Flip Grater: Cage For A Song (Maiden/Elite)

 |   |  <1 min read

Flip Grater: Where's the Door
Flip Grater: Cage For A Song (Maiden/Elite)

Christchurch singer-songwriter Flip Grater gives you a lot to think about on this impressive if slightly wayward debut album released late last year.

Grater flips, we might say, from aggro industrial-sounding rock to fragile folk-framed songs. And has some songs which sit at exactly the mid-point of those extreme ends of a very long spectrum.

She also uses a minimalist approach to her musical backdrops -- repeated acoustic guitar figures or a few crunching chords elsewhere -- which in the softer songs throw the spotlight on her enticingly intimate voice.

So get past the two gritty openers and this album steadily opens up into another, more emotionally engaging, world. (But frankly, I like them rockin' openers too.)

Flip Grater makes her return to Elsewhere because after she released this album she did an extensive New Zealand tour and along the way picked up vegetarian recipes from restaurants, cafes and people she stayed with. She has put them together into a cookbook/tour diary (see her offering under Recipes From Elsewhere).

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Music at Elsewhere articles index

Guided by Voices: English Little League (Fire)

Guided by Voices: English Little League (Fire)

Longtime loyalists of this once important alt-rock band from Ohio (b. 1983) enjoyed their exciting outsider pre-grunge rock then endured indifferent albums, line-up changes around core... > Read more

Sarah McLachlan: Laws of Illusion (Sony)

Sarah McLachlan: Laws of Illusion (Sony)

This prime mover behind the Lilith Fair all-women-artists tours of over a decade ago (and resurrected this year) hasn't released a new album in seven years, so in some quarters expectation must be... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

Joe Ely: Live at Antones (2000)

Joe Ely: Live at Antones (2000)

After Joe Strummer's terrific showing at the Big Day Out in 2000, albums by his old band the Clash got a fair thrashing round my way, especially their sprawling three-album set from 1980,... > Read more

THE McCARTNEY LEGACY VOL. 1 1969-73 by ALLAN KOZINN and ADRIAN SINCLAIR

THE McCARTNEY LEGACY VOL. 1 1969-73 by ALLAN KOZINN and ADRIAN SINCLAIR

The opening pages of this scrupulously researched and detailed, small print 700 page book offer an uncharacteristic image of Paul McCartney. He's throwing a bucket of slops and dinner leftovers... > Read more