best of elsewhere 2012 - Search Results
42 Search results for best of elsewhere 2012.
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John Cale: Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood (Domino)
Although Lou Reed embodies the spiritual core of Velvet Underground, in the fortysomething years since John Cale quit he has made the more interesting music. From venomous and gristly rock (Guts, Sabo
Tagged with: best of elsewhere 2012 |
Music: > music/5336/john-cale-shifty-adventures-in-nookie-wood-domino/
Willis Earl Beal: Acousmatic Sorcery (XL)
Beal's story is as interesting as this often engrossing debut album. In 2007 at age 23 after being discharged from the US army, he went and lived in the New Mexico desert while suffering from depressi
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Bob Dylan: Tempest (Sony)
While music magazines and rock bloggers are exercising their opinion about the Rolling Stones announcing a new tour after five years – just four dates so far – to celebrate 50 years since
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Nathan Haines: The Poet's Embrace (Haven/Warners)
At the launch of this classy album recently, the graphic designer Andrew B White -- who had done the cover for both this and Kevin Field's Field of Vision -- made an interesting aside. He noted that H
Tagged with: best of elsewhere 2012 | new zealand music |
Jazz: > jazz/4885/nathan-haines-the-poets-embrace-haven-warners/
THE BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2012: READERS' CHOICES
That time of year again folks when Elsewhere invites you to name one or two – or three or four -- albums which shook your tree during 2012. Elsewhere tried to keep up with the game and reviewed
Music: > music/5406/the-best-of-elsewhere-2012-readers-choices/
THE BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2012: THE EDITOR'S TOP 40
Well, we did our best. In 2012 Elsewhere reviewed over 200 albums (at least) at the Music from Elsewhere pages, essayed reissues at Absolute Elsewhere, interviewed many musicians and offered even more
Music: > music/5412/the-best-of-elsewhere-2012-the-editors-top-40/
Jim White: Where It Hits You (Yep Roc)
The idiosyncratic Jim White – whose music is suffused in the dark Southern literary tradition as much as alt.country (more alt than most alt.country) -- was the central figure in the remarkable
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Trip to the Moon: The Invisible Line (Jazzscore)
Trip to the Moon is another installment (the fifth?) of the long-running if intermittent project of Auckland multi-instrumentalists/producers Tom Ludvigson and Trevor Reekie, and various fellow-travel
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Music: > music/5102/trip-to-the-moon-the-invisible-line-jazzscore/
Mala: Mala in Cuba (Brownswood/Southbound)
When UK DJ and Cuban music aficionado Gilles Peterson went back to Havana in May last year to record local musicians (who have appeared on his excellent on-going Havana Cultura series), he took with h
Tagged with: best of elsewhere 2012 |
Music: > music/5414/mala-mala-in-cuba-brownswood-southbound/
Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang: En Yay Sah (Luaka Bop/Southbound)
This excitingly duffed-up world beat/low-rent psychedelic rock has a wild urban pedigree which comes through in its stupidly different but absolutely addictive Afro-meets-Manhattan groove. Juju goes d
Tagged with: best of elsewhere 2012 |
World Music: > world-music/5287/janka-nabay-and-the-bubu-gang-en-yay-sah-luaka-bop-southbound/
Dudley Benson:Live Series Volume One (Golden Retriever/Border)
Dudley Benson's EPs and albums always have a sense of occasion about them. They arrive as specially thought out, beautifully packaged little gifts with delightful or dramatic artwork (the Peter Stichb
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Music: > music/5123/dudley-bensonlive-series-volume-one-golden-retriever-border/
Beth Orton: Sugaring Season (Warners)
Beth Orton has been one of the most interesting women singers this side of Kate Bush whose albums have always been rewarding and pushed the boundaries of the expected without being alienating. She sti
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Flying Lotus: Until the Quiet Comes (Warp/Border)
Flying Lotus -- aka Californian Steven Ellison -- is the kind of artist who is giving tripped-out ambient electronica a good name with this deliberately noctural sounding outing. His music, as witness
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Music: > music/5283/flying-lotus-until-the-quiet-comes-warp-border/
Eleni Mandell: I Can See the Future (YepRoc)
Possessed of kd lang's melodic skills and swooning delivery, with an ear on classic Fifties and Sixties pop which was a hallmark of the best Rumer songs and just enough folk-noir to bring shadows to w
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Music: > music/5088/eleni-mandell-i-can-see-the-future-yeproc/
Sera Cahoone: Deer Creek Canyon (Sub Pop)
Seattle-based Cahoone keeps good company. Early on she drummed in Band of Horses, has toured with Grand Archives, and co-produced this with Thom Monahan who does those duties for Devendra Banhart and
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Clap Clap Riot: Counting Spins (Universal)
Must be four years at least since I saw this fizzy, fiery post-punk pop outfit play one of their early gigs, so this debut album does seem rather long overdue. Although it has been anticipated by some
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Music: > music/5031/clap-clap-riot-counting-spins-universal/
Sharon Van Etten: Tramp (Jagjauwar)
Among the many this New Jersey singer-songwriter thanks on her third album are Aaron and Bryce Dessner (the National), Kyp Malone (TV on the Radio) and Zach Condon (Beirut); her “recommended lis
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Efterklang: Piramida (4AD)
Those familiar with television's Danish crime drama Forbrydelsen might be relieved to know not everything up there takes place against a background of shadows'n'menace. This innovative and flexible li
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The Eastern: Hope and Wire (Rough Peel Records/Rhythmethod)
The self-titled 09 debut and Arrows ('10) by this Christchurch band alerted many to their poetic, political and bare-knuckle country-influenced songs which sit alongside Springsteen's working class ba
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Music: > music/4830/the-eastern-hope-and-wire-rough-peel-records-rhythmethod/
Lawrence Arabia: The Sparrow (Unspk)
Because this deftly orchestrated album of slightly worldweary pop by James Milne -- aka Lawrence Arabia -- has already picked up five star reviews and critical acclaim at home and abroad, it perhaps h
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Neil Young: Psychedelic Pill (Warners)
Now this makes more sense. Although some enjoyed Young's recent Americana which saw him reunited with Crazy Horse after a decade, it was clear that was just the throat-clearing rehearsal on old folk a
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The Verlaines: Untimely Meditations (Flying Nun)
Of the original Flying Nun bands, the Verlaines – the flexible vehicle for Graeme Downes – are still the most ambitious. Downes' lyrical depth and mercurial melodies deliver durable albums
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Music: > music/4887/the-verlaines-untimely-meditations-flying-nun/
Jarrett, Garbarek, Danielsson, Christensen: Sleeper (ECM/Ode)
By my exceptionally crude count, pianist Keith Jarrett's name (as leader of a group or solo) is on at least 65 albums -- and some, indeed many, of those are double albums, triple sets or large boxes.
Tagged with: best of elsewhere 2012 |
Jazz: > jazz/5266/jarrett-garbarek-danielsson-christensen-sleeper-ecm-ode/
Rob: Make It Fast, Make It Slow (Soundway)
In a reproduction of what must have been the original cheap cover, this minimal and curiously religious/sexual album by Rob from Ghana has all the look -- and resonance -- of a rare reggae album from
Tagged with: best of elsewhere 2012 |
World Music: > world-music/4972/rob-make-it-fast-make-it-slow-soundway/
Aaradhna: Treble and Reverb (Frequency)
Although critics and commentators will inevitably, and rightly, point out the influence of Amy Winehouse in a couple of place on this, Aaradhna's third album, that doesn't change the fact that this is
Tagged with: best of elsewhere 2012 | new zealand music |
Mark Lanegan Band: Blues Funeral (4AD)
As with Nick Cave, Mark Langean knows the idiom that suits his mood and voice best . . . and it is a similarly dark place, as the title of this deeply impressive album suggets. But Lanegan -- who has
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Scott Walker: Bish Bosch (4AD)
Some musicians are revered, reviewed and written about, but rather less listened to. Put Scott Walker at the top of that list. This is only his fourth album in the past three decades and their abstrus
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SJD: Elastic Wasteland (Round Trip Mars)
Few New Zealand songwriters work with a sense of the mysterious in their lyrics, most are grounded in relationships (far too many going the you/I route) but SJD -- Sean James Donnelly -- not only reac
Tagged with: best of elsewhere 2012 | new zealand music |
The Amazing: Gentle Stream (Subliminal/Southbound)
If you thought Sweden these days was all The Girl with a Bee in Her Bonnet and the killing sprees on Wallander, then The Amazing are here to reassure you that gentle psychedelic trip-rock with a folk
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Music: > music/4813/the-amazing-gentle-stream-subliminal-southbound/
Van Morrison: Born to Sing; No Plan B (Exile)
Because he's released many indifferent or awful albums in recent decades (the prosecution calls What's Wrong With This Picture of 2004), one of Van Morrison's best – the appropriately titled Kee
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Music: > music/5254/van-morrison-born-to-sing-no-plan-b-exile/
Neil Young and Crazy Horse: Americana (Reprise)
The thing about unpredictable Neil Young is just how predictable he has become, shuffling the deck of acoustic, country, self-referencing and noisy rock. Here he again links up with Crazy Horse for th
Tagged with: best of elsewhere 2012 |
Music: > music/4984/neil-young-and-crazy-horse-americana-reprise/
Leonard Cohen: Old Ideas (Sony)
Because he is now 77 and has weighed words heavily all his life, we should look at the amusing ambiguities in this album's title. Songs about aging and darkness, failed love, apologising to women in h
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Lil' Ed and the Blues Imperials: Jump Start (Alligator)
When Bruce Iglauer founded Alligator Records in Chicago 40 years ago it was to release albums by the likes of Hound Dog Taylor and Albert Collins who were burning up local clubs with their incendiary
Tagged with: best of elsewhere 2012 |
Blues: > blues/5073/lil-ed-and-the-blues-imperials-jump-start-alligator/
Zen Mantra: How Many Padmes Hum? (Muzai)
As so much New Zealand music -- especially what was once called "alternative" -- gets codified for radio play and aims for a middle ground, the Muzai label out of Auckland (with a slogan &qu
Tagged with: best of elsewhere 2012 | new zealand music |
Patti Smith: Banga (Sony)
Although Patti Smith's albums have sometimes been given a rough ride at Elsewhere for their self-mythologising, pretentiousness and lack of subtlety (see here and here), there is no denying her import
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Alt-J: An Awesome Wave (Infectious)
These days genre-ignoring bands are so common they require no introduction or explanation. But few are as provocative as Alt-J out of Cambridge, England who pull together slivers of Anglo-folk with hi
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Dr John: Locked Down (Warners)
With all due respect to Dan Auerbach of Black Keys who helmed this fine album by one of the living legends into life, we have passed this way before with 71-year old Dr John, notably in '98 with the a
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Deep Sea Arcade: Outlands (Ivy League)
Hard to know what constitutes "indie" these days, but given the single Girls from the debut album by this Sydney band has been getting play on BBC Radio 1 in the UK and sounds impeccably pop
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Cat Power: Sun (Matador)
On the haunting Human Being here, a slinky electronica-driven piece which slides under the skin and into the subconscious, Cat Power -- out from under the cloak of bankruptcy and a broken relationship
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Dictaphone Blues: Beneath the Crystal Palace (EMI)
Like Marty McFly at the high school dance in Back to the Future, Ed Castelow of Dictaphone Blues has beamed himself back to crucial touchstones in pop-rock (classic Fifties chords, Beatles era choruse
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Music: > music/4934/dictaphone-blues-beneath-the-crystal-palace-emi/
Kora: Light Years (Kora)
Among the encouraging signs in New Zealand music at present -- the counter argument to all the pop which seems aimed more at radio programmers and funding money than coming from the heart -- is that s
Tagged with: best of elsewhere 2012 | new zealand music |
Steve Kuhn Trio: Wisteria (ECM/Ode)
Elegance in piano playing is usually the description reserved for the exclusive use of reviewers about Bill Evans, but here Steve Kuhn makes a strong claim on thoughtful pieces such as the title track
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