Music at Elsewhere

Kiki Rockwell: Rituals on the Bank of a Familiar River (digital outlets)

19 Jun 2023 | 2 min read

The late art critic Robert Hughes once said in a radio interview, with glib accuracy, that post-modernism simply meant one image is worth as much as any other. La Gioconda occupying the same frame and emotional space as Gyro Gearloose, the horse's head in Guernica of the same value as the one in The Godfather. In popular music the genres are mostly so circumscribed (country, rock, EMD)... > Read more

Tom Lark: Brave Star (digital outlets)

14 Jun 2023 | 1 min read

One of the many advantages of dream pop is that it delivers on its product description in a way that other labels – alternative (to what?), indie and metal – simply don't because they are so diverse, the terminology too inexact. But as with power pop, dream pop is an idiom which isn't too disparate and conforms to certain norms. In the case of dream pop they are a kind of... > Read more

Ratso: Live in Otautahi (digital outlets)

12 Jun 2023 | 1 min read

A friend – who has been worshipping at the church of Auckland garageband rock'n'rollers Ratso dozens of time – and I (a more recent convert) agreed on something important about this band. That of all the offshoots of the wonderful D4 – Jimmy Christmas' Luger Boa and bassist Dion Lunadon's solo albums or with A Place to Bury Strangers – Rasto, with D4 bassist Jake... > Read more

Loose End

Dead Famous People: Ballet Boy (digital outlets)

10 Jun 2023 | 1 min read

For about 30 years we didn't heard anything from Dead Famous People who disappeared off to London in the Eighties . . . and then in 2020 their debut album “Harry” appeared on Britain's Fire label, delivering a glistening collection of joy-filled Seventies power pop and straight-ahead Sixties jangle-pop. Singer-songwriter Dons Savage must have been cheered by the critical... > Read more

Come Back Liar

Bob Dylan: Shadow Kingdom, The Early Songs of Bob Dylan (digital outlets/vinyl/CD)

10 Jun 2023 | 1 min read

During lockdown tireless old Bob Dylan released his exceptional double album Rough and Rowdy Ways (yep he was old, 79 at the time) and also -- in a typical sleight of visuals – presented a 50 minute black'n'white concert film (by Israeli director Alma Har'el) where he went way back in his catalogue for songs like Tombstone Blues, It's All Over Now Baby Blue, The Wicked Messenger and Just... > Read more

Tombstone Blues

The Cosmic Debris: The Cosmic Debris (Carnival Din/digital outlets/limited vinyl)

9 Jun 2023 | 1 min read

About six years ago Alan Perrott (who DJs as House of Bamboo) and music archivist John Baker pulled together a fascinating Heed the Call compilation of New Zealand soul-funk and disco from various obscure albums and the vaults of musicians. It was a rare one because these were idioms which largely went by most artists. Hats off then to Auckland's Tony Richards who here presents 10... > Read more

Floating in the Air

Bad Taste: Bad Taste II (digital outlets)

6 Jun 2023 | 1 min read

We'll admit immediately we had never heard of Bad Taste until this album arrived, but we were certainly aware of David Alphabethead from the enjoyably noisy Wellington band All Seeing Hand. Alphabethead is here (on samples and electronics) with rapper Young Gho$t on a doom-laden collection of downbeat electro/hip-hop which delivers thrusts and slaps at the state of contemporary society,... > Read more

Looks Wrong

The Barnestormers: The Barnestormers (digital outlets)

3 Jun 2023 | 1 min read

Yes, the cynical might say he's done rock, soul and even a Christmas album . . . . so why wouldn't Jimmy Barnes do a rockabilly album? Fair point, but to hear him tell it he's been a fan of the pre-rock'n'roll style since growing up with it through his older brother John's collection, and then in Cold Chisel days listening repeatedly to a cassette of the Johnny Burnette Rock and Roll Trio in... > Read more

Gerald Cleaver: 22/23 (Positive Elevation/577 Records/bandcamp)

3 Jun 2023 | <1 min read

New York's 577 Records has popped up at Elsewhere a few times, but so far for edgy free jazz. The label now has an interesting imprint Positive Elevation which is dedicated to electronic sounds and avant-soul. And that first category certainly suits Detroit's Gerald Cleaver who comes from the home of house music and musical innovation. On this, his third album for the Positive... > Read more

Leon Russell: Signature Songs (Dark Horse/digital outlets)

2 Jun 2023 | 1 min read

Bill Janovitz of Buffalo Tom has a fine parallel career as a music writer with his work appearing in The Observer, at esquire.com and his books on the Rolling Stones getting very favourable reviews: Rocks Off through St Martin's Press and his analysis of Exile on Main St through Bloomsbury 33 ⅓. His most recent work is the massive Leon Russell: The Master of Space and Time's Journey... > Read more

Delta Lady

Various Artists: New Zealand @ 33⅓, Volume One (Frenzy CD)

29 May 2023 | 2 min read

Just when you thought archivist Grant Gillanders couldn't find any new material to excavate from the Sixties he taps another vein of local nuggets. More on that recent discovery as it comes to hand – it's a cracker and unexpectedly raw. But meantime here's an interesting repackaging of deep cuts and obscurities: 33 tracks lifted from albums by the likes of the Merseymen,... > Read more

Dream Lover, by Dinah Lee

Rose City Band: Garden Party (Thrill Jockey/digital outlets)

27 May 2023 | <1 min read

Elsewhere almost missed the delightful 2020 album Summerlong by this band which is a vehicle for multi-instrumentalist Ripley Johnson (Wooden Shjips) until we heard a glorious track of a compilation. Then we jumped on it for its lazy country stylings of steel guitar, bluegrass and Byrdsian jangle (think Wasn't Born to Follow and Ballad of Easy Rider). But dammit we missed their... > Read more

Anna: Intentions (Mercury KX/digital outlets)

22 May 2023 | <1 min read

Brazilian-born Lisbon-based DJ electronica producer Anna's debut album Intentions is a gloriously warm collection of shimmering ambience which features the longtime Elsewhere favourite Laraaji on the spacious, seven minute Receiving. As with Laraaji, Anna's ethereal and layered electronica has something of a spiritual aspect, a kind of meditative situation created for transformative... > Read more

I See Miracles Everywhere

Terrible Sons: The Raft is Not the Shore (digital outlets)

21 May 2023 | 1 min read

Behind the somewhat misleading band name is a measured folk duo from Ōtautahi Christchurch whose 2018 Half Awake, Half Asleep EP sprung the unexpected hit Tears Don't Fall, clocking almost 21 million Spotify streams. Gentle, philosophical and steeped in natural imagery, this debut album is better understood by its title referencing the difference between perception and reality,... > Read more

Sunset Swimming

RECOMMENDED RECORD: Pitch Black: Ape to Angel (Dubmission/digital outlets)

20 May 2023 | 3 min read

From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this which comes as a remastered double album in a gatefold sleeve (with an additional rare track), the first vinyl release of Pitch Black's 2004 breakthrough album. Check out Elsewhere's other Recommended Record picks . . . . When, in 2004, Elsewhere interviewed Mike Hodgson... > Read more

Like Angels: Your Time Will Come (Failsafe/digital outlets)

17 May 2023 | 2 min read

From his longtime home in Japan, Rob Mayes oversees the extensive reissue of albums on his Failsafe label, now celebrating 40 years of independent releases. And he's not beyond new releases either: witness this beautifully packaged double CD in a gatefold cover with a booklet of brief explanatory notes and pertinent photos. Like Angels is in fact the one-man project of Robert McLean... > Read more

Year Zero

The Winebox Inquiry: Liquid Air (bandcamp)

15 May 2023 | <1 min read

You'd have to concede this about Wellington's William Daymond: he moves on and can't be put in any convenient box. In the late 2000s he was drummer in the indie-rock band Terror of the Deep and as he admitted in 2014, “We like to keep things fun and interesting. We just play what we want. We started kind of poppy, then went psych, now we’re doing prog and almost garage... > Read more

Downpour

Maxine Funke: River Said (Disciples/digital outlets)

14 May 2023 | 1 min read

From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this one which comes with a lyric sheet and a digital download. Makes sense to get it on vinyl given it is, as you may read, an album of two distinct sides. Check out Elsewhere's other Recommended Record picks . . . . Esoteric, sepia-toned and skeletal folk goes back to before the recently... > Read more

Willow White

RECOMMENDED RECORD: Jonathan Bree: Pre-Code Hollywood (digital outlets)

14 May 2023 | 1 min read

From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this which comes as a classy package of white vinyl inside a shiny silver insert sleeve and with a lyric sheet. Check out Elsewhere's other Recommended Record picks . . . Belgian surrealist Rene Magritte's 1928 painting Two Lovers had the kissing couple's heads swathed in... > Read more

Ingrid and the Ministers: Boofhead (digital outlets)

14 May 2023 | <1 min read

Enthusiasm at recent shows for the briefly re-formed D4, reductively absurd Guitar Wolf and the Schizophonics confirmed raucous, guitar-injected punkish rock'n'roll still provides ear-scouring retro-pleasure for a broad demographic. On this second album – collecting six previous singles – the capital's Ingrid and the Ministers marry T. Rex and Joan Jett to wheel-spinning ZZ Top... > Read more