Music at Elsewhere

Various Artists: A Day in My Mind's Mind: The Kiwi Psychedelic Scene (Frenzy)

21 Jul 2025 | <1 min read

We have passed this way a few times over the years but the CDs in this Mind's Mind series – up to volume five now – disappear from shelves quickly. So it is sensible to get this 30 song collection out there. It appeared as a limited edition double album at the time when Real Groovy celebrated it 33 1/3 birthday 2014 and we pointed to it then. But this is a terrific... > Read more

Nirvana, by 40 Watt Banana

Polar Extremes: Strange Visions (digital outlets)

21 Jul 2025 | 1 min read

Okay, this is just odd fun . . . with a sense of smarts and cultural history behind it. And although it came out in 2019, it disappeared and has only now gone back up on digital platforms. so . . . Not too many locals might even recognise the horse-flesh resonance of the opening title, Racing This Time (did the great commentator Reg Clapp coin that phrase?), but the album... > Read more

Captain Zodiac's Dictionary

Jay Epae: The Mercury/Capitol/Viking Recordings (Frenzy)

16 Jul 2025 | 1 min read

The archivist and avid compiler of New Zealand artists' recordings Grant Gillanders has written an excellent and assiduously researched article at audioculture about the remarkable life and career of singer/songwriter Jay Epae, a lightly edited version reproduced as the extensive liner notes for this thorough 29 song (and some soundbite promo pieces) collection. Epae from Manaia in Taranaki... > Read more

I'll Cry Tomorrow

Arcades: Who's Most Lost (Rattle, digital outlets)

14 Jul 2025 | 1 min read

A highly unusual release from Rattle who, let's be honest, release quite a lot of highly unusual contemporary classical and improvised music. That's their thing, really. However here David Prior and Dugal McKinnon – who met at Birmingham Uni while doing PhDs in composition – offer a kind of avant-folk pop on this album which was originally released in 2011 but has been now... > Read more

You Were Born Into This

Jesse Welles: Pilgrim (digital outlets)

14 Jul 2025 | <1 min read

Because we introduced American politico-folk singer Jesse Welles not that long ago – noting he was grounded in Dylan's solo, acoustic protest singer days – we will make this brief, although we do suggest that if you hear nothing else, check out his song War Isn't Murder we posted there. He's still mining a similar vein – one of the songs here is Grapes of Wrath – but... > Read more

Philanthropist, ft Billy Strings

The Reds, Pinks and Purples: The Past is a Garden I Never Fed (Fire/digital outlets)

7 Jul 2025 | 1 min read

We will admit immediately that we had never heard of the Californian artist Glenn Donaldson who goes by this endearing name and opens this album with the song The World Doesn't Want Another Band. He has apparently written a couple of hundred songs and released eight albums since 2018. Clearly we've got a lot of catching up to do, but before then we are immersing ourselves in this smart... > Read more

Slow Torture of an Hourly Wage

ONE WE MISSED: Trousdale: Growing Pains (digital outlets)

7 Jul 2025 | <1 min read

Released in April but flying straight past us, this new album from the LA-based trio of Quinn D’Andrea, Georgia Greene, and Lauren Jones serves up concise, guitar-driven country-rock, harmonies and smart songs mostly recorded live in the studio to capture their energy and integrity. Some of this second album deals with the fatigue and expectations after their... > Read more

Lonely Night

Jazmine Mary: I Want to Rock And Roll (digital outlets)

7 Jul 2025 | 1 min read

Auckland's Jazmine Mary (Australian-born Jazmine Phillips, identifying as they/them) has confounded and impressed over her previous two albums: her downbeat The Licking of a Tangerine picked up Best Independent Debut at the 2022 Taite Prize and their recommended follow-up DOG appeared in many best-of lists in 2023. Their music is along the axis of noir-folk, kinda gloomy but... > Read more

Memphis

Autocamper: What Do You Do All Day? (digital outlets)

6 Jul 2025 | <1 min read

Some days, overcome by the stress of living in the troubled first quarter of the 21st century, you just want an album to play a bit too loud and which isn't therapeutic for the artist whose troubles gets dumped on you. Welcome then to your computer, car or turntable Manchester's Autocamper who like the idea of jangly guitars and alt.rock with slightly melancholy pop inclinations. And... > Read more

Map Like a Leaf

RECOMMENDED RECORD: Annahstasia: Tether (digital outlets)

30 Jun 2025 | 1 min read

From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this which comes with full credits on an insert sheet, a fold out lyric sheet and a framable cover. Check out Elsewhere's other Recommended Record picks . . . . If we're honest, few artists are wholly original or have the capacity to surprise. Most work in familiar, codified genres... > Read more

Take Care of Me

Evan Silva: 6IX (digital outlets)

29 Jun 2025 | <1 min read

Those with a very long memory may recall Evan Silva as singer in The Action in the Sixties and as the more soulful man with the large Afro (he wrote his autobiography, Beneath the Afro, a few years back). He's been long gone from this country but had a decent career in Australia and as a committed Christian he has a podcast, has done jingles and intermittently releases albums. We've picked... > Read more

It's Gett'n Late

People of the Sun: People of the Sun (digital outlets)

27 Jun 2025 | 1 min read

Out of New Plymouth, this heavyweight trio of Joseph Anderson, Djordje Nikolic and Tom Scrase don't want for ambition with this debut album which opens with a slow heartbeat and taonga puoro then moves into the relentless, steadily building acid rock on the eight minute Lisurgen. These announce an album of real substance from accomplished musicians who ride the line between punishing metal... > Read more

Elders

Leigh: Empathy for my Future Self (digital outlets)

26 Jun 2025 | 1 min read

This confident and mature debut album by an Auckland-based singer and multi-instrumentalist embraces electro-noise (She's Back), thrusting electro-pop (He's Giving, March of the Cucks), disruptive pop (Purple Pals, the skittering Comfortable?) and classy, swooning pop (Twenty-Two). The album's backstory here is in Comfortable?: “Take another name, 'Ca-me-ron' don’t feel right .... > Read more

I Still Love the Moon

The Bajanaires: The Last Cowboy (digital outlets)

23 Jun 2025 | 1 min read

From the cover to the contents this is damn fine album of Americana (with some local inflections) from musicians with real road miles behind them: multi-instrumentalist Rob Sinclair, writer/singer Ann Frances Woolliams and writer/ multi-instrumentalist Bevan Revell. The Bajanaires – like Gary Harvey who takes a more tough Texas blues approach – are grounded in America because... > Read more

Country Road

Phoebe Rings: Aseurai (digital outlets)

23 Jun 2025 | 1 min read | 1

We come at this in reverse because when we went to see the American band Japanese Breakfast we were delighted to find that the opening act was Auckland's Phoebe Rings . . . and we had been listening to this new album (launched on the night) all day in anticipation of writing a review. It's a damn good album as you may read, but on the night they were a little disappointing: they were... > Read more

Drifting

King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard: Phantom Island (digital outlets)

19 Jun 2025 | <1 min read

On their 27th album since 2012, Melbourne's psychedelic jam-band flatly refuse to be categorised easily with this beefy, orchestrated collision of horn-driven rock'n'soul (Deadstick), rocking left-field folk with flute and strings (Lonely Cosmos) and something like a heavily medicated ELO pulled towards funky space-rock (Eternal Return). There's a fair bit of cosmic prog-rock here too on... > Read more

Deadstick

19-Twenty: Call It What You Want (digital outlets)

19 Jun 2025 | 1 min read | 1

This Australian blues-soul band have played at an alphabet of festivals (more than 70!) across their homeland and for two years running were the people's choice winners at the Bridgetown Blues Festival in Western Australia. The three-piece – Kane Dennelly (vocals/guitar), Jeremy Berg (drums), and John Gwilliam (double bass) – can be a take-no-prisoners band and their 2019 album... > Read more

Havin' a Good Time

RECOMMENDED RECORD: Mary Chapin Carpenter: Personal History (Thirty Tigers/digital outlets)

17 Jun 2025 | 2 min read

From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this which comes with full credits, lyrics and is "pressed on D2 Ultra Premium vinyl for superior audio quality". We'll confirm that. Check out Elsewhere's other Recommended Record picks . . . . At 67 Mary Chapin Carpenter has long since moved beyond categories... > Read more

New Religion

Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts: Talkin to the Trees (digital outlets)

16 Jun 2025 | 1 min read

So it turns out the answer to the question, “Is there enough Neil Young in the world or exactly the right amount?” is “Not enough”. With Talkin to the Trees, his 48th studio album, Young adds to the pile of previously unreleased live albums, box sets and track-shuffling reissues. Young is heading towards his 80s as one of the most prolific recording artists of... > Read more

Let's Roll Again

Broad Oak: Broad Oak (digital outlets)