Music at Elsewhere
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The Erica Miller Experience: Reconsidered (Universal)
17 Aug 2010 | 1 min read | 1
Obviously there is a curiosity factor at work here: 63-year old Erica Miller is the woman Shayne Carter (Straitjacket Fits/Dimmer) calls "Mum" and so the album comes with acquired cachet in some circles. That it is also an album of covers of songs first recorded by Elvis and arrives on the anniversary of Presley's death adds another dimension of interest. The question is... > Read more
Erica Miller Experience: Don't
Bill Kirchen: Word to the Wise (Proper/Southbound)
16 Aug 2010 | <1 min read
It really doesn't matter if you don't already know of guitarist/singer Kirchen, judge him by the friends he keeps. Here are his longtime friend Nick Lowe (on the wonderfully overhauled Merle Haggard number Shelly's Winter Love, with Paul Carrack); Elvis Costello on Kirchen's outstanding Man in The Bottom of the Well; Commander Cody playing piano on the funny I Don't Work That Cheap (Bill... > Read more
Bil Kirchen: Time Will Tell the Story
Brendan Perry: Ark (Cooking Vinyl)
16 Aug 2010 | <1 min read
As half of Dead Can Dance (alongside Lisa Gerrard), Perry was responsible for impressive sonic landscapes which owed a little to a kind of geographically amorphous "world music" and also to cinema soundtracks. Here, more than a decade after his previous solo outing, he embarks on gloomy sounding, authoratively-delivered meditations and thoughts over his swathe of synths which have... > Read more
Brendan Perry: Utopia
Peter Wolf Crier: Inter-Be (Jagjaguwar)
15 Aug 2010 | <1 min read
Peter Wolf Crier are an electro-acoustic duo out of Minneapolis (not to be confused with this guy) and this is their modest debut album. I say modest because while they utilise all the lo-tech vehicles at their command (loops, filters) they aren't intent on breaking free as a duo like the White Stripes or Black Keys. Their hearts are closer to the melodic school of M. Ward/early Beck and... > Read more
Peter Wolf Crier: Lion
Dan Sultan: Get Out While You Can (Arts Victoria/Southbound)
15 Aug 2010 | <1 min read
Sultan from Melbourne -- father Irish, mother Aboriginal -- is a hard one to put in any box: tracks here are reflective but mainstream country rock, others more alt.country, then he delivers some rural balladry and a broken-down acoustic folk ballad. Then things rock out. This also opens with a terrific slice of Sixties soulful pop balladry on Goddess Love and Dingo rides a Johnny Cash... > Read more
Dan Sultan: Crazy
Department of Eagles: Archive 2003 - 2006 (Bella Union)
15 Aug 2010 | <1 min read
Department of Eagles became the vehicle for Daniel Rossen and Fred Nicolaus to get their staccato sonic'n'sample experiments and increasingly dreamy pop into the wider world from their university dorm in New York. Initially they were called Whitey on the Moon, then Dept of Eagles . . . and later Rossen became the mainman in the already extant Grizzly Bear. The Eagles still... > Read more
Department of Eagles: Golden Apples
Butcher Holler: A Tribute to Loretta Lynn (Signature)
14 Aug 2010 | <1 min read
As well-intentioned as this is -- a tribute to the country legend Loretta Lynn from a group lead by the excellent Eilen Jewel -- Lynn herself brought self-confident earthiness to her delivery of assertive songs like Fist City, Don't Come Home A-Drinkin' With Lovin' on Your Mind and You Ain't Woman Enough to Take My Man which somewhat eludes Jewel's pleasant and smoother delivery here.... > Read more
Butcher Holler: Whispering Sea
Los Lobos: Tin Can Trust (Shock)
9 Aug 2010 | 1 min read
Los Lobos have always had a propensity to revert back to being a bar band (albeit a well produced one with terrific guitar playing) and that is their default position too often here for this to be truly satisfying -- and some dreary lyrics . . . "Down Main Street/down easy street, it's when I feel at home"; "Little darling I can't buy you gold rings and things"; "If... > Read more
Los Lobos: Yo Canto
Cyndi Lauper: Memphis Blues (Inertia)
9 Aug 2010 | <1 min read
Even those of us who would still mount the argument that Cyndi Lauper was -- and remains -- a far greater talent than her peer, Madonna, might approach this album with some trepidation: just as Dusty and Elvis went to Memphis to record some of their finest songs, so now has Cyndi -- but a rather different, more bluesy Memphis than that which drew the sophisticated Ms Springfield. But with a... > Read more
Cyndi Lauper: Shattered Dreams (with Allen Toussaint)
Various Artists: All We Wanna do is Rock (Bear Family/Yellow Eye)
9 Aug 2010 | <1 min read
The great thing about Fifties rock'n'roll songs is they give you more bang for your buck -- this single disc from the German reissue label Bear Family (sort of Ryko-and-Rhino out of Hambergen) delivers 36 -- yep, count 'em, 36 -- tracks "carefully selected for moondogs and hepcats". There are many familiar names here for sure and a number deliver their classic songs: Smiley Lewis... > Read more
Screamin' Jay Hawkins: Little Demon
Tom Kerstens' G Plus Ensemble: Utopia (Real World/Southbound)
9 Aug 2010 | <1 min read
Although nominally a contemporary classical album -- English acoustic guitarist Kerstens and a string quartet -- this delightful, deep, meditative and probing album should find wide favour beyond the recital hall. Kerstens has commissioned from outside the classical world for this debut of his G Plus ensemble (which includes The Tippett Quartet) and among the composers are New Zealander... > Read more
Tom Kerstens: The Number 88
Sarah McLachlan: Laws of Illusion (Sony)
9 Aug 2010 | 1 min read
This prime mover behind the Lilith Fair all-women-artists tours of over a decade ago (and resurrected this year) hasn't released a new album in seven years, so in some quarters expectation must be very high. A gifted, emotionally-driven singer-songwriter, McLachlan here comes out with all guns blasting on the rocking opener Awakenings which starts restrained then opens out when the electric... > Read more
Sarah McLachlan: Out of Tune
Mark Olson: Many Colored Kite (Ryko)
8 Aug 2010 | 1 min read
As a founder member of the Jayhawks - and for the album '09 Ready for the Flood with former-Hawk Gary Louris -- Olson would always command a fair hearing, but this 11 track outing with roots of fingerpicking Anglofolk as much as Americana becomes a very difficult haul. Although Olson seems to have put some of his demons behind him his vocals here are narrow in emotional range and often... > Read more
Mark Olson: Bluebell Song
Koop: Best of Koop 1997-2007 (K7)
8 Aug 2010 | <1 min read
When it comes to cool, sophisticated, swinging and intelligent clubland-cum-lounge pop, Koop out of Sweden take some beating. The electronica duo of Oscar Simonsson and Magnus Zungmark sensibly bring in acoustic players (clarinet, vibes, sax, flute, bass and so on) to ground their music in the world of jazz, and also pick up classy female vocalists who bring a breathy, sensual quality to... > Read more
Koop: Let's Elope
Donna Dean: What Am I Gonna Do? (Ode)
2 Aug 2010 | 1 min read | 1
When it comes to country music (alt. or country-rock) Donna Dean has the credentials: the gal has done it all -- marriage, kids, divorce, rehab, bars and clubs, opening for the likes of Willie Nelson, Jimmy Webb and the Penn-Oldham team . . . She spent time in London and Europe, recorded her debut album Money with The Amazing Rhythm Aces in Nashville, and for this follow-up recorded in... > Read more
Donna Dean: Empty Big Blue Sky
Upper Hutt Posse: Tohe (Kia Kaha)
2 Aug 2010 | 1 min read
For quite a while it seemed that the seminal Aotearoa/New Zealand hip-hop outfit Upper Hutt Posse might have been reduced down to Dean Hapeta, who was actually appearing under the name Te Kupu (aka The Word). But here, on an album which kicks along on the back of staccato, minimalist dubstep beats and huge reggae style bass, the Posse are again at it . . . this time Hapeta and his brother... > Read more
Upper Hutt Posse: Mana Motuhake
Various Artists: Teach Me to Monkey (Vampisoul/Southbound)
2 Aug 2010 | <1 min read
Chris Kenner wasn't kidding when he wrote Land of 1000 Dances in '62 – which became a minor hit for Cannibal and the Headhunters, then the wicked Wilson Pickett and dozens of others. In the early 60s it seemed like America was kicking up a new dance craze – the Monkey, the Pony, the Jerk, the Mashed Potato, the Watusi – every other week and teen magazines had pages... > Read more
Carol Ford: Your Well Ran Dry (1964)
Various Artists: Eccentric Soul; Smart's Palace (Numero/Southbound)
2 Aug 2010 | <1 min read
An earlier volume of not dissimilar desperate, crazy, urgent, cheaply-recorded and often exciting soul from the Sixties and Seventies drew great praise at Elsewhere (see here) -- and, once again -- although you might never have heard a single name previously -- you can't help but be hooked by the sheer energy these artists bring. Smart's Palace was a somewhat seedy club in -- improbably --... > Read more
Theron and Darrell: It's Your Love (1970)
Lotus Mason: Lotus Mason (Glowb)
2 Aug 2010 | 1 min read
London-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Blair Jollands (interviewed in 2004 here) is one of New Zealand's best-kept expat secrets. With his band El Hula he crafted some of the finest post-Bowie dramatic ballads (with a touch of alt.country) and his strong, elegant voice has drawn favourable comparisons with Scott Walker and Bowie at his peak in the late Seventies. He... > Read more
Lotus Mason: Dream of You
Wai: Ora (Wai/Jayrem)
2 Aug 2010 | 1 min read
When the debut album, 100%, by Maaka McGregor and Mina Ripia (aka Wai) was released in 2000 (see here) it was hailed as a ground-breaking event for its deft blend of te reo (Maori language) and electronica. Yet in many ways the musical landscape had been laid by the likes of Dalvanius with Patea Maori, and then Moana who had also sung in te reo and used the sound of amplified poi (and, in... > Read more