THE MAGAZINE FOR CURIOUS PEOPLE
Elsewhere is a concept and a place, and for many years Graham Reid has been going there for his wide angle travels, writing, music review columns and interviews with writers, musicians and artists.
Elsewhere is an ever-expanding on-line magazine for people curious about new music, different travel, interesting arts and much more. This site is dedicated to the diversity and possibilities of Elsewhere. It is an equal opportunity enjoyer. Subscribe here (it's free) for a weekly newsletter and be in to win CDs, DVDs, books and more. Welcome . . .
Latest posts
Tom Ludvigson and Gianmarco Liguori: Espiritu Santo Variations (Sarang Bang)
19 Aug 2019 | 2 min read
The island of Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu is something of a tourist destination these days, notably for divers who can enjoy the clear waters and abundant tropical marine life. But while it boasts a beautiful name (Holy Spirit or, more loosely, sacred spirit), it wasn't on many outsiders' radar in the mid Seventies when the population of the islands in the archipelago was no... > Read more
BLIND BOY TRUMAN REDISCOVERED (2019): Blues from the underground
19 Aug 2019 | 3 min read
Until recently, so little was known about the bluesman known as Blind Boy Truman that is was widely believed he only existed in the world of myth, if he existed at all. There was only one known but disputed photo of him, no birth or death certificates, no recordings and no accounts of him every playing live around his hometown of Cross Timbers in Hickory County near the... > Read more
HERBS: SONGS OF FREEDOM (2019), a doco by TEAREPA KAHI
18 Aug 2019 | 3 min read
Well intentioned – and necessary – as this documentary is as a salute to one of the most important bands in Aotearoa New Zealand's music history, by never having a clear focus or trajectory it falls well short of the marks it seems to be aiming for. Herbs were this country's first overtly political group and the 1981 debut EP Whats' Be Happen (referred to as... > Read more
Various Artists: And Now A Word From Our Sponsor (Frenzy)
17 Aug 2019 | 1 min read
What a remarkable line-up of local talent on this CD: from singer Pat McMinn and jazz pianist Crombie Murdoch in the Fifties through Larry's Rebels, Dinah Lee, Ray Woolf, Hogsnort Rupert, Tommy AdderleyAlison Durban and others in the Sixties up to John Hanlon, Jenny Morris, Tim Finn with Don McGlashan and Eddie Rayner, John Rowles, the Warratahs, the studio genius Mike... > Read more
not for broadcast outtakes
Sleater-Kinney: The Center Won't Hold (Mom+Pop/digital outlets)
16 Aug 2019 | 1 min read
The previous album No Cities to Love by US alt.rockers Sleater-Kinney – their return to the frontline after a decade away – was such a thrilling, confrontational, bruising and yet melodic scalpel taken to personal and socio-political issues that it was impossible to turn away. And as we said in our review at the time, it “reminds you how faint-hearted,... > Read more
THE WAIATA MAORI MUSIC AWARDS FINALISTS (2019): Kia kaha and kon-gratulations
13 Aug 2019 | 3 min read
Now in its 12th year, the Waiata Maori Music Awards celebrate excellence in Maori music, honouring the keepers, teachers, promoters, creators and performers of Maori music. And now, during Te Marama Puoru Waiata Maori - Maori Music Month - comes the announcement of the finalists for the 2019 Waiata Maori Music Awards, with four nominations each to Kora... > Read more
Nerija: Blume (Domino/digital outlets)
12 Aug 2019 | <1 min read
While attention of the contemporary jazz scene hasn't completely shifted to London, there is no doubt that the new music coming out of there – which sometimes mixes everything from Ellington and Coltrane to elements of African and Indian musics, hip-hop and grime – is commanding . . . and commanding serious consideration. In many ways it is a reflection of... > Read more
Clairo: Immunity (Fader/digital outlets)
12 Aug 2019 | 1 min read
First let's say this, when graybeards bemoan young artists getting enormous attention on the back of just a single or two, this writer is forced to remind them that exactly the same happened for the favourite artists of their era: Beatles, Stones, Cilla Black, Animals et al. So we shouldn't be dismissive just because this 20-year old American singer got over 30 million... > Read more
The Impending Adorations: Allies (digital outlets)
12 Aug 2019 | 1 min read
Auckland's Paul McLaney has a long career of considerable accomplishments in various genres from acoustic singer-songwriter and rock (with Gramsci) to setting some of Shakespeare's soliloquies to music. He was also an accomplice on this excellent – and expensively produced – prog-rock hoax. Under yet another alter-ego, The Impending Adorations, he... > Read more
Jah Wobble and Bill Laswell: Realm of Spells (Jah Wobble/digital outlets)
12 Aug 2019 | <1 min read
These two inventive bassists, producers and sonic innovators haven't worked together for almost two decades. But with their souls in dubbery and post-punk barrier bounding, and here with Wobble's Invaders of the Heart band, they mix horns, cool jazz (floating flute from guest Peter Apfelbaum and electronic keyboard ripples on the seductive opener Fanfare for Phenomena)... > Read more
Reuben Bell and the Casanovas: It's Not That Easy (1960)
12 Aug 2019 | <1 min read
Recently we posted a fine but obscure track by Jimmy Conwell lifted from the recent compilation This is Lowrider Soul 1962-1970 (Ace through Border in New Zealand). That 24 song collection of mostly achingly sad and soulful black music as favoured by those in the lowrider car culture of Hispanic California is full of great songs by singers and groups who –... > Read more
Late Model European: It's Time (LME/digital outlets)
11 Aug 2019 | 1 min read
Two points of interest in this appropriately entitled album: it is the debut from this local pop-rock duo of Tones Thorburn and John Nelson (and friends) and it is also one of the first vinyl pressings – here in a handsome gatefold sleeve with lyric sheet and download card – from Holiday, the new central Auckland pressing plant/record store which is getting music... > Read more
Spoon: Everything Hits at Once, The Best of Spoon (Matador)
9 Aug 2019 | <1 min read
Originally out of Austin, Texas a couple of decades ago, this revolving door four-piece around singer/guitarist Britt Daniel and drummer Jim Eno started their career on the indie label Matador and after some major label attention for two modest selling albums on Elektra were dropped then went to Merge, their own label and now are back at Matador. This 13 song compilation... > Read more
Inside Out
Elephant9 with Reine Fiske: Psychedelic Backfire II (Rune Grammofon/Southbound)
7 Aug 2019 | 1 min read
With last year's Greatest Show on Earth by the Norwegian power-jazz trio Elephant9, we warned they were not for the faint of heart. They were muscular, offered hard-edge funk with prog-rock tendencies and peppered a bit of wry wit throughout. But they connected at Elsewhere and so this one – with the legendary Swedish guitarist Reine Fiske who played with jazz... > Read more
Brisa Roche: Low Fidelity (digital outlets)
7 Aug 2019 | 1 min read
The previous album Father by this hitherto unheard of (at Elsewhere anyway) US artist was such an ear-opener that we commend it to you . . . and are pleased to introduce this new one. As before, she works along the acoustic singer-songwriter axis, but those many years in Paris (where she was signed to Blue Note) are apparent on the seductive opener Except for Love which... > Read more
Tiger Song
Favourite Five Recent Releases
PAUL McCARTNEY, AMOEBA GIG CONSIDERED (2019): That was him standing there
5 Aug 2019 | 5 min read
In the decade after he disbanded Wings at the end of the Seventies, Paul McCartney's recording career on albums offered diminishing returns outside of a string of mostly vacuous chart hits. It wasn't until Flowers in the Dirt in '89 – and even that pulled its punches too much – you felt he still had something serious to offer. The Eighties were tough... > Read more
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The Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE INNOVATORS' QUESTIONNAIRE: Al Fraser
5 Aug 2019 | 3 min read
Al Fraser has been described as the foremost taonga puoro player of his generation, that is someone who plays and explores the sounds of traditional Maori instruments. In recent years he has also been making them. Over a series of albums and in collaborations, he has taken the evocative and sometimes primeval sounds of these instruments into sonic landscapes, and on... > Read more
IN BRIEF: A quick overview of some recent international releases
5 Aug 2019 | 2 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. Jones: Carver's Saw (Meme Records) Dedicated to the late Mark Hollis of Talk Talk (“a man of... > Read more
Jimmy Conwell: Second Hand Happiness (1967)
5 Aug 2019 | 1 min read
Once a compilation was simply a collection of hits (and many misses) by a particular artist/group or a pulling together of songs in genre (Nuggets), a year or a series like Now That's What I Call Music! (today up to Vol 103). These days compilations are much more diverse: location (be it Portland or Manchester or the neo-psychedelic scene around Dunedin), genre (Southern... > Read more
Favourite Five Recent Releases
Lake South: Wellington/Te Upoko O Te Ika (Home Alone/digital outlets)
2 Aug 2019 | 1 min read
The smarter local artists realise that they need a point of difference/interest in these days of streaming where their music just exists in the endless ether of other music. So vinyl releases, cassettes and CDs with booklets, decent artwork and so on entice fans and the casual listener into buying the artefact as opposed to just streaming, a practice out of which the... > Read more