The Album Considered
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MILTOWN STOWAWAYS, TENSION MELEE, CONSIDERED (1983): Forget about heat, feel the beat
10 May 2021 | 2 min read
Auckland's Unsung label, on which this album appeared, had previously released adventurous, category-defying and often very interesting left-field albums by Big Sideways and Avant Garage, and the 3 Voices album. The first two of those were loose ensembles which included musicians from classical, jazz, blues and rock backgrounds (and futures). 3 Voices was saxophonist David Bowater... > Read more
DAN FOGELBERG. PHOENIX, CONSIDERED (1979): Truer than any tree that every grew. Really?
3 May 2021 | 3 min read
Even after a long lifetime of following music – often down blind alleys or into unnerving places – it always surprises me how many albums, artists and genres went past me. I got the whole Kraftwerk, Can, Neu! and Popul Vuh thing with diversions into Cluster and so on – but Sparks and Yellow Magic Orchestra went right on by. I have more albums by Supertramp, who I don't... > Read more
ERROL SCORCHER AND THE REVOLUTIONARIES: RASTAFIRE, CONSIDERED (1978): A long life after his death
19 Apr 2021 | 1 min read
Jamaican DJ Errol Scorcher (born Errol Archer in the parish of St Catherine in 1956) wasn't much known outside of the hardcore reggae audience in the world beyond his homeland. However back in JA he enjoyed a number of hits and was a staple on the sound systems. But although his song Peace Truce celebrated the stand down between political rivals which lead to the famous One Love Peace... > Read more
ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN, CROCODILES, CONSIDERED (1980): We're going up up up, again
5 Apr 2021 | 3 min read
Almost 20 years after the Beatles brought the spotlight and microphones to their hometown, Liverpool was once again the sight-lines of the music world. A 1980 UK compilation of Northern bands, Hicks From the Sticks, singled out Nightmares on Wax, Modern Eon and Wah! Heat from Liverpool. Of them Wah! Heat (subsequently Wah!, the Mighty Wah! And other variants) were the most... > Read more
GEORGE MARTIN: OFF THE BEATLE TRACK, CONSIDERED (1964): From him to you
4 Apr 2021 | 4 min read
It can't be denied that George Martin was indispensable to the Beatles in the studio for his arranging, orchestration and playing skills. It's hard to imagine if we'd ever have heard Yesterday, In My Life, Eleanor Rigby, Strawberry Fields Forever, I am the Walrus and many other classics in the same manner if it hadn't been for his input. His pre-Beatle work with sound and tape effects for... > Read more
RAS KIMONO, WHAT'S GWAN, CONSIDERED (1990): The conquering lion of Lagos
29 Mar 2021 | 2 min read
Known as the Nigerian rub-a-dub master, Ras Kimono -- sometimes Raz Kimono -- came to attention in reggae circles with his first two albums Under Pressure (1988) and this follow-up two years later. Distributed by PolyGram meant that he got more of a foothold than many African reggae artists and his likable boasting on Rub-A-Dub Master on this album became his signature, following Rum-Bar... > Read more
JEAN-PAUL BOURELLY: JUNGLE COWBOY, CONSIDERED (1987): His avant-gotta direction debut album
15 Mar 2021 | 3 min read
In an interview with Elsewhere some years ago, Vernon Reid of the seminal black rock band Living Colour observed that once they got through the door of the hierarchy of the white rock critical community the access for other black rock bands slammed shut behind them. It was like, “We'll we've got our black rock band, why would we need another?” Something similar happened in... > Read more
GEORGE SHEARING AND MEL TORME: AN ELEGANT EVENING, CONSIDERED (1985): Moonbeams and dreams
8 Mar 2021 | 2 min read | 1
In 1988 pianist George Shearing and singer Mel Torme appeared at the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts in Wellington. As a journalist I was there to cover it and scored interviews with everyone from David Harrington of the Kronos Quartet and Wynton Marsalis (the former I went on the town with, the latter I guided around the Michael Fowler Centre where he was to play) to Maxim... > Read more
ZAWINUL: DIALECTS, CONSIDERED (1986): Keyboard player speaking for himself
19 Feb 2021 | 2 min read
Keyboard player Joe Zawinul had recorded albums under his own name before this one, but the self-titled previous one had been in '71, 15 years back. In the interim he'd sprung to forefront of attention with Weather Report, the group he founded with saxophonist Wayne Shorter and bassist Miroslav Vitous which was not just in the vanguard of jazz-fusion in the Seventies but for many the... > Read more
REDD KROSS: RESEARCHING THE BLUES, CONSIDERED (2012): Power pop with attitude
15 Feb 2021 | 1 min read
There are always those artists you hold an unnatural affection for: Elsewhere's list includes Pere Ubu, the Dwight Twilley Band, the Unforgiven, Bob Seger (before he went soft), the Rolling Stones (in the Sixties), the Chills and Clean . . . And Redd Kross out of California who managed to weld power pop to indie-rock, like the Searchers or the Shoes on speed, urgency and the knowledge... > Read more
STEVIE WONDER: THE SECRET LIFE OF PLANTS, CONSIDERED (1979): Trimming and pruning required
8 Feb 2021 | 3 min read
Every now and again a book comes along and captures the imagination of many. Recently there has been the Oprah-approved The Secret and Eat Pray Love (“Now a major motion picture starring Julia Roberts!”). The late Sixties and Seventies seemed awash with popular books passed hand-to-hand: anything by Carlos Castaneda (drugs and enlightenment, man), Chariots of the Gods... > Read more
HOWARD MORRISON: BORN FREE, CONSIDERED (1968): Each time you look at a star?
1 Feb 2021 | 2 min read
There could be no greater proof of the random nature of Elsewhere's The Album Considered pages than this one pulled off a shelf. Few in their right mind would want to play this ancient, MOR release by Howard Morrison let alone write about it. And even fewer would want to admit to having it. (Disclaimer: Mine was in a box of free-to-a-good-home records which included Graham Brazier,... > Read more
THE RAINMAKERS: THE RAINMAKERS, CONSIDERED (1987): God, Little Richard and JD Salinger
18 Jan 2021 | 3 min read
As we've noted previously, some of the albums puled off our shelves to consider are a mystery when it comes to why they were there in the first place. But how this album by a rock'n'roll band out of Kansas City, Missouri ended up in residence is easy to remember. It came my way just before Christmas 1987 – my first year as a writer at the Herald – and was a gift from my... > Read more
PREACHER JACK: 3000 BARROOMS LATER, CONSIDERED (1984): Pass the bottle and praise the Lord
11 Jan 2021 | 1 min read
When Elsewhere pulls albums off the shelf to consider for this on-going column it is a random process. Sometimes they can be a forgotten classic, at other times pretty rubbish and then there are those where the question we ask ourselves, “How did I get this?” Our Album Considered pages have more than a few like the latter: albums that we didn't even know we had, and aren't sure... > Read more
GENE PITNEY: GENE PITNEY'S BIG SIXTEEN, CONSIDERED (1964): Teardrops topping the charts to dead alone in Cardiff
4 Jan 2021 | 4 min read | 1
Although the British Invasion in 1964-65 severely damaged the careers of many US artists – pretty-boy male singers most notably – a few survived the incursions. And in the case of Gene Pitney, paths sometimes crossed. Before the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show in February '64, Pitney from Connecticut had scored major hits with aching songs like A... > Read more
LEGAL REINS: PLEASE THE PLEASURE, CONSIDERED (1988): It's humpage Jim, but not as we know it
28 Dec 2020 | 1 min read
If there is any consensus about this American trio from LA – and believe me you search in vain for even just a few references to them – it was that they were ahead of their time. But that's actually the opinion of their drummer Tim Freund. He also said he couldn't understand why the band didn't make it adding “just goes to show even Clive Davis blows it... > Read more
DAVID LINDLEY AND EL RAYO-X; VERY GREASY, CONSIDERED (1988): A Caribbean cruise in your own backyard
21 Dec 2020 | 1 min read
Without going the whole Buble/Christmas album route, there is some music which is seasonal. And the Caribbean/Chicano/Louisiana warmth coming off this album by multi-instrumentalist and Ry Cooder-pal David Lindley is certainly one for summer listening. The album was produced by Linda Ronstadt who, along with Jackson Browne, adds backing vocals on one track: the delightful treatment of... > Read more
VARIOUS ARTISTS; SLY AND ROBBIE PRESENT TAXI, CONSIDERED (1981): Reggae inna state of change
16 Nov 2020 | 2 min read
In the early Eighties reggae was reeling after the death of Bob Marley, the figurehead of style he popularised and, for the great middle-ground audience, was the genre's most identifiable figure. But when reggae had broken in the early Seventies on the back of Marley and the Wailers' upward trajectory, it was apparent to close observers that the tiny island of Jamaica was awash with talent:... > Read more
OLIVER LAKE and JUMP UP: PLUG IT, CONSIDERED (1983): Forget art and argument, let's dance
9 Nov 2020 | 4 min read
First of all, you have to remember the period in which this album by saxophonist Oliver Lake arrived: Wynton Marsalis was making his career run on the back of his neo-conservative stance (hailing Ellington and early Miles, dismissing post-bop, fusion and free jazz etc) and in his corner he had the bullish critic and cheerleader Stanley Crouch. Marsalis being articulate, sharp, handsome and... > Read more
THE BETA BAND: THE 3 EPs, CONSIDERED (1998): The four amigos from Glasgow
3 Nov 2020 | 2 min read
By the time Scotland's Beta Band got to their self-titled debut album in '99, many writers and fans felt they had already done their best work. It has been on three separate EPs – Champion Versions ('97), The Patty Patty Sound and Los Amigos Del Beta Bandidos (both '98) – which had enjoyed such a cult following that they were repacked as The 3 EPs which took their slacker... > Read more