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
10 UNUSUAL 10 INCH RECORDS I'M SURPRISED I OWN: What's smaller than an album but bigger than an EP?
16 Oct 2017 | 8 min read
In the past Elsewhere has indulged itself with a column entitled promisingly 10 Shameful Record Covers I'm Proud to Own (and the there was 10 More and another 10 More and Another 10). Then there was 10 Shameful Records I'm Embarrassed to Own as well as 10 Album Cover Parodies and 10 Good Albums in Bad Covers. Oh, and 10 Odd Unplayed Albums in My Collection... > Read more
King Krule: The Ooz (XL/True Panther)
16 Oct 2017 | 2 min read
The previous album under Londoner Archy Marshall's King Krule moniker – and he goes by a bewildering array of noms de disque and personae too diffuse for us to worry about – was the fascinating and highly recommended 6 Feet Beneath the Moon released four years ago on his 19th birthday. He seemed a precocious if unfocused and wayward talent who was by... > Read more
Auaha: Te Pari o Auahatanga/The Flood of Inspiration (Te Aio)
16 Oct 2017 | 2 min read
One of the nominees at the recent Waiata Maori Music Awards in the Maori Traditional Album category, this immensely moving collection of waiata, taonga puoro and ambient noise from its sometimes in situ recording beside the Whanganui River (not long after it was designated a legal entity under the Treaty) was born of as much hardship as celebration. When that river... > Read more
Sam Dees: We Always Come Back Strong (1972 demo)
16 Oct 2017 | 1 min read
Southern soul songwriter Sam Dees was best known as the guy who penned hits and album tracks for the likes of Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight and many others. But in the late Sixties/early Seventies he recorded his own material to some small success, then put the microphone aside for the backroom writing. But he was a fine interpreter of his own... > Read more
RECOMMENDED REISSUE: Gil Scott-Heron; The Revolution Will Not Be Televised . . . Plus (Flying Dutchman/Border)
16 Oct 2017 | 1 min read
The late Gil Scott-Heron was a jazz poet whose work remains interesting and timeless because he directed his messages to his own people more so than to the white audience. His famous title track here Revolution – despite its period references which now make little sense – wasn't as many think a warning to the white establishment but to black folks who... > Read more
Greg Fleming: Working Poor Country (all main digital platforms)
15 Oct 2017 | 2 min read
In a recent Facebook conversation I instigated, I questioned how little political comment there has been in New Zealand popular music. As expected, many people weighed in with particular songs . . . but my point was that these were largely one-offs. Committed and consistently socio-political songwriters are thin on the ground, although we immediately acknowledge... > Read more
Alargo: Primacy (Pacific Echoes)
12 Oct 2017 | 1 min read
Alargo are multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Kingsley Melhuish and keyboard/synth player Alan Brown, and both programmes loops. Brown has appeared at Elsewhere a number of times under his own name (and he did an Elsewhere Jazz Questionnaire in 2015), but most notably for his beautifully ambient-cum-understatement album Silent Observer. Melhuish – here on... > Read more
SOUNDTRACKS; SONGS THAT DEFINED HISTORY, a tele-doco series on Prime
11 Oct 2017 | 1 min read
Some years ago when the Occupy Wall Street movement was in full swing Stephen Stills – of Crosby, Stills and Nash (and sometimes Young) – told Elsewhere that what they lacked was an anthem. “I kept waiting for a For What It's Worth of the Occupy Movement to show up,” he said referring his former band Buffalo Springfield's hit which... > Read more
WEARING THEIR ART ON THE SLEEVES (2017): Finalists for best album cover at the VNZMAs
11 Oct 2017 | 1 min read
Despite the predilection for streaming services where the music is detached from any visual image the artist might have had in mind, the art of the album cover is not dead and – with the slow but steady return of the vinyl record – an album cover can still speak visually for the music. And so it is only right that we salute at our annual music awards... > Read more
David Friesen Trio: Another Time Another Place (Rattle)
10 Oct 2017 | 1 min read | 1
The release of this album recorded live in Auckland in late 2015 could not be more timely because American bassist Friesen is about to tour again (dates below) with guitarist Dixon Nacey and drummer Reuben Bradley who are on hand here. Friesen is a Major Player in the US jazz scene, has a list of album credits under his own name as long as your outstretched arms,... > Read more
GUEST WRITER CHRIS BOURKE shares an extract from his new book Goodbye Maoriland, The Songs and Sounds of New Zealand’s Great War
9 Oct 2017 | 4 min read
Editor's note: Chris Bourke is a writer, journalist and radio producer who in the past was editor of Rip It Up, arts and books editor at the NZ Listener and for many years produced the Saturday Morning show on Radio New Zealand fronted by Kim Hill and John Campbell. He is the author of the excellent Crowded House biography Something So Strong and more recently the... > Read more
Kamasi Washington: Harmony of Difference (Young Turks)
9 Oct 2017 | 2 min read | 1
As befits a jazz player, composer and arranger whose debut was a triple CD set entitled The Epic – and covered ground from hard bop through soul and funk to Claire de Lune – Kamasi Washington is a Big Picture guy, very much of the old school where jazz had albums entitled The Creator Has A Master Plan (Pharoah Sanders), Ascension (John Coltrane) and The... > Read more
Liam Gallagher: As You Were (Warners)
9 Oct 2017 | 1 min read | 1
Quite a few were dismissive of Liam Gallagher's previous post-Oasis incarnation in Beady Eye, but round this way their debut Different Gear Still Speeding and the slightly lesser follow-up BE were greeted with some pleasure for their widescreen guitar rock (Oasis in other words) and Liam's jibes at his brother Noel. They weren't great, but then again the final few... > Read more
Various Artists: Lovin' Mighty Fire (BGP/Border)
9 Oct 2017 | 1 min read
And this is why we still need CDs. Subtitled Nippon Funk Soul Disco 1973-1983, this enjoyable 14-song collection -- from the same source as these and this -- comes with a thorough liner note essay by Howard Williams who offers a fascinating cultural history of post-war Japan, the emerging technology and mostly the impact of black music there. A jazz writer Yuchi... > Read more
Chris Hillman: Bidin' My Time (Rounder/Southbound)
9 Oct 2017 | 1 min read
An inevitable pall of sadness hangs over this reflective collection by the former-Byrd/Burrito Brothers etc Chris Hillman. It was the final album the late Tom Petty produced, and he appears here – in an instrumental capacity – alongside a roll call of greats from Hillman's past: they include fellow Byrds David Crosby and Roger McGuinn; Heartbreakers... > Read more
IN BRIEF: A quick overview of some recent international releases
9 Oct 2017 | 3 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 and Yasmin does with EPs. Comments will be brief. . Various Artists: Erased Tapes Collection VIII (Erased Tapes/Southbound)... > Read more
RECOMMENDED REISSUE: JD Blackfoot; The Song of Crazy Horse (Sisapa/Border)
9 Oct 2017 | 1 min read
One of the more rare, unusual and acclaimed albums from the early Seventies, The Song of Crazy Horse by American singer-songwriter Blackfoot has been in and out of availability, and the vinyl commands a pretty decent price on e-Bay. Blackfoot's full story is at his website here. But the shorthand is that after an impressive if not especially profitable... > Read more
Henry Phillips: The Bitch Song (1995)
9 Oct 2017 | 1 min read
Not everything in life is serious and Henry Phillips takes a skewed view of the world. The title track of his album On the Shoulders of Freaks notes that all those great Greek philosophers "had a thing for little boys", that Katherine the Great enjoyed large animals, Hemingway put a bullet through his head, Salvador Dali's paintings were heaven sent even though he... > Read more
JANE IRA BLOOM CONSIDERED (2017): An artist going beyond place and time
9 Oct 2017 | 2 min read
Even in the broad church that is jazz, soprano saxophonist/composer Jane Ira Bloom from Boston has stood out. The early Eighties, for example, found her beginning her explorations of electronics as applied to her soprano, and later in that decade she was the musician commissioned by NASA Arts Programme for which she wrote and performed three pieces across which she... > Read more
THE VODAFONE NEW ZEALAND MUSIC AWARDS 2017: But before we open the envelopes . . .
6 Oct 2017 | 7 min read
There were a few interesting things to observe about the recent APRA Silver Scrolls held in Dunedin. First they were in Dunedin and it seems a good thing to spread the ceremony around . . . although the sound on the broadcast suggested some people down south need to up their game for the demands and expectations of a 21st century audience. It allowed big... > Read more