THE MAGAZINE FOR CURIOUS PEOPLE
Elsewhere is a concept and a place, and Graham Reid goes there for his wide angle travels, writing, music review and interviews with writers, musicians and artists.
Elsewhere is an on-line magazine for new music (we filter out the mundane and spotlight the more interesting albums), different travel, arts and more. It is dedicated to the diversity and possibilities of Elsewhere. It's an equal opportunity enjoyer. Subscribe here (it's free) for a weekly newsletter. Welcome . . .
Latest posts
THE VINYL REVIVAL (2025): The Long Play podcast
8 Oct 2025 | 1 min read
At some time in the late Eighties I was asked to write a piece about the death of vinyl. Sales were sliding and CDs had taken over as the preferred format. Big, expensive and heavy if you are moving house, the pile of LPs was becoming dead weight. My article had an illustration by Richard Dale of a record in a sombrero riding off into the sunset. But then in the... > Read more
HERB ALPERT AND THE TIJUANA BRASS. WHIPPED CREAM AND OTHER DELIGHTS, CONSIDERED (1965): He had all the bases – and the cover – covered
6 Oct 2025 | 3 min read | 1
We might never know what A&M Records designer Peter Whorf was thinking when he decided to have model Dolores Erickson on the cover of this Herb Alpert album covered in whipped cream (in fact it was shaving cream) but it certainly did the trick. The album topped the Billboard charts for two months and the cover has become a kitschy classic, often parodied. At the... > Read more
JOHN KENNEDY, AT AUDIOCULTURE: The Kiwi who created British rock'n'roll
6 Oct 2025 | 2 min read
An expatriate New Zealander in the right place at the right time helped launch British rock’n’roll. In 1956, John Kennedy was a suave opportunist in his mid-twenties who would become a clever and shameless publicist-cum-PR operative in London showbiz circles. He had, as Nik Cohn wrote, “flair, invention and a fast mouth”. In the mid... > Read more
ONE WE MISSED: Stress Assassin: Within the Office of Eye and Ear (Dubmission, digital outlets)
6 Oct 2025 | 1 min read
Yes, we did miss this one. And by a considerable margin. But we forgive ourselves because this double vinyl from a Swedish producer Henrik Jonsson came out in 2010. We wouldn't have known about it all but recently we wrote a short review piece at Substack about a Pitch Black event and this album has been relaunched through Dubmissions Records (which also... > Read more
Brain Plate
The Pointer Sisters: How Long; Betcha Got a Chick on the Side (1975)
6 Oct 2025 | <1 min read | 2
Long before they became a smooth soul-pop machine in the mid Eighties and beyond, the Pointer Sisters (then a quartet of June, Bonnie, Anita and Ruth), delivered some slashing r'n'b funk such as this self-penned (Anita and Bonnie, with producer David Rubinson) single which went to number one on the soul charts and 20 on the main Billboard charts. A stunning all-in... > Read more
Big Thief, Double Infinity (digital outlets)
6 Oct 2025 | 1 min read
Elsewhere has been quite taken with New York's Grammy-nominated alt.folk band Big Thief and although we were less enamoured with their 2019 UFOF album we enjoyably hung in all the way on their 2022 double Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You and could hear how singer-songwriter Adrianne Lenker was persuasively capable on diverse styles. Her 2024 Bright... > Read more
Incomprehensible
Rhian Sheehan and Arli Liberman, Traces (digital outlets)
6 Oct 2025 | 1 min read
Some albums can act as calling cards for further work in particular areas, like instrumental albums which hint at getting soundtrack commissions. Because Rhian Sheehan and Arli Liberman individually have numerous soundtrack credits already, we can guess that Traces – which is very cinematic – is made for their own pleasure and to share their impressive,... > Read more
Sentio
Alan Brown: Encircle (Rattle Records)
6 Oct 2025 | <1 min read
Elsewhere has amassed quite a collection of reviews and such of Auckland keyboard player and sonic explorer Alan Brown. We've reviewed albums, had a profile and he answered one of our jazz questionnaires. That latter was because in addition to his recent ambient-cum-atmospheric albums he was in Blue Train, played with Nathan Haines and was part of the Grand Central... > Read more
Set Adrift
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . . DOROTHY ASHBY: Harpist and beyond
5 Oct 2025 | 5 min read
Until the “rediscovery” of Alice Coltrane's spiritual albums in the past decade or so – with reissues of her Impulse! albums and tapes from the ashram -- the harp in jazz was considered about as hip as the flute when Ron Burgundy played it in Anchorman. These days – in part thanks to the likes of Zeena Parkins, alt.folkie Joanna Newsom and maybe... > Read more
Alistair Fraser: Liminal Exit (Oro, digital outlets)
29 Sep 2025 | <1 min read
Given that liminal means something like a place of transition, a space between other places or a threshold, the title here – where traditional taonga pūoro co-exists with 21st century technology in the form of effects pedals and sound manipulation – is also a descriptor. Alistair Fraser explores that marriage of the past and future in pieces which... > Read more
Nanotides
Cate Le Bon: Michelangelo Dying (digital outlets)
29 Sep 2025 | 1 min read
Cate Le Bon has been carrying the banner of intelligent art-pop – in the wake of Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, Laurie Anderson and others – for many albums now. And there are places and passages on this typically ambitious album where her voice could be removed and you'd still be seduced by the sheer cleverness and dexterousness of the arrangements and... > Read more
Love Unrehearsed
JUDY MOWATT INTERVIEWED (1990): The black queen arises
29 Sep 2025 | 5 min read | 1
Judy Mowatt wears her unofficial title “the queen of reggae" easily. A striking figure of regal bearing, she holds her head high, and, as a member of The Twelve Tribes of Israel, talks as easily about the Queen of Sheba in ancient times as she does about Yellowman, and DJ dancehall stars in Jamaica today – and shows a canny knowledge of chart... > Read more
Judy Mowatt: Mother Africa
From Scratch: 625 Moons (AFR, digital outlets)
29 Sep 2025 | 2 min read
Some decades ago when I hosted my own free-format radio show or was a guest I'd play some early From Scratch for my own amusement (and because I liked it). I'd wait for the switchboard to light up like a Christmas tree. The consensus from those who rang in was along the lines of “what the hell is that boring shit?” Percussion music without the visuals... > Read more
With Fish Thought Extinct
The Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire
THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE HIGHLY PERSONAL QUESTIONNAIRE: Pickle Darling
29 Sep 2025 | 6 min read
As Pickle Darling, Lukas Mayo (they/them) has quietly releases a series of EPs, singles and albums which sneak up on you. We've written about their earlier Laundromat and a fortnight ago their new and more ambitious album Battlebots. Mayo seduces with glockenspiel and hushed guitars to deliver fascinating miniatures which are very personal but also cleverly abstract.... > Read more
Human Bean Instruction Manual
ANOTHER 10 ODD UNPLAYED ALBUMS IN THE COLLECTION: Make them stop!
29 Sep 2025 | 10 min read | 3
In a previous column I wrote with some embarrassment about 10 odd unplayed albums which had sat on my shelves for many, many years. Decades in some instances. And many of them never even getting close to being played. They were my adopted but unloved children. Some had arrived in my halfway house between pressing and trashing on the strength of their weird... > Read more
Peel Dream Magazine: Taurus (Topshelf/digital outlets)
29 Sep 2025 | <1 min read
Last year by chance we came upon this interesting, low-key cosmic jangle-pop trio from LA and their album Rose Main Reading Room. Earlier this year we picked up on the reissue their 2018 Modern Meta Physic and were again quietly enthusiastic. This new album is a bit slight and is eight songs left off Rose Main Reading Room, but isn't without its charms and these... > Read more
Believer
THE RETURN OF DAVID BOWIE (2025): Everyone says Hi again, spaceboy
29 Sep 2025 | 4 min read
In January it will be a decade since the death of David Bowie. Like most people I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news. My phone rang just as we were about to go in to dinner at a North Wharf restaurant with my son and his wife over from London for a holiday. They were leaving the next day but what should have been a happy... > Read more
The Off-Set: You're a Drag (1966)
29 Sep 2025 | <1 min read
When it came to forming groups in the Sixties, Don Sallah was a serial offender. Mostly studio-based, Sallah started the decade in Little Moose and the Hunters (he was the wee moose), recorded an all-instrumental album as The Pioneers and then formed the Emeralds, a vocal harmony group. With Hank Cardello from the Emeralds he then formed the Off-Set who hooked into... > Read more
BB and the Bullets: High Tide (digital outlets)
24 Sep 2025 | 1 min read
A volatile and impressive mix of originals and covers (Born Under a Bad Sign, Walking the Dog and Lennon's I Want You among them) from an unexpected source: Whanganui. That shouldn't really be a surprise, outside of the main centres hard rocking blues has never gone away, it's the music of bars, clubs and in this case the Whanganui Musicians Club where the seasoned... > Read more
Seven Ways to Sin
The Syndicats: Crawdaddy Simone (1965)
22 Sep 2025 | 1 min read
The short-lived Syndicates were one of those raw R'n'B bands out of Britain alongside the young Rolling Stones (before they wrote their own songs), the Downliners Sect (whose debut The Sect is an Essential Elsewhere album), Pretty Things, Animals, Yardbirds and others. In many ways there's not much of great interest and their story, such as it was. But they did... > Read more