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
ONE WE MISSED: Charlie Haden and Brad Mehldau; Long Ago and Far Away (Impulse!)
16 Dec 2018 | <1 min read
Recorded live in 2007 at a church in Mannheim, this recording only became available late this year – four years after bassist Charlie Haden's death at 76. Haden and pianist Brad Mehldau – thirtysomething years Haden's junior – had enjoyed a comfortable friendship, and a performance and recording association. That ease in each other's company is evident... > Read more
My Old Flame
Utsav Lal: Indian Classical Music on the Piano (digital outlets)
16 Dec 2018 | 1 min read
Elsewhere will occasionally preface or conclude comments on albums with something like “not for everybody”. The implication is that the music is of some specialised nature, but the hope is that it will spark curiosity. Perhaps among those who think they aren't like “everybody”? This album -- which we have placed under World Music but might just as... > Read more
Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram
WINGS. WILD LIFE REISSUED (2018): “And in the end . . .” there's a begin-again?
14 Dec 2018 | 5 min read
In the Beatles' Anthology DVD, their producer George Martin observed that no one – other than the four young men themselves – knew what it was like in the hurricane that was Beatlemania. They only had themselves to rely on for support, solace, humour and an understanding of the fear about what could possibly go wrong when the screaming turned to anger and... > Read more
Mumbo
THE BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2018: THE EDITOR'S PICKS
11 Dec 2018 | 11 min read
By my loose count, Elsewhere has written reviews or overviews on around 200 albums this past year (mostly new releases but also reissues, compilations and so on). Most of those reviews appeared at Music from Elsewhere, but there were also some others under World Music, Jazz, Reggae and Blues. And when it came to box set reissues or the like, they got some greater... > Read more
BIG PACIFIC, PRIME TV SERIES, and a book by REBECCA TANSLEY
10 Dec 2018 | 3 min read
There are maps which show us our world in different ways; the size of countries relative to population or poverty; the planet at night so we can see where people huddle under lights and so on. But few views are more dramatic and a reminder of our place on Earth than if you turn a globe so that just about everything you see is the Pacific Ocean. Over to one... > Read more
Manins/Samsom/Benebig/Lockett: Shuffle (Rattle)
10 Dec 2018 | 2 min read
First a word about the cover, and in fact all the Rattle covers. Right from their first releases the cover art and presentation of albums on Auckland's Rattle label – which cover classical, jazz, taonga puoro and more – have been classy affairs: engaging artwork and design, useful liner notes and, after a few releases, the gatefold hardback format.... > Read more
Hungry Pig Shuffle
The Late Pages: Yellow and Grey (Ellamy)
10 Dec 2018 | 1 min read
Recorded by Louis Bernstone at his Ellamy Studios in Auckland (as was the recent Flaming Mudcats album) this searing album of 11 powerful power-pop, alt.rock and dynamic ballads all come from the pen of singer, guitarist and producer Andy Smith who formed the Late Pages seven years ago and has seen off an EP before this. So you get the sense there are, if not road miles... > Read more
Come and Go
DOG Power: DOG Power (Flying Nun)
10 Dec 2018 | 1 min read
No musician should ever be judged by their audience (although those Norwegian black metal bands did seem to attract “the wrong crowd” . . . for a reason, the bad fknbastards). And nor should musicians be held to press release or claims made in their PR. But you can't help but be diverted by the blurb sticker on the front of the vinyl release for this... > Read more
King
The Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE WORLD MUSIC QUESTIONNAIRE: Jamie Smith of Mabon
10 Dec 2018 | 2 min read
Accordion player Jamie Smith has taken his version of traditional Celtic music from Wales (with contemporary influences) to concert halls and outdoor stages all over the world in the past two decades with his band Mabon. The band's sets are energetic – Elsewhere caught them at a Rainforest Festival in Sarawak in 2014 –and they bring a number of easily... > Read more
THE BEST OF ELSEWHERE, THE YEAR IN REISSUES (2018)
8 Dec 2018 | 5 min read
Caution: Objects in the rearview mirror may be more expensive than they seem. Yes, living in the past may be an exercise in nostalgia, but there's a very good reason to go there. Everything was cheaper back then. Which is a good joke but not exactly true: vinyl records in New Zealand in 1968 – half a century ago – cost around... > Read more
TE VAKA PROFILED, AT AUDIOCULTURE (2017): Pasifika to the world
8 Dec 2018 | 1 min read
The acclaim for Opetaia Foa’i of Te Vaka for his music on the soundtrack to the animated Disney film Moana – which topped the Billboard soundtrack and children’s charts, and went to No.2 on the main US charts – is a story many decades in the telling. For those who haven’t followed Te Vaka, it may seem like an overnight success, but... > Read more
KATE BUSH REISSUED, REMASTERED AND RECONSIDERED, PART FOUR (2018): Once upon a time . . .
7 Dec 2018 | 5 min read
In her long career Kate Bush has only rarely performed live, which is odd when you think how she established herself as a theatrical performer who had studied dance and movement. But after a 29-date UK and European tour in 1979 she retired from live performance which she said she'd enjoyed but found tiring. And her interests were more towards recording and video making.... > Read more
Nocturn (live)
KATE BUSH REISSUED, REMASTERED AND RECONSIDERED, PART THREE (2018): Silence, then the flood. Sort of.
7 Dec 2018 | 9 min read
After her Red Shoes album in 1993 – her seventh album in the 15 years since her debut The Kick Inside – Kate Bush did what she always seemed to do between albums, disappear. As with Scott Walker and others, Bush is not the recluse which she is painted but just someone who doesn't much care for public attention when there is no work to promote or discuss.... > Read more
Wild Man (from 50 Words for Snow)
Big Brother and the Holding Company: Sex, Dope and Cheap Thrills (Sony)
6 Dec 2018 | 3 min read
Aside from the great Beth Hart – who played her in a theatre production – few women singers today have any of the grit, depth and soul-scouring style of Janis Joplin. And even fewer seem to aspire to that kind of rawness. Joplin's influence isn't evident in many corners of rock these days – heaven forbid but Jewel seems more influential – and you... > Read more
I Need a Man to Love (take three)
Chris Prosser: Mistune; Violin and Tanpura (Rongotai)
5 Dec 2018 | <1 min read
Violinist Chris Prosser was one half of the innovative and genre-defying duo Besser and Prosser (with pianist Jonathan Besser) in the Eighties. After two albums they went on separate paths: Besser also part of the Free Radicals electronic outfit with Ross Harris then into many other directions; Prosser back to London for 20 years before returning to New Zealand a decade ago.... > Read more
Quakey
The Flaming Mudcats: Cut Loose (Mudcat Music)
5 Dec 2018 | <1 min read
Now 10 years in the blues-rock game, the Flaming Mudcats here celebrate with a third album of mostly originals by singer/harmonica player Craig Bracken. This tight r'n'b quartet – Bracken, American bassist Johnny Yu, guitarist Doug Bygrave and drummer Ian Thompson – are here joined by Chris Hartley (keyboards), Ben McNicoll (saxes) and keyboard player Louis... > Read more
Sneakin' Around
The Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE JAZZ QUESTIONNAIRE: Brad Kang
4 Dec 2018 | 3 min read
Something of a power trio in jazz, Lockett Kang Zakaria – who start a short tour soon (dates below) – bring together some formidable and acclaimed local and international talent. Drummer Mark Lockett has appeared a number of times at Elsewhere, bassist Umar Zakaria won this year's jazz Tui award for the album Fearless Music and Christchurch's... > Read more
FROM SOPHISTICATED YOUNG TO SPOOKY YORKE (2018): The changing sound of the cinema
3 Dec 2018 | 5 min read
Excluding musicals like South Pacific, West Side Story and so on (where the songs are the soundtrack), the sound of music in films has changed considerably over the decades. Classical composers like Victor Young who brought sophistication, whimsy and historical knowledge to his soundtracks (Dark Command, For Whom the Bell Tolls) and Alfred Newman (scores of scores... > Read more
Suspirium Finale (Yorke)
The Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE PRODUCER QUESTIONNAIRE: Mitchell Froom
3 Dec 2018 | 3 min read
If the unusual surname (it is Romanian in origin) hadn't attracted attention, the fact Mitchell Froom produced the first three Crowded House albums and Dave Dobbyn's Lament for the Numb (as well as work with McCartney, Vega, Lucinda Williams and dozens more) should have set off the alarm. And he did last year's Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie album (which was... > Read more
Mel Parsons: Glass Heart (Cape Road/Border)
3 Dec 2018 | 2 min read
Singer-songwriter Mel Parsons has been written up and interviewed a number of times at Elsewhere but not for an album like this which is quite some leap into new and rewarding territory for her. And there are a number of related factors which account for that: the shift from her more folk style into darker country-rock and deeply personal – sometimes emotional... > Read more