Music at Elsewhere
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Tom Kerstens' G Plus Ensemble: Utopia (Real World/Southbound)
9 Aug 2010 | <1 min read
Although nominally a contemporary classical album -- English acoustic guitarist Kerstens and a string quartet -- this delightful, deep, meditative and probing album should find wide favour beyond the recital hall. Kerstens has commissioned from outside the classical world for this debut of his G Plus ensemble (which includes The Tippett Quartet) and among the composers are New Zealander... > Read more
Tom Kerstens: The Number 88
Mark Olson: Many Colored Kite (Ryko)
8 Aug 2010 | 1 min read
As a founder member of the Jayhawks - and for the album '09 Ready for the Flood with former-Hawk Gary Louris -- Olson would always command a fair hearing, but this 11 track outing with roots of fingerpicking Anglofolk as much as Americana becomes a very difficult haul. Although Olson seems to have put some of his demons behind him his vocals here are narrow in emotional range and often... > Read more
Mark Olson: Bluebell Song
Koop: Best of Koop 1997-2007 (K7)
8 Aug 2010 | <1 min read
When it comes to cool, sophisticated, swinging and intelligent clubland-cum-lounge pop, Koop out of Sweden take some beating. The electronica duo of Oscar Simonsson and Magnus Zungmark sensibly bring in acoustic players (clarinet, vibes, sax, flute, bass and so on) to ground their music in the world of jazz, and also pick up classy female vocalists who bring a breathy, sensual quality to... > Read more
Koop: Let's Elope
Donna Dean: What Am I Gonna Do? (Ode)
2 Aug 2010 | 1 min read | 1
When it comes to country music (alt. or country-rock) Donna Dean has the credentials: the gal has done it all -- marriage, kids, divorce, rehab, bars and clubs, opening for the likes of Willie Nelson, Jimmy Webb and the Penn-Oldham team . . . She spent time in London and Europe, recorded her debut album Money with The Amazing Rhythm Aces in Nashville, and for this follow-up recorded in... > Read more
Donna Dean: Empty Big Blue Sky
Upper Hutt Posse: Tohe (Kia Kaha)
2 Aug 2010 | 1 min read
For quite a while it seemed that the seminal Aotearoa/New Zealand hip-hop outfit Upper Hutt Posse might have been reduced down to Dean Hapeta, who was actually appearing under the name Te Kupu (aka The Word). But here, on an album which kicks along on the back of staccato, minimalist dubstep beats and huge reggae style bass, the Posse are again at it . . . this time Hapeta and his brother... > Read more
Upper Hutt Posse: Mana Motuhake
Various Artists: Teach Me to Monkey (Vampisoul/Southbound)
2 Aug 2010 | <1 min read
Chris Kenner wasn't kidding when he wrote Land of 1000 Dances in '62 – which became a minor hit for Cannibal and the Headhunters, then the wicked Wilson Pickett and dozens of others. In the early 60s it seemed like America was kicking up a new dance craze – the Monkey, the Pony, the Jerk, the Mashed Potato, the Watusi – every other week and teen magazines had pages... > Read more
Carol Ford: Your Well Ran Dry (1964)
Various Artists: Eccentric Soul; Smart's Palace (Numero/Southbound)
2 Aug 2010 | <1 min read
An earlier volume of not dissimilar desperate, crazy, urgent, cheaply-recorded and often exciting soul from the Sixties and Seventies drew great praise at Elsewhere (see here) -- and, once again -- although you might never have heard a single name previously -- you can't help but be hooked by the sheer energy these artists bring. Smart's Palace was a somewhat seedy club in -- improbably --... > Read more
Theron and Darrell: It's Your Love (1970)
Lotus Mason: Lotus Mason (Glowb)
2 Aug 2010 | 1 min read
London-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Blair Jollands (interviewed in 2004 here) is one of New Zealand's best-kept expat secrets. With his band El Hula he crafted some of the finest post-Bowie dramatic ballads (with a touch of alt.country) and his strong, elegant voice has drawn favourable comparisons with Scott Walker and Bowie at his peak in the late Seventies. He... > Read more
Lotus Mason: Dream of You
Wai: Ora (Wai/Jayrem)
2 Aug 2010 | 1 min read
When the debut album, 100%, by Maaka McGregor and Mina Ripia (aka Wai) was released in 2000 (see here) it was hailed as a ground-breaking event for its deft blend of te reo (Maori language) and electronica. Yet in many ways the musical landscape had been laid by the likes of Dalvanius with Patea Maori, and then Moana who had also sung in te reo and used the sound of amplified poi (and, in... > Read more
Wai: Hone Taiapa
Tono and the Finance Company: Fragile Thing EP (Border)
1 Aug 2010 | 1 min read | 1
One of the nicest things about small indie artists is the care they lavish on the presentation of their low-key albums. Witness the delightful Tokey Tones albums or even the more rough-hewn albums on Flying Nun where the art was a signifier of the contents. And so it is with this terrific, confident, witty and repeat-play six-song EP which comes in an "exquisite corpse" cover (the... > Read more
Tono and the Finance Company: Barry Smith of Hamilton
Emilie Simon: Presents The Big Machine (Cartell)
1 Aug 2010 | <1 min read | 1
Frankly I was stunned when I read a recent review of this astonishingly annoying, very ordinary album which awarded it five stars. That kind of rating I think should be reserved for albums you will be still listening to in a year . . . and a decade. I found it hard to get through this one twice. French singer Simon (known more for classy videos than her musical talent) brings to the table... > Read more
Emile Simon: Ballad of the Big Machine
Flip Grater: While I'm Awake I'm At War (Maiden)
1 Aug 2010 | 1 min read
New Zealand singer-songwriter Flip Grater has a rare distinction at Elsewhere: she's the only artist so far who has previously had music posted (here) as well as recipe (here) which she picked up on the road for her cookbook. This beautifully arranged album, produced by Tim Guy, delivers through understatement as Grater's vocals are soft, almost hinting at the style of introspective French... > Read more
Flip Grater: Low Light
Renee Geyer: The Definitive Collection 1973 - 1998 (Mushroom)
1 Aug 2010 | <1 min read
This great Australian soul, funk and blues singer appeared at Elsewhere recently -- more of that in a minute -- but here by coincidence is 18 track collection of some of her finest moments from her four decade career, including her gutsy take on James Brown's classic It's A Man's Man's Man's World on which she really shines. Also here is her version of If Lovin' You is Wrong, the live... > Read more
Renee Geyer: Shakey Ground
Bob Dylan: Folksinger's Choice (Left Field/Triton)
31 Jul 2010 | 2 min read
One of the revelations of the first of Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series was the maturity of his voice for one so young. Songs like Moonshiner showed a wisdom and understanding well beyond his years. And this remarkable, and previously rare, album confirms that point -- and many more about the young Dylan and how he saw himself. Not as a folksinger, he says in one of the interesting snippets of... > Read more
Bob Dylan: Smokestack Lightnin'
Katie Melua: The House (Dramatico)
26 Jul 2010 | 1 min read
Those who have followed Melua's career might be a little surprised by this outing -- and if you haven't then this might be the album to tune in for: dramatic, dark, hypnotic, cabaret-noir, lovely ballads, enough pop-smarts everywhere . . . and a strange sense of sonic discloaction from producer Wiliam Orbit. They all make this quite a grower. Although she previously worked with Mike Batt... > Read more
Katie Melua: The One I Love is Gone
Blitzen Trapper: Destroyer of the Void (Sub Pop/Rhythmethod)
26 Jul 2010 | <1 min read
More so than their previous releases, this band from the Pacific Northwest seem to ladle in dollops of trippy glam-adelica in the opening overs of this thoroughly enjoyable outing. It's as if a thinking person's band from the late Sixties or mid Seventies has beamed down into the post-grunge pop world (or vice-versa) of Portland and whatever the images and angst in the lyrics are wrapped in... > Read more
Blitzen Trapper: Laughing Lover
Pete Molinari: A Train Bound for Glory (Clarksville)
26 Jul 2010 | 1 min read
English music magpie Molinari's previous two albums alerted you to a folk-driven singer-songwriter who was unashamed of wearing influences but bringing a neat twist to them: his Walking off the Map in '06 cheerfully plundered Hank Williams and pre-66 Bob Dylan (and delivered a beautiful new standard in Indescribably Blue); his follow-up A Virtual Landscape added Sam Cooke soul, Lonnie... > Read more
Pete Molinari: To Be Close to Your Heart's Desire
Laurie Anderson: Homeland (Nonesuch)
19 Jul 2010 | <1 min read
From the accompanying DVD, you sense this should have been a double CD for us to fully appreciate the long arc and nuances of this, Anderson's first album in a decade. Anderson's work is allusive rather than literal or descriptive, but in these often disturbing, melancholy and dislocated meditations on the state of her country, some thread is missing between her feeling... > Read more
Laurie Anderson: Strange Perfumes
George Jones: The Great Lost Hits (Time Life/Southbound)
18 Jul 2010 | <1 min read
Lawd almighty, but ain't there been some archival albums appearing lately? In the past few weeks Elsewhere has noted albums of Bob Dylan barely out of his teens (here); Kris Kristofferson before the fame (here), Willie Nelson's earliest material (here) . . . and now the great George Jones. The honky-tonk balladeer, country weeper (Things have Gone to Pieces -- see clip below -- is one... > Read more
George Jones: Take Me
Jamie Liddell: Compass (Warp/Border)
18 Jul 2010 | 1 min read
There is certainly no shortage of white soul singers these days (Hall and Oates seem to be making a comeback too), but Liddell from the UK brings a neat post-Prince funky skew and a techno-twist to his songs which, stripped of some of the considerable sonic effects and colours here, still stand as fine, inner-city soul vehicles for his high but malleable voice. This is at its weakest when... > Read more