Music at Elsewhere

Lankum: False Lankum (Rough Trade/digital outlets)

25 Mar 2023 | 1 min read | 1

One of Elsewhere's best of 2019 albums was The Livelong Day by Ireland's exceptional trad-cum-alt-folk outfit Lankum. And that's from one who doesn't naturally gravitate towards the folk genre. But Lankum's compelling drone (closer to Velvet Underground than hey-nonny songs) and their pulling apart of the traditional Wild Rover was, and remains, enthralling. That Velvets... > Read more

The New York Trader

An Arrow Made of Air: An Arrow Made of Air (digital outlets)

20 Mar 2023 | 2 min read

We wish luck to those trying to keep up with the output of Auckland-based musician and facilitator Paul McLaney. Aside from albums under his own name, those with his band Gramsci (their first three albums just released on enticing vinyl), his online project as The Impending Adorations and whatever else, now comes An Arrow Made of Air, a duet with Wellington's Oscar West... > Read more

A Slow Burning Flame

Guy Wishart: Where the Water Runs Through (Rattle/digital outlets)

20 Mar 2023 | 1 min read

Auckland's Rattle label has had more than 30 years of releasing innovative contemporary classical and avant-garde music, taonga puoro albums as well as jazz, innovative electro-acoustic sounds and . . . Easier perhaps to say what Rattle hasn't released (rock, reggae). Singer-songwriters haven't been in the label's orbit, but then in 2021 it went with the 9 Rooms album by... > Read more

Someday Soon

Surf Friends: Sonic Waves (Flying Nun/bandcamp)

17 Mar 2023 | 1 min read

When we reviewed Surf Friends' 2010 debut album Confusion – by Auckland's Brad Coley/Mark Westmoreland duo – we noted their unashamed influences from the Clean and the Chills (“whose sound they effectively hijack completely for some tracks”) although concluded “there is also more than enough hints and suggestions of various possible directions... > Read more

Dreaming

Mice on Stilts: I Am Proud of You (digital outlets)

13 Mar 2023 | 1 min read

Ben Morley of this Auckland-based band is honest enough to admit it's been a while since their last album. True, we wrote about their previous Hope For a Mourning back in 2016 and were very impressed by it's gentle folk-prog aspects and musical ambition. The band (and singer-writer Morley) were exceptionally accomplished with a guiding intelligence which kept the worst tendencies... > Read more

Devotion Decline

The Loving Arms: Dreaming Over You (Ghost Records/bandcamp)

13 Mar 2023 | 1 min read

In a recent Facebook post an enthusiastic fan described this Auckland band as “the National meets Neil Young meets the Magic Numbers”. For those who only got two of those three references, the Magic Numbers were an excellent, melodic British band who enjoyed considerable popularity and acclaim in the early-to-mid 2000s and, although still out there, have seen diminishing sales... > Read more

Running Club: Beach Glass (digital outlets)

10 Mar 2023 | 1 min read

The duo who are Running Club quickly come up for attention because of who they are and what they've done so far: they are Steve Reay (of the sonically dense Subliminals, the dark but short-lived Americana band The Haints of Dean Hall) and artistic polymath Blair Parkes (All Fall Down, The Letter 5, Creeley and others, plus solo projects). This debut album is a fascinating... > Read more

Some Distance

US Girls: Bless This Mess (4AD/digital outlets)

6 Mar 2023 | 1 min read

Meg Remy (aka US Girls) offers an aural history lesson as she once again – on this, her eighth album – taps into a smart and immediately enjoyable selection of historical genres and makes them fresh and fun. So here -- following her terrific Heavy Light of three years ago – we have echoes of the Seventies beamed in for some smooth R'n'B yacht-rock (Only... > Read more

RECOMMENDED RECORD: The Veils: And Out of the Void Came Love (digital outlets)

6 Mar 2023 | 2 min read

From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this one which comes as a double album set on clear vinyl in a gatefold sleeve with lyrics. Check out Elsewhere's other Recommended Record picks . . . . Many musicians delivering post-lockdown albums tell of enduring emotional isolation during Covid and being unable to earn from live... > Read more

ONE WE MISSED. Wayne Gillespie and Famous Blue Raincoat: Frazz (digital outlets)

6 Mar 2023 | 1 min read | 3

We missed this album when it was released last year because, if memory serves, we were felled by a long-Covid hangover and RSV. Getting up was hard enough, getting to the stereo and desk almost impossible. But no matter because Australia-based Gillespie – a former Kiwi with a fine reputation as a singer-songwriter – is touring here in June. So we're pleased now to be able to... > Read more

Slow Down (with Brendan Power)

Joe Henry: All The Eye Can See (digital outlets)

26 Feb 2023 | <1 min read

Although singer, songwriter and producer Joe Henry hasn't won as many Grammys as his sister-in-law Madonna (three for his production work, to her seven), he enjoys wide acclaim from illustrious peers and those he's produced, a diverse list which includes Joan Baez, Bonnie Raitt, Allen Toussaint with Elvis Costello, Billy Bragg, Salif Keita and Solomon Burke. Although often described as... > Read more

RECOMMENDED RECORD: Young Fathers: Heavy Heavy (Ninja Tune/digital outlets)

26 Feb 2023 | 1 min read

From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this one which comes as a single album with a large fold-out poster with the (necessary) lyrics. Check out Elsewhere's other Recommended Record picks . . . . Trying to decode Edinburgh-based trio Young Fathers' third album is akin to peering into a kaleidoscope and attempting to describe... > Read more

Drum

Julian Reid: Julian Reid (digital outlets)

25 Feb 2023 | 1 min read

In the many decades I wrote for the New Zealand Herald – as a freelancer, then on staff for 17 years, then freelancing again – I never wrote about my three sons' various bands, even though they toured with Shihad, were regulars at places like Pod and the Powerstation, recorded for Wildside and so on. More fool me, I thought journalistic integrity meant I shouldn't be seen to be... > Read more

Break the Sun

Scalper: The Shine (digital outlets)

24 Feb 2023 | 2 min read

Many years ago when his name was well known, I did an interview with the very funny and smart Thomas Dolby who'd enjoyed a hit with the catchy She Blinded Me With Science. He'd abandoned England to live and work in the States and gave an interesting reason: in England people expect Morrissey to be miserable all the time but in the US they know the difference between the artist and the act.... > Read more

Stars in Their Eyes

Silk Cut: Our Place in the Stars (digital outlets)

19 Feb 2023 | 1 min read

In the jargon of classic British police dramas, Auckland singer/songwriter and guitarist Andrew Thorne of Silk Cut has “considerable prior form”. He has helmed Splitter, Thorne and the Wilburys-like Calico Brothers, and has been in bands for Don McGlashan, Bic Runga, Dave Dobbyn, Tim Finn, Jan Hellriegel and Greg Fleming. He's written and... > Read more

Kimbra: A Reckoning (digital outlets)

19 Feb 2023 | 1 min read

Pop may be mostly about instant gratification but it can also be surprisingly enduring. Gotye and Kimbra's Grammy-winning Somebody That I Used To Know is more than 10 years old, however her vocal as the emotional pivot remains compelling even now. Somebody wasn't the first, nor the last, recognition for her flexible voice and sophisticated songwriting (she's won seven music awards... > Read more

RECOMMENDED RECORD: Yo La Tengo: This Stupid World (Matador/digital outlets)

16 Feb 2023 | 1 min read

From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this one which comes as a double disc (the fourth side blank). No download code unfortunately but a great collection to have on vinyl. Check out Elsewhere's other Recommended Record picks . . . . Many years ago, in The Onion I think it was, there was a piece about the roof at a Yo La... > Read more

Apology Letter

Alan Fletcher: The Point (MGM/digital outlets)

12 Feb 2023 | <1 min read

Not having seen Neighbours since Kylie left, the fact that 65-year old Alan Fletcher played Karl Kennedy in it means nothing to me. Probably doesn't to you either although my information says he'd been there for 27 years. So we forgive him the day job because what we have on this debut solo album is of much more interest. He mostly writes and sings in that low-rumble... > Read more

Various Artists: The Kiwi Music Scene 1970 (Frenzy)

12 Feb 2023 | 1 min read

The diligent Grant Gillanders continues his chronological excavation of New Zealand music and arrives at 1970 – by which time pop and rock had long parted company. This 53 song double album includes a few familiar songs (Fourmyula's stoner suggestions on Otaki and the lovely Turn Your Back On the Wind, Quincy Conserve's terrific Ride The Rain) but mostly brings to light material by... > Read more

The Eyes of Love, by Bunny Walters

RECOMMENDED RECORD: John Cale: Mercy (digital outlets)

5 Feb 2023 | 1 min read

From time to time Elsewhere will single out a recent release we recommend on vinyl, like this one which comes as a double album in a gatefold sleeve with lyrics. No download code unfortunately. Check out Elsewhere's other Recommended Record picks . . . . John Cale's remarkable career began in avant-garde classical music and, in the 55 years since his tenure in the Velvet... > Read more