Music at Elsewhere
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BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2011 Wire: Red Barked Tree (Pink Flag)
19 Dec 2011 | 1 min read
In the late Seventies Wire delivered a trifecta of classic post-punk, minimalist and arty albums -- Pink Flag, Chairs Missing and 154 – then called it a day. In subsequent decades they reformed dropping drummer Robert Gotobed to appear as an alt.electro-rock outfit (not much cop), in the past decade their sound became more aggressive and impressive, Gotobed returned -- and now Bruce... > Read more
Wire: Adapt
BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2011 Thurston Moore: Demolished Thoughts (Matador)
19 Dec 2011 | 1 min read
The solo projects and collaborations of Thurston Moore (of Sonic Youth) have certainly covered a lot of musical landscapes from visceral guitar noise to . . . Well, to this which is mostly gentle, dreamy singer-songwriter work with acoustic guitar, harp, violin and producer Beck on synths, vocals and bass. To a great extent -- because of the intricacies of the arrangements which... > Read more
Space
BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2011 Jeffrey Foucault: Horse Latitudes (Signature)
19 Dec 2011 | 1 min read | 1
For his first album of originals in five years – the follow-up to his gripping Ghost Repeater – this beardy and rustic Americana singer/songwriter ups the stakes as his strong, dark brown and assured voice takes on life, loss and love in iron-hard images which bring to mind Leonard Cohen (“strange birds on the fence line, it's going to get cold tonight”) or Tom... > Read more
Last Night I Dreamed of Television
BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2011 Marcin Wasilewski Trio: Faithful (ECM/Ode)
19 Dec 2011 | <1 min read
Pianist Wasilewski who leads this trio has appeared a number of times previously at Elsewhere, with this group, as a member of Tomasz Stanko's ensemble and with trumpetr Enrico Rava. He -- and his trio -- has impressed every time. But this album finds them really pushing themselves: Night Train to You is a 10 minute piece which swings and is full of sparking, energetic piano; the album... > Read more
Woke Up in the Desert
BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2011 Jonathan Besser: Campursari (Rattle)
19 Dec 2011 | 1 min read
Since coming to New Zealand more than 30 years ago, the pianist-composer Jonathan Besser has enjoyed a highly successful and diverse career, first with violinist Chris Prosser in the Besser and Prosser duo, with electronic artist Ross Harris in Free Radicals, then his own ensemble and latterly with the small group Bravura. His works have been performed by the NZSO, the New Zealand String... > Read more
Shine
BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2011 Azam Ali: From Night to the Edge of Day (Six Degrees)
19 Dec 2011 | <1 min read
Nominally lullabies from around the Middle East, this breathy and exceptional album by the Iranian-born Canadian-resident Ali -- singer in the band Niyaz -- becomes something much more hypnotic as here keening voice explores those delightful microtones common in the music of the region. Very much the global citizen -- she lived in India as a child, relocated to LA with her mother in '85,... > Read more
Dandini
BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2011 Fleet Foxes: Helplessness Blues (Sub Pop)
19 Dec 2011 | 1 min read | 1
A propos of not much, Fleet Foxes' chief songwriter Robin Pecknold recently recorded New Zealand singer-songwriter Chris Thompson's Where is My Wild Rose? for an EP and it appears on You Tube (just with stills) here. But . . . to the matter in hand. If it's fair to say FFoxes' debut album was unexpected, then we might also observe that this one is highly anticipated. However their... > Read more
Fleet Foxes: Battery Kinzie
Roy Harper: Songs of Love and Loss (Union Square)
12 Dec 2011 | <1 min read | 3
English folk-rocker Harper – now 70 – is much eulogised by senior (male) British rock critics and has latterly been hailed by the neo-folk movement (Fleet Foxes, Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom etc). Led Zepp acknowledged him with Hats Off To Harper (on Led Zeppelin III) and he sang on Have a Cigar on Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here. Schooled equally in American... > Read more
Another Day
Paley and Francis: Reid Paley and Black Francis (Cooking Vinyl)
12 Dec 2011 | <1 min read
After the Pixies split in the early 90s, Black Francis became Frank Black for enjoyable power-pop and post-punk solo albums with odd lyrical content of no fixed direction, and later worked with various Nashville musicians, among them songwriter/pianist Spooner Oldham. Francis/Black was unpredictable, as was that Pixies reunion. But this is an odd, sometimes likably ramshackle... > Read more
On the Corner
America: Back Pages (Shock)
9 Dec 2011 | <1 min read
There's a slight irony here perhaps -- America covering other people's songs? But weren't they the band many thought had covered a Neil Young song with their huge hit Horse with No Name? Certainly sounded like a Young song at first hearing. This time out though Dewey Bunnell and Gerry Beckley pick up material by Paul Simon (his America oddly enough, which is the oopening track), Joni... > Read more
Caroline No
Amy Winehouse: Lioness; Hidden Treasures (Island)
7 Dec 2011 | <1 min read | 1
The title of this posthumous album considerably oversells its 12 song contents, most of these are not treasures or even offer much in the way of new material she was working on at the time of her death. Rather, this is a cobbling together of some excellent material alongside stuff which wouldn't have made the cut to any album, just maybe footnotes in some future box set. Now that there... > Read more
Wake Up Alone (2002)
Gold Medal Famous: 100 Years of Rock (Powertools)
7 Dec 2011 | 1 min read
Out of Wellington, New Zealand -- where people like to put on fancy dress for parties -- comes Gold Medal Famous who recently recorded a song, John Key is a Dick (BBQ Reggae Version) which might help you get a bead on them. If they are serious they certainly disguise it well, especially on this album with songs titles like Don't Just Text Me, Call Me, I Want to Make You Come, They're... > Read more
100 Years of Rock
Various Artists; Where the Boys Are; The Songs of Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield (Ace/Border)
6 Dec 2011 | 2 min read
Right at the end of Captain and Tennille's huge pop hit Love Will Keep Us Together in '75-- written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield -- you can hear Toni Tennille spontaneously weave in the line "Sedaka is back". In fact Sedaka -- who had been writing pop hits with lyricist Greenfield since Connie Francis' Stupid Cupid in '58 -- had never really been away. The previous year... > Read more
Get Rid of Him
Marilyn Crispell, Richard Nunns, Jeff Henderson: This Appearing World (Rattle)
6 Dec 2011 | 1 min read
These days it's not uncommon to see a Japanese restaurant offering “tapas”, people to speak of pan- Pacific fusion food (Japan-meets-Polynesia-meets-California?) or for one of the best Italian restaurants in Sydney to have a chef trained in New Zealand. (True, Lucio's in Paddington). But if music be the food of love then let's talk about pan-Pacific fusion sounds where... > Read more
Missed Children
Peter Gabriel: New Blood (Real World)
5 Dec 2011 | 1 min read
In the mid Nineties when no tribute album to Van Morrison had been forthcoming and none seemed planned, Morrison took matters into his own hands and on No Prima Donna -- with Lisa Stansfield, Elvis Costello, Sinead O'Connor, Marianne Faithfull and others -- delivered a tribute album to himself which he produced. This new Peter Gabriel album has some of the same quality. In 2010 Gabriel did... > Read more
Intruder
Ash and the Matadors: An Evening Echo (1.11.11)
2 Dec 2011 | 1 min read
This band from southern New Zealand came to attention at Elsewhere with their ruggedly interesting EP The Mansion Tapes in 2010 at which time they earned the comment, "An EP as calling card, better will doubtless follow". This is the debut album which follows. But frankly, some of it is disappointing and rather shapeless (or familiar) guitar rock which must sound good on the... > Read more
88 Fires Again
Various Artists; Legendary Wild Rockers (BBE)
30 Nov 2011 | <1 min read
Collated by UK retro-DJs Keb Darge and Little Edith, this is 20 tracks of rare Fifties rockabilly and surf-rock where guitars twang, rhymes are kept simple but effective, saxes honk, Little Lil breaks hearts, those left-hand breaks somehow end up in the bayou and a place called Flipsville seems just around the corner. Yes, this is one for those who love the whole loud, fast and out of... > Read more
Little Lil
Ozric Tentacles: Paper Monkeys (Madfish)
29 Nov 2011 | 1 min read
Some great bands can just go right past you if you're not paying attention, and by being a little too far out-of-it you might miss one that you actually need at those “special” private times. Sky Cries Mary out of Seattle – a swirling techno-psychedelic rock band of sky-scaling intention – have always been a particular favourite when time seems to stretch and... > Read more
Knurl
Sigur Ros: Inni (XL CD/DVD)
29 Nov 2011 | <1 min read
Among the many delightful things about Sigur Ros -- the ethereal Icelandic quartet which sings in some made up language -- is you don't need to bother yourself with song titles. Their music is a sonic texture of electronics and plaintive vocals which slides past with a deliberate detachment but a sense of the epic. This double live CD set was recorded at London's Alexandra Palace in late... > Read more
Luppulagid
Jordie Lane: Blood Thinner (Vitamin)
28 Nov 2011 | 1 min read
With very little fanfare at all, this excellent and much acclaimed singer-songwriter out of Melbourne embarks on a New Zealand tour (dates below) and he seems definitely one to catch. You can always be suspicious when a press release says an artist has drawn comparisons with Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Townes Van Zandt, Ryan Adams and others, but there is ample evidence here in these 12... > Read more