (digital outlets)

5 Jan 2023  |  <1 min read

It probably won't diminish your enjoyment or interest in this tribute album if you aren't familiar with the work of Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto whose career encompassed the Yellow Magic Orchestra, solo work, award-winning soundtracks (The Last Emperor and Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence to the Grammy-nominated The Revenant), numerous collaborations (David Sylvian to Youssou N'Dour) and music... > Read more

The Sheltering Sky: Alva Noto remodel

Jimi Hendrix Experience: Los Angeles Forum, April 26 1969 (Legacy/digital outlets)

4 Jan 2023  |  1 min read

While there's certainly no paucity of Jimi Hendrix Experience live albums, this previously unreleased one – which had openers Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys (whom Hendrix produced) and Chicago Transit Authority (edgy feedback rockers, soon to become simply the more mainstream Chicago) – is of some interest. It was one of the last shows by the original Experience which was... > Read more

Weyes Blood: And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow (digital outlets)

17 Dec 2022  |  2 min read

Few careers have had quite the interesting trajectory and sidesteps as that of Natalie Mering, known as Weyes Blood. Now 34, she grew up in California and Pennsylvania with her Pentecostal parents (“born-again weirdos”), dropped out of college, relocated to California and New Mexico before washing up in Portland, Oregon where she joined the experimental psychedelic folk band... > Read more

Hans Pucket: No Drama (digital outlets)

12 Dec 2022  |  1 min read

The Wellington four-piece Hans Pucket fronted by singer/writer Oliver Devlin has a mainline into classic pop: check the Eleanor Rigby/ELO strings on the title track of their second album No Drama – produced by the Beths' Jonathan Pearce – before it morphs into something like nihilistic 10cc art-pop (“I'll be adorable but despondent”). Or Some Good News... > Read more

Pipsy: All You Ever Wanted (digital outlets)

12 Dec 2022  |  <1 min read

This self-produced debut album is from Wellington's Pipsy who is Paul Pouwels McMillan, formerly drummer for Males, wrote his PhD on the tension between playing covers and original music in the Dunedin scene and identifies as they/them. They use elevating 80s and early 90s synth-pop tropes – and equipment – to craft songs which, while handy for the dancefloor, pay attention to... > Read more

The Bobby Holidays: At the Beach (Holiday/bandcamp)

12 Dec 2022  |  1 min read

Delayed by lockdown but timely now for the (Bobby?) holiday season, this project to record with singer/writer Bobby Werry includes a number of name players familiar to Elsewhere and elsewhere listeners, among them Darren McShane (Superturtle) and the horns of Nick Atkinson (Hopetoun Brown) and Finn Scholes. And drummer Gareth Scott plus a bunch of kids doing backing vocals in couple of... > Read more

Big Joanie: Going Home (bandcamp)

4 Dec 2022  |  1 min read

The British punk thunderclap of the Stranglers, Sex Pistols, Damned and Clash in 1976-77 and the post-punk era of the Eighties they heralded saw many women artists on the field of play, more so than in the Sixties and early Seventies In came Siouxsie Sioux, Poly Styrene, the Paulines Black and Murray (of The Selecter and Penetration respectively), Chrissie Hynde, the Slits and other... > Read more