Favourite Five Recently Reviewed CDs
Five of the best albums from the recent postings at New Music From Elsewhere. Music too good to let slide into the archives. The Elsewhere place if you are looking for a quick fix of great and interesting albums.
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Kimbra: Primal Heart (Warners)
23 Apr 2018 | 1 min read
Further proof of the benefits of leaving the comfort of home and a loyal local following to try your hand in the wider world. Kimbra out of Hamilton made that leap early in her career when she started to feature on Australian electronica singles (most notably on the Gotye single Somebody That I Used to Know), became as big across the Tasman – where she had relocated – as she was... > Read more
Past Love
Death and the Maiden: Wisteria (Fishrider)
23 Apr 2018 | 2 min read
While it was only right, proper and long overdue that the Apra Silver Scroll award night should be held in Dunedin in 2017 you'd have to say it made for bloody awful television. Many of those there on the night – but by no means all from the naysaying this writer heard privately – attested to what a great night it was and -- with lashings of booze, old friends and a sense of... > Read more
River Underground
Unknown Mortal Orchestra: Sex & Food (Jagjaguwar)
6 Apr 2018 | 1 min read
Much has been made of the various locations at which the tracks on this album were recorded – Seoul, Hanoi, Portland, Mexico City, Auckland and Reykjavik – as well as how eclectic it is: Prince-like soul, scouring rock, funk etc. But it is just how coherent and self-contained it sounds which is so impressive, despite those seemingly disparate factors of place and genre. It... > Read more
How Many Zeros
Eb and Sparrow: Seeing Things (Deadbeat/Southbound)
2 Apr 2018 | 1 min read
In which Ebony Lamb makes a convincing leap from the broadly alt.country/dark folk territory into a singer of brooding soulfulness and coiled constraint (The Timbers, and Death which opens this impressive nine song collection). Here too however are persuasive reinventions of her classic, yearning country balladry (the lovely Baby Blue Eyes, the soaring and sensual Working) and timeless... > Read more
Mt Vic
Hopetoun Brown: Don't Let Them Lock You Up (Rhythmethod)
25 Mar 2018 | 1 min read
The first two albums by the duo of Nick Atkinson and Tim Stewart – Burning Fuse and Look So Good – were enjoyable outings, especially the latter where they broadened their palette beyond their horns with guests like trumpeter Finn Scholes, and singers Tami Neilson and Marlon Williams. But on this third outing they really stretch into new areas with synth beats, backing... > Read more