Music at Elsewhere

Boris: Attention Please (Sargent House)

6 Jun 2011 | 1 min read

Witnessing the full firepower of this Japanese psychedelic drone-rock band at Sydney's Vivid Festival last year – earplugs supplied – was a revelation. When they were loud they were very, very loud but when guitarist Wata stepped up to bring her ethereal voice into play they were dreamily psychedelic and rather special in a cinematic prog-rock way. This, their 17th studio,... > Read more

Party Boy

The Webb Sisters: Savages (Proper)

6 Jun 2011 | <1 min read

Best known in the wider world as part of Leonard Cohen's touring band – the backing vocalists, multi-instrumentalists and cartwheelers – Charley and Hattie from Kent have at the studio desk here uber-producer, heavy-hitter and fan Peter Asher (James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, longtime senior vice-president at Sony). And you can guess they aren't short of studio talent either:... > Read more

Calling This a Life

The Feelies: Here Before (Pop Frenzy)

30 May 2011 | 1 min read

When a band which made one your favourite albums three decades ago -- Crazy Rhythms, an Essential Elsewhere album (here) -- gets together for their first album in 19 years you enter with trepidiation. You know things can't and shouldn't be the same, and you remind yourself that after some dodgy stuff Wire of the same era delivered a more than merely creditable album last year. The... > Read more

On And On

Holly Throbsy: Team (Spunk)

30 May 2011 | <1 min read

There has been an audible trend in blockbuster movies to employ actors who speak in a constant whisper which is then amplified for the big screen. The normal speaking voice of these actors we do not know. It happens in music too and a couple of tracks here are little more than amplified whispers (prime offender It's Only Need), and much of this album is in the barely-there category in its... > Read more

To See You Out

Gurrumul: Rrakala (Skinnyfish)

29 May 2011 | <1 min read

With his full name on his debut album Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu reduced to more manageable Gurrumul, this blind Aboriginal singer-songwriter (a former member of Yothu Yindi and the Saltwater Band) here continues his way into global domination in the world music/folk genre. Unlike many Aboriginal performers who use traditional instruments or deliver bog-standard reggae, the... > Read more

Gurrumul: Warwu

F in Math: Couch (Flying Nun)

24 May 2011 | <1 min read | 1

The witty nom de disque here belongs to Michael Logie, former bassist with New Zealand's Mint Chicks who makes some steps as a solo artist working with computers, electrobeat and processed vocals. You can guess the words "squelchy" and "edgy" will be applied to this -- as they invariably are when lo-fi computer sounds are being generated -- but in places Logie has... > Read more

F in Math: Elephant Heart

Bruce Cockburn: Small Source of Comfort (True North)

23 May 2011 | 1 min read

Bruce Cockburn – whose sole skirmish with chart success was Wondering Where The Lions Are in 1980 – is the Richard Thompson of Canada. And if you don't get the reference that's the point. Both are respected and influential folk-rock songwriters/guitarists, but their gifts go largely unacknowledged beyond admiring musicians, the critical community and a loyal fan base.... > Read more

Bruce Cockburn: Driving Away

The Waifs: Temptation (Jarrah)

22 May 2011 | <1 min read

This award-winning Australian folk-rock-blues outfit is much tougher than their fragile name suggests and over five albums, an EP and considerable touring at home and in the States (where they have recorded in Nashville, this one in Minneapolis) they have made a name for their dry, spare and harmony-embellished songs where emotions are worn upfront. They aren't averse to a little... > Read more

The Waifs: Beautiful Night

Giant Sand: Center of the Universe (Fire)

16 May 2011 | 2 min read

In an in-depth interview with Elsewhere, Howe Gelb of Giant Sand was asked which album he would single out for anyone coming to the massive reissue programme of a couple of dozen Giant Sand albums and a dozen release under his own name. His answer was immediate. He picked Center of the Universe from '92. "It was the only time I was allowed to live how I always wanted to live, which... > Read more

Giant Sand: Milkshake Girl

Joe Bonamassa: Dust Bowl (J&R/Southbound)

16 May 2011 | 1 min read

There are some extraordinary guitar talents -- Roy Buchanan comes to mind immediately -- whose gift just seems to go right past an audience you know would appreciate it, if they just shifted their attention in that direction. Bonamassa -- who also has lungs like leather and can write terrific blues rock songs also -- is another. He's been playing for more than 20 years (he's only 34,... > Read more

Joe Bonamassa: Black Lung Heartache

Steve Earle: I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive (New West)

16 May 2011 | 1 min read | 1

Perhaps because there is already so much Steve Earle in the world -- this is his 14th studio album by my account -- there is very little frisson of delight or surprise coming from this album. Little Emperor would seem to be addressed to George W Bush ("no pomp and circumstance, no more shock and awe, you're just a little emperor that's all") but seems belated -- although no one... > Read more

Steve Earle: Lonely Are the Free

Kurt Vile: Smoke Ring For My Halo (Matador)

13 May 2011 | 1 min read

The captivatingly named rock troubadour Vile from Philadelphia offers a kind of alt.folk-cum-indie rock skew which refers to Cohen as much as Cobain. But he also has an ear for a mainstream rock melody (Puppet the the Man here with AOR guitars behind his echoed alt.rock vocals) and recently said his current listening includes the Stones' Love You Live and Neil Young's On the Beach from... > Read more

Kurt Vile: Runner Ups

The Felice Brothers: Celebration, Florida (Spunk)

12 May 2011 | 1 min read | 1

While it's interesting to read in a promo slip that this new album by the so-far fascinating Felice Brothers "casts scenes of dreamy characters and stories interwoven like a block of primetime TV", this is promo-hype. It presumes you will actually be engaged enough to listen with unswerving intensity through the sonic haze of distant voices, lo-fi folk-tropes and ramshackle... > Read more

Felice Brothers: Oliver Stone

Ben Waters: Boogie 4 Stu (Eagle/Shock)

11 May 2011 | 2 min read | 1

If nothing else -- and there is more "else" -- this album should attract attention for the version here of the Bob Dylan-penned track Watching the River Flow which features, for the first time since '92, the Rolling Stones line-up with former bassist Bill Wyman. Okay, Jagger did his vocals and harmonica parts in France, Keith his guitar in New York and Wyman added his bass later,... > Read more

Ben Waters and the Rolling Stones (with Bill Wyman): Watching the River Flow

L/O/N/G: American Primitive (Glitterhouse/Yellow Eye)

11 May 2011 | <1 min read | 1

Those with passion for edgy alt.country and Neil Young in vinegary acoustic-rock mode need only know Chris Eckman (the Walkabouts, the innovative Sahara blues-influenced band Dirt Music) is one of those behind this occasionally churning, electro-rock outing with musicians from Slovenia where he now lives. The other prime mover is Rupert Huber (of the European downbeat electronica outfit... > Read more

L/O/N/G: Shame This Darkness

Standard Funk Ensemble: Happenstance (jazzpiano.co.nz)

10 May 2011 | 1 min read

Vocalist Georgia Woods here -- who may have been the prime mover behind this project -- has been an actress and stage performer for a number of years (Gilbert and Sullivan in Australia, member of the Auckland Theatre Company) and performed the highly successful Highlights -- Blondes and Their Songs. She is something of a trouper too and sings in restaurants, bars and in cabaret. But for... > Read more

Standard Funk Ensemble: Evenin'

Miss Black and the Light: Black Light (Ode)

10 May 2011 | 1 min read

It seems a shame the reggae-driven grooves are pushed right to the front end of this otherwise interesting album because that sound has become, as previously noted at Elsewhere, such a default position for so many New Zealand artists. Miss Black (Ngapata Black, daughter of the great Whirimako Black) finds a real point of diference when she gets into a more soulful style (the steamy... > Read more

Miss Black and the Light: Don't Stop

Various Artists: Heartland (Sony)

10 May 2011 | 2 min read | 1

From time to time I am approached to write liner notes for albums, and I only ever accept those which I think are interesting -- like the collections of New Zealand psychedelic music under the banner A Day in My Mind's Mind -- or those which make me think a bit. And a collection of "heartland" radio hits made me think about how far some critics, like myself, are removed from what... > Read more

Front Lawn: Andy

Golden Kanine: Oh Woe! (Glitterhouse/Yellow Eye)

9 May 2011 | 1 min read

There seems to be an interesting musical culture in Sweden which every now and again appears on the scanners of the rest of the world. In the pop world we can see a lineage between the Wannadies and Peter Bjorn and John, but there is something else also. It sounds like there is a small and individual scene which, for want of a better word, might be considered a Scandinavian take on... > Read more

Golden Kanine: The Devil

Stevie Nicks: In Your Dreams (Reprise)