Favourite Five Recent Releases
Five of the best albums from the recent postings at Elsewhere. Music too good to let slide into the archives. The Elsewhere place if you're looking for a quick fix.
Subscribe to my newsletter for weekly updates.
Ferocious: Ferocious (Rattle)
9 Mar 2020 | 2 min read
It should come as no surprise to anyone who has followed Bill Direen's diverse musical and literary career that he should record an album for Rattle. He was there before punk, was briefly on Flying Nun then embarked on a career of music (with the Builders/Bilders etc), writing (prose, poetry, journals), theatrical presentations and much more. In the Eighties he flirted with the... > Read more
Extraordinary Day
Kate Owen: Not a Proper Girl (Southbound/digital outlets)
9 Mar 2020 | 1 min read
The interesting boxes are all ticked here: singer-songwriter Kate Owen is from Lyttelton (the Liverpool/Austin of Aotearoa?), recorded this with Ben Edwards there, had it mastered by Chris Chetland in Auckland, it is crowd-funded by believers . . . All it needs then is for Owen to deliver . . . and on an album which has prickly guitars alongside widescreen ballads and soundscape songs... > Read more
Heathen's Prayer
Nadia Reid: Out Of My Province (Spacebomb/Rhythmethod)
6 Mar 2020 | 2 min read | 1
Some decades ago there was a lengthy promotion aimed at New Zealanders which went, “Don't leave home until you've seen the country”. Which is admirable and was designed to promote local tourism. I'd add, “And once you've done that get yourself out into the world as soon as possible”. There is quite often an unthinking parochialism – right now bordering... > Read more
Pictish Trail: Thumb World (Fire/digital)
24 Feb 2020 | 2 min read
British psychedelic music has always been a very different animal to that of America's (and let's not get into the Italians at this point!). Often grounded in weird folk, classical music, British whimsy and eccentricity, during its heyday in the late Sixties it spawned artists as diverse as the Incredible String Band, Procol Harum and early Pink Floyd (before Dark Side). There has been... > Read more
Slow Memories
Various Artists: Mansfield (CYP/digital outlets)
20 Feb 2020 | 1 min read
Anyone who endured Katherine Mansfield short stories in high school or is cynical about the growth industry of books, theses, research projects and such around this famous New Zealand author might like to set aside prejudice for this collection. Another project by Wellington singer-songwriter Charlotte Yates – following similar collections of words by Witi Ihimaera, Hone Tuwhare and... > Read more