Music at Elsewhere

Vietnam: The Quiet Room (Rhythmethod/digital outlets)

31 Jan 2022 | 1 min read

When the Scottish band Blue Nile took seven years to release Peace at Last after their album Hats, then another eight before High they earned a reputation for meticulous if leisurely craftsmanship. Lengthy gaps between albums are not uncommon these days. It has been 20 years since Peter Gabriel's last album of original songs and Bill Fay took 31 years between two of his albums. But... > Read more

Josephine Foster: Godmother (Fire/digital outlets)

29 Jan 2022 | 1 min read

Given we've sometimes struggled with the idiosyncratic folk-cum-whatever sound of this Colorado-raised eccentric, we do note we've written about three previous albums. So why stop now? And if you've read some of what we said (“enjoy or endure”) but recoiled a bit, this terrific collection of folkadelics should be the ideal entry point. This is the album to get you... > Read more

Flask of Wine

RECOMMENDED RECORD: Elvis Costello and the Imposters: The Boy Named If

28 Jan 2022 | 1 min read

From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this one which comes with the lyrics and a gatefold sleeve. Check out Elsewhere's other Recommended Record picks . . . . In the late Seventies a David Bowie compilation appeared under the name Chameleon. However chameleons change to blend in, Bowie changed to stand out. Few artists can... > Read more

Cat Power: Covers (Domino/digital outlets)

28 Jan 2022 | <1 min read

Cat Power (Chan Marshall) passed this way with The Covers Record (2000), Jukebox and the Dark End of the Street EP (both 08). Here she again repurposes others' diverse material: Frank Ocean's dramatically holy Bad Religion into downbeat electro-folk; Nick Cave's menacing I Had a Dream Joe throbbing with constrained tension; Kitty Wells' country classic It... > Read more

Houeida Hedfi: Fleuves De l'Ame (Phantasy/digital outlets)

17 Jan 2022 | 1 min read

For further evidence that some of the most interesting music comes when genres or cultures collide you need only look at Elsewhere's list of the best albums of 2021. The albums by Tararua, Arushi Jain, Mdou Moctar, Circuit Des Yeux, Jane Weaver, Namgar, Arooj Aftab, Joy Harjo and others were confirmation. And the list our readers provided includes further examples. Which is by way... > Read more

Various Artists: Songs inspired by the film The Beatles And India (Silva Screen/digital outlets)

17 Jan 2022 | 1 min read

On paper this double CD by Indian artists, among them Anoushka Shankar and Karsh Kale, makes sense because when the Beatles were at the Maharishi Mahesh Yoga's ashram at Rishikesh in early '68 they wrote a swag of songs, many appearing on The Beatles (aka The White Album). The excellent 2020 film put the story into the context of the time and influence of Indian music and Eastern... > Read more

Tall Folk: Wiser (digital outlets)

14 Jan 2022 | 2 min read

As their name implies, this country-folk duo of Jack Ringhand and Lara Robertson out of Dunedin are indeed towering and leggy figures. On this 10-song debut Tall Folk arrive as fully formed and impressive songwriters who shift effortlessly from downbeat political folk (Empire) to the jaunty sounding but lyrically wry (Could Be Worse) and the downright gorgeous soundscape of the title track... > Read more

Neil Young and Crazy Horse: Barn (Reprise/digital outlets)

5 Jan 2022 | 1 min read

Last February Neil Young – who turned 76 in November – released a superb album Way Down in the Rust Bucket with the band Crazy Horse. It went past most. Hardly surprising given in recent decades Young, in addition to releasing new albums, has been hauling releases from his voluminous vaults. A month after Rust Bucket– 145 minutes recorded live in 1990 –... > Read more

RECOMMENDED RECORD: French for Rabbits: The Overflow (Reckless Yes/digital outlets)

16 Dec 2021 | 1 min read

From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this one which comes with the lyrics on the inner sleeve. Check out Elsewhere's other Recommended Record picks . . . . Elsewhere has had a long infatuation with the dreamy folk-pop and gently experimental electronica of French For Rabbits, the New Zealand group of singer/multi-instrumentalist... > Read more

The Dark Arts

Greg Malcolm: Just Like Jim (Ilam Press/bandcamp)

12 Dec 2021 | 1 min read

Guitarist Greg Malcolm appeared recently at Elsewhere with the album A Feast of Tones (in the Experimental Guitars of Aotearoa series) with percussion player Chris O'Connor, recorded live at Auckland's Audio Foundation in 2017. If that was perhaps a challenge for many – improvised music can be, we understand that – then this solo outing recorded at the Audio Foundation in July... > Read more

Brian Wilson: At My Piano (Decca/digital outlets)

9 Dec 2021 | 1 min read | 1

It sounds stupid and obvious to say it, but all songs start somewhere: a few words in a notebook; some chords explored, or – for the likes of Tori Amos, Randy Newman, Jimmy Webb and Brian Wilson – at the piano where all the musical possibilities are laid out in black and white. As Webb told Elsewhere many years ago: “[I'm] looking at my piano, looking at the keyboard and... > Read more

THE LOCAL LIGHT TOUCH? (2021): Unobjectionable sounds for summer

5 Dec 2021 | 4 min read

Once upon a longtime ago reggae was rebel music and righteously indignant about the world. For the most part those days are long gone in Aotearoa reggae. Hard political issues (poverty, domestic abuse, homelessness, disenfranchised communities etc, we gotta lot to address) have been set aside for innocuous statements about love and family. Certainly a few step up (Troy Kingi, Tigi... > Read more

The War on Drugs: I Don't Live Here Anymore (Atlantic/digital outlets)

4 Dec 2021 | 1 min read

Although a lyrical guitarist -- as witnessed on previous albums Lost in the Dream (2014) and the Grammy-grabbing A Deeper Understanding (2017) -- The War on Drugs' Adam Granduciel here sometimes foregrounds acoustic and electric piano (and Hammond organ) to support his complex songwriting. This fifth WoD album extends his increasingly distinctive Americana-cum-psychedelic... > Read more

Ladyhawke: Time Flies (Warners/digital outlets)

4 Dec 2021 | <1 min read

On her first album in more than four years, Ladyhawke (Pip Brown) returns to Eighties dancefloor electro-pop stylings but, despite the crafted surfaces, there's often downbeat reflection, even when channeling Prince-funk on Think About You (“We live in worlds apart, but still you have my heart”). The opener My Love sets a tone (“would it make you sad to lose my love .... > Read more

RECOMMENDED RECORD: Admiral Drowsy: The Gutter Boy Spectates (bandcamp)

3 Dec 2021 | 1 min read

From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this one. Check out Elsewhere's other Recommended Record picks . . . . Unrequested, unannounced and unexpected – actually none of those, I'd forgotten prior correspondence – this vinyl album arrived at Elsewhere's door a week ago, the project of Luke Scott (Admiral... > Read more

Seagull Sun

RECOMMENDED RECORD: Dirt: Bloom (Big Pop/bandcamp)

29 Nov 2021 | 2 min read

From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this one (which comes in a gatefold sleeve with an insert lyric booklet). Check out Elsewhere's other Recommended Record picks . . . . The final song at the end of the first side of this record opens with some familiar lines, but with its menacing, quasi-industrial beat it takes a moment... > Read more

AJ Sharma: Is There a Boat Anywhere? (Thokei Tapes/bandcamp)

29 Nov 2021 | <1 min read

Hamburg's Thokei Tapes (yes, actual releases on cassette tape) continues to unearth and archive small corners of New Zealand music, here the lo-fi alt.folk/indie sound of singer-songwriter Aaron Sharma recorded in various South Island sites in 2018-19. Sharma is an aural documentarian of his life and feelings (Bus, Slugger) and we'd concede immediately that his uneven vocal style and these... > Read more

Stealing Sheep/Radiophonic Workshop: La planete sauvage (Fire/digital outlets)

28 Nov 2021 | 1 min read

While we know there are few things new under the sun, the Avatar film was a jaw-dropper for it technological and visual invention. As always, some couldn't contain their contempt for its somewhat ham-fisted message. But they were mostly cynical adults and not the 12-year olds whose eyes and minds were opened with wonder . . . and got the message. Giant blue humanoid figures had appeared... > Read more

Terr and Tiwa

Adam Hattaway and the Haunters: Rooster (digital outlets)

27 Nov 2021 | 1 min read

Back in the mid 2000s those who were lucky enough to catch Auckland rock band the Checks – and were familiar with the r'n'b sound of the early Stones as much as garaeband rock'n'roll – were smitten by this young group which had swagger and style, and seemed to know that history. You'd think that excitement would be common enough (Dead Flowers and Straitjacket Fits other... > Read more

Robert Plant, Alison Krauss: Raise the Roof (Rounder/digital outlets)

22 Nov 2021 | 1 min read

Aside from the unexpected nature of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss coming together for the Raising Sand album in 2007 was the fascinating selection of material they covered: songs by Everly Brothers, Gene Clark, Tom Waits, Townes Van Zandt, blues . . . That they, the band and producer T-Bone Burnette shaped this diverse material into a cohesive whole made for one of the best albums of... > Read more