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
JAN HELLRIEGEL: SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR (book+CD/Seahorse Swim)
21 Apr 2019 | 2 min read
There is an interesting dichotomy in this book-album project by Auckland singer-songwriter Jan Hellriegel: In her prose she has an easy, anecdotal and conversational tone but the published words of the new songs on the tie-in CD are refined, poetic and precise. It is the difference between the artist and the art; and the vicissitudes and joys of the life that informs... > Read more
Ice IV
Murray McNabb: e-music (Sarang Bang)
19 Apr 2019 | 2 min read
This beautifully presented double vinyl in a gatefold sleeve comes from Auckland's excellent Sarang Bang Records and -- as with their earlier The Way Out is The Way In and Every Day is a Beautiful Day -- presents innovative music from the vaults of the late composer/keyboard player Murray McNabb. A jazz player of local renown by the cognoscenti, McNabb was also musically... > Read more
David Harrow: Dub Journeys Vol 1 OICHO (Dubmissions/digital services)
17 Apr 2019 | <1 min read
Dubheads rarely need a second invitation because they know approximately what they are getting with a dub album. And the pedigree of David Harrow (aka OICHO) is impeccable: witness his work with Lee Perry, Bim Sherman, Jah Wobble, Salmonella Dub and the Headless Chickens locally, African Headcharge and many more. These 10 deep, synth-heavy tracks – very astute... > Read more
Arrowrooted
THE TAHI ALBUM, INDUCTED (2019): Number one, the first, and first of many
17 Apr 2019 | 2 min read
At the 10thannual Taite Music Prize awards held on April 16, I was invited to induct the Tahi album by Moana and the Moahunters into the category of the Independent Music New Zealand Classic Record category. This is what I said, ad libs excluded. – Graham Reid Kia ora e te whanau. It is my privilege to be here at the invitation of Moana Maniapoto... > Read more
Billie Eilish: When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (Interscope)
15 Apr 2019 | 1 min read
Talking about current pop music with some university music students last week (all a third my age) I mentioned sevenTeen-sensation Billie Eilish. And we agreed “she were crap, mate” when she played the Auckland Laneway Festival in 2018. I said that frankly she couldn't sing and couldn't dance (she danced as badly as me, 'nuff said) but one student... > Read more
Xanny
The Comet is Coming: Trust in the Lifeforce of The Deep Mystery (Impulse)
15 Apr 2019 | 1 min read
The name to note in this UK trio is saxophonist and jazz-shaman Shabaka Hutchings, the pivotal figure in the emerging new wave of British jazz who is in Sons of Kemet and Shabaka and the Ancestors. He's a prime mover in a scene which is enjoying a renaissance (and enjoying itself in the process) with big and boisterous music, controls sometimes to the heart of the sun... > Read more
Unity
ONE WE MISSED: Michal Martyniuk; Nothing to Prove (SJ Records/digital outlets)
15 Apr 2019 | 1 min read
Michal Martyniuk is a composer/keyboard player who divides his time between Poland and Auckland, completed his music degree at the University of Auckland and has played with Nathan Haines' band. This album however was recorded in Poland last year – he'd been absent for almost a decade – and appeared the SJ Records label there. Here is an interesting... > Read more
Insomnia
Drugdealer: Raw Honey (Mexican Summer/Southbound)
15 Apr 2019 | <1 min read
Whatever the reason – DJs seeking out rare groves, compilations of deep cuts, the aural clutter of Spotify – a lot of people like obscurer-than-thou artists and songs. Well, Drugdealer – aka Michael Collins of LA – is one of those underground artists who has played with those on the fringes of Ariel Pink so he qualifies as usefully obscure. But... > Read more
Lost in my Dream
Rufus Thomas: Itch and Scratch Part I (1972)
15 Apr 2019 | <1 min read
One of the most natural funk artists this side of James Brown, Rufus Thomas struck gold with Walking the Dog and Do the Funky Chicken in the Sixties, but this song from just a little later captured him as a dance-floor filler with a Stax song which failed to chart. But it went on to be much sampled and he epitomised a specific Memphis sound at the time. He was... > Read more
Second Prize: The Heel Turn (digital outlets)
15 Apr 2019 | <1 min read
As the man said in his e-mail, it's not often that Glenfield College (on Auckland's North Shore) is a useful old school tie! True. He was a student there a couple of decades ago and said he used to get out odd library books and was always a bit confused because on the slip of previous borrowers “one of them was invariably the mysterious "Reid... > Read more
Waiting for a Spark
Anderson.Paak: Ventura (Aftermath)
14 Apr 2019 | 2 min read | 1
To click that it's the great Smokey Robinson in the backdrop of the lovely and yearning Al Green-influenced Make It Better here might seem a little strange, especially when the vocal by Anderson.Paak is about how he and his woman used make love at the drop of a hat but now things have changed. Some might consider Smokey's presence here just a bit creepy, especially given... > Read more
Reachin' 2 Much (ft Lalah Hathaway)
Maggie Teachout: Maybe I'm Still Just Peter (Green Monkey)
14 Apr 2019 | 1 min read
On the small but admirably persistent Green Monkey label out of the US Pacific Northwest (Seattle, Olympia) comes this debut by 18-year old singer-songwriter Maggie Teachout who fires off a 13-song volley of rocking indie-folk and more intimate ballads where at the upbeat end of her spectrum sounds she like a one-woman Violent Femmes (Colourblind, Lemonade Day) and at the... > Read more
Waltz for My Daughter
OK GO, ON VIDEO SHOW (2019): Trickery, trompe l'oeil and pop art in pop music
14 Apr 2019 | 2 min read
The music by the US band OK Go might be fairly mainstream and poppy for most tastes, but they are as much an art project as a band when it comes to their most innovative work, their videos. The cleverly choreographed clip for the single Here It Goes Again from their second album Oh No in 2005 had them moving between treadmills in a series of complex and interlocking... > Read more
Snapped Ankles: Stunning Luxury (Leaf/Southbound)
14 Apr 2019 | <1 min read
A post-punk collective from East London which dress in what they style as pagan costumes and offer a kind of Fall-lite tribal chant and tribal beats alongside synths (which they put inside logs for the whole package). They sound more interesting than they are however because this slightly grimy punk-pop with a spoonful of white funk doesn't go anywhere much, too often... > Read more
Rechargeable
MOANA MANIAPOTO PROFILED, AT AUDIOCULTURE (2019): Taking tikanga and politics to the world
13 Apr 2019 | 1 min read
One of the most powerful and politically pointed performances at the 2014 Womad festival in New Plymouth came from Moana and the Tribe who – to thumping beats and a thrilling meltdown of dub, rock, reggae, funk and waiata – delivered a set which surpassed that of the internationals on that same main stage. Among the new songs she delivered –... > Read more
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . . DON CUNNINGHAM'S SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE: Exotic and erotic lounge-jazz in a Playboy world
8 Apr 2019 | 3 min read
Some albums come with a great back-story. There have been books written about Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue and John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. The recording of a Britney Spears album might not be quite so interesting, although the picture book or dress-me-up doll might have some market value. And as Britney proves, you cannot judge the quality of an album by the... > Read more
Don Cunningham Quartet: Quiet Village
Yola: Walk Through Fire (Easy Eye Sound)
8 Apr 2019 | 1 min read
The backstory behind Bristol-raised Yolanda Quartey is worth hearing, she's the mid-Thirties singer whose debut album here announces a major talent. She'd grown up with a family which struggled, had been briefly without a place to stay in her early Twenties, sang with a country-rock band, was a backing singer with Massive Attack, Chemical Brothers, Katy Perry and others... > Read more
Shady Grove
Richard Ford: Basso Profondissimo (digital outlets)
8 Apr 2019 | <1 min read
British-born, LA-based producer/composer/bassist Richard Ford is the sum of many influences, from Bill Nelson's Red Noise band to soundtrack work, jazz to Latin-influenced music, downtown NYC in the Eighties to remixing for successful Hollywood movies. The soundtrack work perhaps best explains the evocative Dusty Theatre, a brooding and multi-layered piece with a sense... > Read more
Dusty Theatre
Pumice: Worldwide Welts (Dubbed Tapes/bandcamp)
8 Apr 2019 | 1 min read
This will be brief and quick for a few reasons; some aspects of Pumice's sonic landscapes of synths, guitar, organ, violin etc will perhaps only appeal to those with an affection for Fripp/Eno, early work by David Hykes, the Eraserhead soundtrack, circular breathing drones and other similar waves of sound; and that if you want the artefact you have to be in quick because... > Read more
Lowell Fulson: Tramp (1967)
8 Apr 2019 | <1 min read
Written by singer/guitarist Fulson and pianist Jimmy McCracklin who were soul brothers in California, this short slice of soul-funk blues appeared on the Kent label, although the boss there Jules Bihari apparently hated . . . until it went top five on the r'n'b charts. It provided the title track for Fulson's album and even crossed over into the lower reaches of the pop... > Read more