Music at Elsewhere

John Martyn (1948-2009)

9 Feb 2009 | 1 min read | 4

The death of this remarkably gifted British singer-songwriter in late January has gone largely unreported, but here we pay tribute to his exceptional talent. Martyn was originally associated with the British folk scene in the mid-Sixties but his ambition and interests could not be contained there. Within a few years he had plugged in and was exploring innovative sonic effects, bringing an... > Read more

John Martyn: Baby Please Come Home (from Grace and Danger, 1980)

The Lafayette Afro-Rock Band: Darkest Light, The Best of (Strut)

9 Feb 2009 | <1 min read

As I understand it (and I've never heard of these guys before) this band was a loose affiliation of ex-pat US musicians who got together in France in the Seventies and delivered such primo funky soul-rock that they have been heavily sampled by the likes of Public Enemy, De La Soul and Jay-Z. They wrote their own stuff but also covered period classics such as Manu Dibango's Soul Makossa . . .... > Read more

The LaFayette Afro-Rock Band: Hihache

Van Morrison: Astral Weeks, Live at the Hollywood Bowl (EMI)

9 Feb 2009 | 1 min read | 3

After years -- nay, decades -- of his indifferent albums it was real pleasure to post Van Morrison's excellent, understated Keep It Simple last year and then later pick it as one of the Best of Elsewhere 2008. When added to the non-chronological and slightly erratic re-issue programme, Van the Man seemed to be making something of a comeback to the frontline, albeit on the back of his earlier... > Read more

Van Morrison: Cypress Avenue/You Came Walking Down

Andrew Bird: Noble Beast (Fat Possum)

8 Feb 2009 | <1 min read | 1

Multi-instrumentalist and musical chameleon Bird has been an impossible character to pin down: in a good way. As mentioned at the time his Armchair Apocrypha -- which was one of the Best of Elsewhere 2007 albums -- he navigated his way from a bent, back-alley jazz with hints of Tom Waits and searing violin, to a kind of alt.rock/country-noir territory and these days has more in common with... > Read more

Andrew Bird: Not a Robot, but a Ghost

The Fireman: Electric Arguments (Shock)

8 Feb 2009 | 3 min read | 1

Paul McCartney -- who is half of The Fireman with producer/remixer Youth -- has always adopted a curious but probably sensible dichotomy when it comes to music outside of his pop-rock releases. The full title of his classical album of 1993 was Paul McCartney's Liverpool Oratorio, and his small classical composition (played by pianist Anya Alexeyev) released two years later was Paul... > Read more

The Fireman: Universal Here, Everlasting Now

Bruce Springsteen: Working on a Dream (Sony)

2 Feb 2009 | 2 min read | 1

As a longtime listener to Bruce Springsteen and somewhat of a fan, it is still possible to be clear-eyed about his ever-expanding catalogue. His great period was certainly 1973-84 (from The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle to Born in the USA) but it has been judicious pickings since then. The Ghost of Tom Joad ('95) was a remarkble return to the dark form of his Essential Elsewhere... > Read more

Bruce Springsteen: The Last Carnival

Rhian Sheehan: Standing in Silence (Loop)

1 Feb 2009 | <1 min read

I have no idea of Sheehan's standing in the local electronica community, I am sure some may pass this album off as a bit light -- but I've always had a soft spot for his interesting sonic landscapes which seem to me to owe an intellectual (not necessarily a musical) debt to Brian Eno's albums such as Music for Films, Music for Airports and his intelligent ambient output in the Seventies.... > Read more

Rhian Sheehan: Standing in Silence Part 2

Seun Kuti and Fela's Egypt 80: Seun Kuti and Fela's Egypt 80 (Southbound)

1 Feb 2009 | 1 min read

About a decade ago Julian Lennon, doubtless sick of invidious comparisons with his famous father, recorded a quite nice Beatlesque piece of pop and made this very funny Beatles-cum-Rutles video to accompany it. As mentioned in relation to Sean Lennon (who has also resorted to humour to survive The Legacy), Ziggy Marley and Anoushka Shankar, it can be something of a cross to bear if... > Read more

Seun Kuti: African Problems

Oumou Sangare: Seya (World Circuit/Elite)

1 Feb 2009 | <1 min read

Somewhat surprisingly no previous album by this compelling singer from Mali has been posted at Elsewhere. Believe me she's a favourite around the house and this album now gives me the chance to rectify that oversight. The title means "joy" and that tells you where she is (mostly) coming from. A singer since she was in her teens, she toured Europe in a band which included the great... > Read more

Oumou Sangare: Donso

Various: Palermo Shooting soundtrack (Shock)

31 Jan 2009 | 1 min read

Few soundtracks can be considered essential (although Ennio Morricone's music for The Good, The Bad and The Ugly certainly is) and this one is no exception. That said, there is a lot that is appealing here, not the least unreleased tracks by Elsewhere favourites Grinderman, Bonnie Prince Billy, German electronic genius Irmin Schmidt from Can and a couple of others I've never heard of (Get... > Read more

Grinderman: Dream

Stephen Oliver and Matt Ottley: King Hit (IP)

31 Jan 2009 | 1 min read | 1

Elsewhere has always had a soft spot for poetry/spoken word and interesting writing, and in the past has posted from the likes of Selina Tusitala Marsh who is a compelling Pasifika voice, and from the AUP book/double disc Contemporary New Zealand Poets in Performance, as well as posting interviews with, or articles about, writers such as Beat legend Lawrence Ferlinghetti, black-British reggae... > Read more

Stephen Oliver/Matt Ottley: Stalin's Cotton Socks

Empire of the Sun: Walking on a Dream (Capitol)

30 Jan 2009 | 1 min read | 1

Not to be confused with the Spielberg movie of the same name (or an album title perilously close to Springsteen's current Working on a Dream), this is a project of (former Kiwi/now Australian) Luke Steele of Elsewhere favourites The Sleepy Jackson and Nick Littlemore of the electro-band Pnau (and who previously in Teenager with Ladyhawke). One wag has said that when he saw photos of the duo... > Read more

Empire of the Sun: Half Mast

The Moody Blues: Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 (Shock)

29 Jan 2009 | 1 min read

For someone who was never a big fan, I seem to have an unnatural amount of Moody Blues on my shelves: their first six albums from '65 to '70, and the '94 four-disc box set Time Traveller (which actually has a 5th disc I discovered about four minutes!). To be honest I doubt I had played any of them for a decade, but when I first heard that exceptional Fleet Foxes album last year I thought I... > Read more

The Moody Blues: Have You Heard (Parts 1 and 2)

Shane Nicholson: Familiar Ghosts (Liberation)

26 Jan 2009 | <1 min read

Anyone who heard the exceptional alt.country Rattlin' Bones album by Australians Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson of last year (one of the Best of Elsewhere 2008 albums) -- or better still caught them in concert -- will need no second invitation to this, Nicholson's third solo album. A number of these often brooding and always literate songs will be familiar from the concert, but here is... > Read more

Shane Nicholson: You and Your Enemy

Various: Manipulado (Love Monk/Border)

24 Jan 2009 | <1 min read

The Spanish producer/composer Gecko Turner's album Guapapasea! got a good notice at Elsewhere some while back, so this remix album of his stuff hit the player pretty quick-smart . . . especially when among the "manipulado" artists are Boozoo Bajou, Quantic, Afrodisiac Soundsystem, Seiji, Mexican Institute of Sound and others. Let it just be observed then that, as we might... > Read more

Blackbeard's Scotch Mist Remix: Tieso

Old Crow Medicine Show: Tennessee Pusher (Shock)

23 Jan 2009 | <1 min read

Reviewers have struggled to label this Nashville-based outfit, but they certainly sit somewhere along the contemporary bluegrass (new-grass?), alt.folk/country Americana axis with nods to old time music, Dylan (the opener here, Alabama High-Test, is bent bluegrass in the manner of Subterranean Homesick Blues) and the early Band. They may adopt the instrumentation of a century ago (acoustic... > Read more

Old Crow Medicine Show: Alabama High-Test

Jr Kong: 12 inch biscuit press (Kong)

22 Jan 2009 | 1 min read

You will be no wiser about who Jr Kong is by looking at his website, where his bio says only that he's a budding songwriter, producer and DJ, has played in high school bands, sung in a church choir and scored for short films. Where and when any of this happened remains a mystery. (The phone number I have is a New Zealand mobile, and I do admire the fact that he has "an assistant".)... > Read more

Jr Kong: 6pm in the Morning

Lou Reed's Berlin: Lou Reed, Julian Schnabel (Madman DVD)

21 Jan 2009 | 1 min read

Elsewhere last year posted Lou Reed's 1973 Berlin as an Essential Elsewhere album, also noting the CD release of the soundtrack to this filmed concert of the album, staged and directed by Julian Schabel. Berlin was an album that begged to be filmed and indeed there were loose plans, but then the album tanked, Reed had to hit the road to deliver his contractual obligation album Rock'n'Roll... > Read more

Gianmarco Liguori: Ancient Flight Text (Sarang Bang)

18 Jan 2009 | <1 min read | 1

The previous album by Liguori (guitarist in Salon Kingsadore) was Stolen Paintings which found favour at Elsewhere for its jazz stylings and nicely stretching quality. This time out -- again with Murray McNabb and Kim Paterson (and percussion player Steven Tait and Wes Prince on synths for one track) -- Liguori teases the threads even further apart for evocative, improvised... > Read more

Ascending Spirals

Jeb Loy Nichols: Parish Bar (Compass)

18 Jan 2009 | 1 min read

Some background to this guy who kicks off this winning album with a terrific song which sounds likes a distillation of JJ Cale, classic soulful disco and slippery Boz Scaggs basslines. Nichols was born in Wyoming and raised in Missouri, assimilated country music and jazz from the radio, and when he was 14 his family moved to Austin where he saw "everything from Funkadelic to Bob Marley... > Read more