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
Primitive Art Group: Primitive Art Group 1981-1986 (Amish Records/digital outlets)
21 Oct 2024 | 3 min read
From the late Seventies to the mid-Eighties, the Primitive Art Group in Wellington carried the banner for improvised music sometimes, often erroneously, referred to as free jazz. Because they didn't tour and their albums – as well as records from the numerous spin-off projects by the group's five members – were in limited editions (300 copies), they didn't... > Read more
Lannie's Revenge
Duo Falak: Tira-Tira (digital outlets)
21 Oct 2024 | <1 min read
This could look a bit forbidding on paper but this half hour improvisation recorded in Tashkent by Russian guitarist Denis Sorokin and percussionist Shohin Qurbon should have considerable appeal for acoustic guitarists, those who like their jazz a bit different and anyone curious about world music. Some background then: the musicians interpret traditional Falak... > Read more
Tira-Tira Part 6
The Linda Lindas: No Obligation (digital outlets)
21 Oct 2024 | <1 min read
Few would claim this all-women quartet from California -- most of them stall in school -- do much that is original. But their enthusiastic, sometimes bratty, pop is infectious, works some familiar tropes with enthusiasm and they carve out some very good songs, usually with something to say. It's punk, power pop and just enough New Wave (Blondie) in the melodies to make... > Read more
Don't Think
Mr Blackwatch: Mary, Me (digital outlets)
21 Oct 2024 | 1 min read
So why not a concept album in 2024? The idea has been steadily coming back (Steven Wilson and others in the nu-prog arena) and this one by Doug Mackey out of Tacoma is certainly a handsome double CD package in a gatefold cover with a liner note by the “Rev Loren Skaggs” about how the Mary of the title had to escape her family and life on the farm in a small... > Read more
Hampton's Freezer
Corben Simpson: The Collection (Frenzy)
21 Oct 2024 | 2 min read
In some circles singer/songwriter Corben Simpson is best know – and perhaps only known – for his hippie-era hit Dance Around the World based on a Margaret Mahy story and which was a finalist in the Loxene Gold Disc Awards in 1972. Others can add more to that: he was a member of the Blerta and appeared naked at the 1973 Ngaruawahia festival. But his story... > Read more
Dance All Around the World
RECOMMENDED RECORD: Dr Tree, Dr Tree (WallenBink)
21 Oct 2024 | 3 min read
From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this which comes as a double with an extra record of previously unreleased material, in a gatefold sleeve with important liner notes and credits. Check out Elsewhere's other Recommended Record picks . . . . Given the resurgence of jazz in the Seventies... > Read more
Revulva: Revulva (digital outlets)
21 Oct 2024 | 1 min read
Even more so than “pop” or “rock” -- and vastly more than “reggae” -- the word jazz is immune to easy definition. It contains multitudes. The form known as jazz has been around more than a century and is constantly changing shape, drawing more threads into its complex weave and is as comfortable at adopting world music as it is... > Read more
Bush Bash
Leonard Cohen: Because of (2004)
21 Oct 2024 | <1 min read | 1
The equation seems simple: Leonard Cohen (the self-described "ladies man") + women + bed = But of course nothing was ever quite that straightforward with a Jewish Zen Buddhist poet-cum-singer and unlikely sex symbol even his mid 70s. Here with amusing self-effacement he confronts aging, his reputation, plays with images of "naked" women... > Read more
Courtnay and the Unholy Reverie: Mercy (digital outlets)
18 Oct 2024 | 2 min read | 1
Every now and again when Elsewhere discovers an album which has been out there for a little while – up to a month maybe – we review it as ONE WE MISSED. Perhaps we also need to do something similar about those we get to very early, like singer/songwriter and blistering guitarist Courtnay Lowe out of Taranaki. She first came to our attention in March on... > Read more
Lost at Sea
ADDITIONAL PROVOCATIONS OF RATTLES (2024): The wide river of new Rattle releases.
18 Oct 2024 | 2 min read
As we have noted in previous Provocation/Provocations of Rattles columns, the Auckland label releases albums at such a rate it is often impossible to keep up. This year has been a quiet one however, just one or two releases in the first six months, but suddenly a small slew have been released by Rattle, the local label we consider to be one of the most... > Read more
Favourite Five Recent Releases
Nubya Garcia, Odyssey (Concord/digital outlets)
14 Oct 2024 | 1 min read
It seems a very long time since this exceptional British saxophonist's 2020 debut album Source, which was in our best of the year releases. Her music has undergone numerous remixes (one by Mark de Clive-Lowe) and she's done guest spots (Nala Sinephro, Ezra Collective among them), but this ambitious album is a step in a different but equally rewarding direction. On... > Read more
Set It Free (ft Richie)
ADVENTURES IN MODERN RECORDING by TREVOR HORN
14 Oct 2024 | 2 min read
Acclaimed and award-winning producer Trevor Horn probably long ago resigned himself to the fact that the first paragraph of his obituaries would invariably mention Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles. It was a massive one-off hit for Horn and others, a studio band which never played live but – with the video which was the first played on the new MTV channel... > Read more
UP WHERE I BELONG? The delight and drawback of luxury accommodation
14 Oct 2024 | 1 min read | 1
To the best of my recollection the words “upgrade” and “Mr Reid” have never appeared in the same sentence. Certainly I have stayed in some luxurious hotels -- Sorrento’s Grand Hotel Cocumella (pictured) gets passing mention here to make you envious -- but I knew about them in advance. Yes, a couple of times I have been in that part of the... > Read more
Favourite Five Recent Releases
Best Bets: The Hollow Husk of Feeling (digital outlets)
14 Oct 2024 | 1 min read
A couple of weeks ago Elsewhere noted – not for the first time – how conservative and complacent a wide swathe on local music was. It was as if, as we said, the songs were obliged to come with guys playing an acoustic guitar around a campfire on a beach at sunset. (And bugger me, that very week a hugely popular local band delivered their new video which ended... > Read more
Favourite Five Recent Releases
Delaney Davidson and Barry Saunders: Happiness is Near (digital outlets)
14 Oct 2024 | 1 min read | 1
Delaney Davidson has been enormously prolific in the past decade: at least half a dozen albums under his own name, production work for Marlon Williams, Tami Neilson and Troy Kingi, guest appearances and collaborations. He fitted all these in around touring and appearances in television documentaries. Davidson's collaboration with Barry Saunders' on 2019's Word... > Read more
Man of Few Words
Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club: Video Killed the Radio Star (1979)
14 Oct 2024 | 1 min read
Whenever the story of the Buggles' hit Video Killed the Radio Star is told, two things are invariably mentioned: the clip of it was the first song to be played on MTV in 1981 and that the Buggles -- real one hit wonders and merely a studio band -- never played live. However there is more to the story and it is told by chief Buggle/songwriter and famous producer Trevor... > Read more
ONE HAND CLAPPING, a doco by DAVID LICHFIELD
14 Oct 2024 | 2 min read
The lives, music and world of the Beatles – together or solo – is starting to fill whole corners of large libraries, not just a shelf or two. It is no exaggeration to say that every month, if not every fortnight, another book arrives, some better than others. There have been a few biographies of Paul McCartney (and also Barry Miles' generous book, ghost... > Read more
Soily
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT . . . TUCKER ZIMMERMAN: He who never went away is back
11 Oct 2024 | 4 min read | 1
It seems no matter how many diverse artists you seek out, follow their influences into obscure corners or go down blind alleys to chivvy out little-known singers, there's always someone whose name you have never heard before. What makes it worse in the case of Belgium-based, American-born singer-songwriter Tucker Zimmerman – now in his Seventies – is that he... > Read more
Lorelei
HERBIE HANCOCK, REVIEWED (2024): Lessons in fun and how to rockit
9 Oct 2024 | 3 min read | 1
A few weeks ago we interviewed the great Herbie Hancock and asked, politely, what possesses a man of 84 to go on the road and get up on stage to play for a couple of hours when he could comfortably be at home. He laughed and said something about paying the mortgage, then offered, “it's a privilege to be able to express myself with a great band and to play music... > Read more
Favourite Five Recent Releases
Goodspace: Let's Talk About Death (digital outlets)
7 Oct 2024 | <1 min read
We saluted Goodspace/Jefferson Chen for his inventive album launch at a foodhall which we wrote about. Now lets turn attention to what's on the menu. Recorded at the Lab, Roundhead and his own studio, this album reflects Chen's considerable abilities and musical interests from the lightly boiling bass and percussion which drives She Don't Need You (which also gets... > Read more