Music at Elsewhere

SUSS: Birds & Beasts (digital outlets)

2 Aug 2024 | <1 min read

Some years ago we stumbled on SUSS, a New York instrumental trio who create ambient widescreen guitar soundscapes as wide as the deserts and skies of California and Arizona. We loved it, wrote about it favourably and joined the long line of critics who also praised this band. Seems there was a much shorter line of those wanting to buy it however. SUSS are firmly a cult band –... > Read more

Restless

Patron Saint of Hummingbirds: Environmental Music Vol 2 (digital outlets)

31 Jul 2024 | <1 min read

Elsewhere is not averse to ambient or atmospheric music, or even that stateless music which seems designed for relaxation massage centres. When we are writing something which requires concentration it can provide an interesting backdrop which puts a curtain between the focus and the noise of life outside. Patron Saint of Hummingbirds is the performance name of a Californian artist (who... > Read more

11.11

JessB: Feels Like Home (digital outlets)

29 Jul 2024 | 2 min read

It is perhaps unusual and maybe even unseemly that a man of a certain age (plus a decade or more) should be so taken with a young woman rapper. But from the first time I saw her at an Auckland City Limits festival in 2018 I was struck, and over the years was always delighted to introduce her music – and her as a role model – to my uni students.... > Read more

Power, ft Sister Nancy and Sampa the Great

Cassandra Jenkins: My Light, My Destroyer (digital outlets)

29 Jul 2024 | <1 min read

It has become quite a recognisable phenomenon: women like Georgia Lines, St. Vincent, The Weather Station (Tamara Lindeman), Weyes Blood, Julia Jacklin and many others pushing the parameters of contemporary music and redefining poetic art-pop for adults. Brooklyn-based Cassandra Jenkins is in their ranks too. Her previous album An Overview on Phenomenal Nature was skilfully arranged,... > Read more

Petco

Lime Cordiale: Enough of the Sweet Talk (digital outlets)

29 Jul 2024 | 1 min read

As we have noted previously in reference to the Australian brothers Oli and Louis Leimbach, we are shameless in our love of pop music which does little more than entertain and make us feel good for the running time of the song. Therapeutic music, stuff where an artist faces their demons or deals with emotional isolation in lockdown are all very well and we take them seriously, but sometimes... > Read more

Cold Treatment

Beechwood Sparks: Across the River of Stars (digital outlets)

26 Jul 2024 | <1 min read

Looking for that album which brings to mind the Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers, the solo careers of Roger McGuinn and Gene Clark, maybe even some of Tom Petty's country-flavoured Southern rock? Then Beechwood Sparks out of California are your band because they recognise that the wheel is pretty serviceable as it is and doesn't need reinventing. With jangling country guitars, close... > Read more

High Noon

Gracie Abrams: The Secret of Us (digital outlets)

22 Jul 2024 | 1 min read

The internet is a cauldron of hatred, cruel comments, racism (most -isms in fact) and poison. And that's just the comments it lets you see, there is so much worst floating around in the dark corners, feeding like minded nasty bastards, conspiracy morons and lunatic political or religious groups. It even infects the most ordinary of aspects of culture, like pop music which for the most... > Read more

Blowing Smoke

Linda Thompson: Proxy Music (digital outlets)

22 Jul 2024 | 1 min read

People of “a certain age” speak of Linda Thompson with some approaching awe and reverence. Her albums with her former husband Richard Thompson – who has appeared frequently at Elsewhere in reviews and interviews – are the stuff of legend: marriage, love, separation all distilled into songs. However you read it, albums by the Thompson entitled I Wanna See the Bright... > Read more

Or Nothing at All

JOHN LENNON'S MIND GAMES, REISSUED (2024): Remixed and Revisionist

18 Jul 2024 | 6 min read

The recent release of Paul McCartney's l974 live-in-the-studio set One Hand Clapping – and, more particularly, the very detailed book The McCartney Legacy, Vol. 1 1969-1973 – served to remind just how chaotic and unfocused his career was in the immediate post-Beatles period. In many ways his former partner's was even more so. John Lennon had already released some... > Read more

You Are Here, Elemental Mix with guitarist Sneaky Pete Kleinlow

Matt Langley: As Real As You Want It To Be (digital outlets)

15 Jul 2024 | 1 min read

It has been many many years since we heard from singer-songwriter Matt Langley whose previous albums were praised far and wide (at Elsewhere, by Nick Bollinger, Simon Sweetman and others). But eight years on from his acoustic album Winterdust, and from Japan where he now lives, Langley has been back in touch because . . . He has teamed up with his former collaborator/producer/bass... > Read more

Waking Dream

Bonny Light Horseman: Keep Me On Your Mind/See You Free (digital outlets)

14 Jul 2024 | <1 min read

This is a weighty 18 song double album of heartache mixed with some of life's pleasures which is best when judiciously sampled, otherwise this can feel like a long ride with the Horsemen which only occasionally breaks into a canter. The Horsemen are a folk-Americana semi-supergroup – solo artist/singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell, multi-instrumentalists Eric D. Johnson (formerly of... > Read more

When I Was Younger

Skilaa: Tiger in the River (digital outlets)

8 Jul 2024 | 1 min read

Now this is very interesting and something very different by this ensemble of local artists, many of whom met at the University of Auckland jazz school. As did the Beths. But they took their interest into indie.rock and Skilaa use jazz vocals, scatting and hip-hop and soul as their stepping off point. So imagine early Arrested Development who grew up with Sarah Vaughan and Flora... > Read more

Bite Like That

Anna Coddington: Te Whakamika Loop/digital outlets)

8 Jul 2024 | 1 min read

From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this album which comes in a striking cover and has an insert sheet of credits and some explanatory notes by the artist. Check out Elsewhere's other Recommended Record picks . . . . On an album where the title alludes to showing appreciation, respect or paying a compliment, the... > Read more

Kātuarehe

Peggy Gou: I Hear You (digital outlets)

8 Jul 2024 | <1 min read

We should know Peggy Gou better: her humid dancefloor hit (It Goes Like) Nanana has had more than 466 million Spotify streams and she lounges in fashion magazines. Born in South Korea, currently Berlin-based and an eclectic electronica artist, DJ and fashion icon, Gou comes across as the hippest woman in the club and the go-to gal for Kylie Minogue (whose Can't Get You Out of my Head she... > Read more

1+1= 11

Johnny Cash: Songwriter (digital outlets)

1 Jul 2024 | 1 min read

In his thorough Johnny Cash: The Life biography in 2013, the writer Robert Hilburn didn't flinch from pointing out that for a couple of decades before the American Recordings series, Johnny Cash was in a wilderness of pills, ill-health, poor decisions and pretty lousy albums. As Hilburn notes, “In the 23 years since he cut his first record at Sun, Cash's resume included some 1800... > Read more

Poor Valley Girl

John Cale: POPtical Illusion (digital outlets)

1 Jul 2024 | 1 min read

We have said it before will doubtless say it again and so might as well say it now: Elsewhere has long considered John Cale as the most consistently interesting member to emerge from the Velvet Underground. Certainly Lou Reed was a great artist but there were many albums which failed to spark and no matter how much slavish fans would want to elevate some of them they are perhaps just the... > Read more

Davies and Wales

Gary Harvey: Outta My Head (digital outlets)

30 Jun 2024 | <1 min read

We have previously expressed our considerable admiration for blues-rocker Gary Harvey who is one of the great journeymen in local music. He's been in bands since the 1960s and has never stopped working. Now living in Tauranga, he did there what he'd done in Auckland for decades: found like-minded musicians, got gigs and started recording his original songs while also doing the artwork and... > Read more

Name of the Father

Sean Cunningham: Whatever That Is (digital outlets)

28 Jun 2024 | 1 min read

Kaylee Bell has successfully embraced the mainstream country-rock sound of Nashville, and Nashville-based Sean Cunningham has located himself closer to the alt.country genre. Kentucky-born Cunningham is mentioned here in the Bell context because he too has a local connection, albeit a bit tenuous. In 2007 as the short-lived Atlas – with former Zed bassist Ben Campbell, his singer... > Read more

North

Earth Tongue: Great Haunting (digital outlets)

26 Jun 2024 | <1 min read

In another guise Earth Tongue's Gussie Larkin (guitar, vocals) is upfront with Mermaidens but in Earth Tongue with drummer/singer Ezra Simons she indulges in a love of Goth-kissed prog-rock and riff-heavy stoner rock (which can sometimes veer perilously close to a straight-faced Spinal Tap). Influenced by horror movies and such – title include Out of the Hell, Bodies Dissolve... > Read more

Grave Pressure

Lenny Kravitz: Blue Electric Light (digital outlets)

24 Jun 2024 | <1 min read

Some artists have a style so distinctive they become an adjective: Dylanesque and Lennonesque (the the manner of Bob and John respectively), Waitsean (after Tom) and so on. Such descriptors provide a convenient shorthand. One of the most -esque/-ean/-like artists has been Lenny Kravitz who has the uncanny ability to appropriate from myriad sources (Prince, Marvin Gaye, Hendrix) and... > Read more