Music at Elsewhere
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Infinity, Infinity (infinitymusic.co.nz)
12 Jun 2017 | 1 min read
Infinity are guitarist/bassist, keyboard player Pateriki Hura and drummer Cameron Budge from, I believe, Hastings and this is their all-instrumental debut. And you have to hand it to them, the opener is a spacious 11 minute piece entitled Infinity (they do seem to have a penchant for that word) which is three-part slice of enjoyably free-floating space rock which get tangentially David... > Read more
Caris' Land
Roger Waters: Is This Really the Life We Want? (Sony)
11 Jun 2017 | 1 min read
Elsewhere is of the unwavering opinion that most of Roger Waters' recorded output and ideas – most notably Pink Floyd's The Wall, a demandingly bleak and pretentious concept album – are more an endurance test or aural torture than they are insightful music. Yes, we know that The Wall is HUGE and popular, and knowing that we try sometimes to have another go at it, but to no... > Read more
Picture That
RECOMMENDED REISSUE: Bob Marley; Exodus (Universal)
2 Jun 2017 | 1 min read
Rightly considered among Marley’s finest albums, some say the finest, Exodus was released six months after the attempt on his life and was recorded in London where he forced to hole up after getting out of Jamaica. It found him extending his musical palette (the deep martial beat of the title track, the poppy Three Little Birds which was “the most charming and stupidest... > Read more
Dodson and Fogg: Follow The Path (wisdomtwins)
29 May 2017 | <1 min read
In which Elsewhere once again hopes to draw your attention to the very prolific Dodson and Fogg – aka Chris Wade – from Leeds (music, books, artwork, articles, film, see here!) whose releases come wrapped in interesting cover art by his wife Linzi Napier. They are quite the cottage industry . . . and very industrious. On this collection Wade plays everything himself and as... > Read more
Leave (Feel the Wind Blow)
Los Straitjackets: What's So Funny 'Bout Peace, Love and Los Straitjackets (YepRoc/Southbound)
29 May 2017 | <1 min read
This classy American instrument outfit from Nashville – who have done three tours with the great Nick Lowe – here undertake 13 songs from his extensive catalogue to offer moody soundtrack-like treatments of ballads (You Inspire, I Read a Lot), Shadows-styled covers (All Men Are Liars, the title track), nods to Ventures and surf instrumentals (I Live on a Battlefield, Heart of... > Read more
You Inspire Me
!!!: Shake the Shudder (Warp)
24 May 2017 | <1 min read
Cali-founded band !!! (aka Chk Chk Chk) – now in their natural home of New York's dance clubs – are not so retro in their disco/funk crossover that they are a signpost to the future. They are just enjoyably channeling the tropes of black and gay clubs in the Seventies and here – with a revolving door of female singers assisting – provide mirrorball movers which... > Read more
Dancing is the Best Revenge
IN BRIEF: A quick overview of some recent international releases
22 May 2017 | 3 min read
With so many CDs commanding and demanding attention Elsewhere will run this occasional column which scoops up releases by international artists, in much the same way as our SHORT CUTS column picks up New Zealand artists. Comments will be brief. . Arca: Arca (XL/Rhythmethod) People like Bjork, Anohni and this Venezuelan-born and London-based producer (Alejandro... > Read more
Mark Mulcahy: The Possum in the Driveway (Mezzotint)
22 May 2017 | 1 min read
If American Mark Mulcahy is known at all in New Zealand it might only be for his part in the indie.rock outfit Miracle Legion who broke up in '96 after more than a decade and then reformed last year. (Maybe just briefly given a pointed lyric here in The Fiddler). You'd prefer Mulcahy however to be known for his excellent solo album Dear Mark J Mulcahy I Love You of four years ago.... > Read more
Catching Mice
Asgeir: Afterglow (Inertia/Rhythmethod)
22 May 2017 | <1 min read
Given the genre – somewhere between orchestrated electronica, ambient and embellished folk – this second album from Iceland's Asgeir should grip at Elsewhere. But it just doesn't. Because you sense behind some of the glitch-electro and airy vocals this is very familiar and much traversed territory. Where its predecessor Into the Silence had evocative and dream-folk... > Read more
Nothing
Matthew Smith: Matthew Smith (Lyttelton/Southbound)
16 May 2017 | 1 min read
Former rock frontman (of the atmospheric and crunching Von Voin Strum), Matthew Smith here (mostly) gets the knobs turned down and – with a small band, some important and sympathetic colleagues including co-producer and mixer Ben Edwards in the Sitting Room, mastering by Chris Chetland – initially brings an unexpected and intimate low-lights indie.folk voice to the fore on... > Read more
Why Are We Waiting
Larry Morris: Anthology (Frenzy)
15 May 2017 | 1 min read | 1
Larry Morris would be the first to admit that his was a wild ride for a decade after Larry's Rebels gatecrashed the New Zealand music world of the Sixties with a harder edge, a proper rock'n'roll attitude to pop, a string of memorable singles (many of them covers but with their own stamp) and excellent live shows. Morris was only in his mid teens when all that started but a decade on... > Read more
Here and There
Penguin Café: The Imperfect Sea (Erased Tapes/Southbound)
12 May 2017 | 1 min read | 1
The former Penguin Café Orchestra under the baton of the late Simon Jeffes were never for just anyone, they were for everyone. Their string minimalism and quirkiness (try the odd Telephone and Rubber Band from their self-titled second album in ’81) found them labelled as classical, avant-garde, indie.folk, ambient . . . Jeffes – who died in ‘97 -- even... > Read more
Ricercar
IN BRIEF: A quick overview of some recent international releases
8 May 2017 | 3 min read
With so many CDs commanding and demanding attention Elsewhere will run this occasional column which scoops up releases by international artists, in much the same way as our SHORT CUTS column picks up New Zealand artists. Comments will be brief. . Willie Nelson: God’s Problem Child (Sony) At 83 and with the passing of recent companions and fellow musicians... > Read more
Fazerdaze: Morningside (Flying Nun)
5 May 2017 | 2 min read
There’s a gentle and typically thoughtful pop song Take It Slow at the midpoint of this excellent debut album. In it Auckland singer-writer Amelia Murray (aka Fazerdaze) sings, “It seems so far already, seems so far to go, I don’t know if I’m ready . . . I’ll take it slow”. It could be a song about reticent commitment in a relationship but anyone... > Read more
Take It Slow
Slowdive: Slowdive (Dead Oceans/Rhythmethod)
5 May 2017 | 1 min read
We’ve said it before but it does bear repeating: there seems to be a (welcome) return of shoegaze . . . and when we essayed the absolutely terrific retrospective box set Still in a Dream we specifically mentioned UK band Slowdive with singer Rachel Goswell and “the great Neil Halstead”. As singer/guitarist Halstead observed some years after Slowdive broke up in the... > Read more
Don't Know Why
Clap Clap Riot: Dull Life (CCR)
3 May 2017 | 1 min read
Elsewhere’s penchant for classic pop-rock with allusions to punk bristle and power pop elevation gets another shot of pleasure from CCR (our one, who previously appeared in one of our best of the year lists). And again they deliver a vinyl-length collection of smart and memorable songs (11 in 38 minutes). In their bag of memories (conscious and unconscious) they have bits of Big... > Read more
Tired of Getting Old
IN BRIEF: A quick overview of some recent international releases
30 Apr 2017 | 3 min read
With so many CDs commanding and demanding attention Elsewhere will run this occasional column which scoops up releases by international artists, in much the same way as our SHORT CUTS column picks up New Zealand artists. Comments will be brief. . Rhiannon Giddens: Freedom Highway (Nonesuch) As America turns even more deeply divided along lines of race and class... > Read more
SHORT CUTS: A round-up of recent New Zealand releases
28 Apr 2017 | 2 min read
Facing down an avalanche of releases, requests for coverage, the occasional demand that we be interested in their new album (sometimes with that absurd comment "but don't write about it if you don't like it") and so on, Elsewhere will every now and again do a quick sweep like this, in the same way it does IN BRIEFabout international releases. Comments will be brief.... > Read more
David Dallas: Hood Country Club (Universal)
25 Apr 2017 | 1 min read
Davis Dallas is one of the most important artists in contemporary New Zealand because he broadcasts from a deep culture and articulates important ideas from within it. His song Southside (with Mareko and Sid Diamond) from his last album Falling Into Place four years ago title is essential listening and a voice that demands to be heard. This time out on... > Read more
Don't Rate That
Paul Gurney with The De Sotos: Shadow of Love (Tailgator/Aeroplane)
24 Apr 2017 | <1 min read
On this third album by the long-running De Sotos out of Auckland, their singer-songwriter gets his name out front for the first time but their gentle country-rock with pedal steel (by guest Janek Croydon) remains largely intact. Singer, guitarist, banjo and mandolin player Gurney writes understated and melodic songs and the band deliver them with sensitivity. There's also a modesty... > Read more