Terrorball's No Panzers No Peace

I’ve been following the work of Hamilton electro producer Terrorball (aka Gareth Pemberton) for a number of years. Over the past decade he’s been relatively prolific in releasing stuff on platforms like Soundcloud and Bandcamp. Not only his own original work but also edits and reworks of other material. Most of it issued as either a free download or as a name-your-price release. In 2016, he was even kind enough to help fill in a few gaps for us when completing a short Q & A for the blog (here).

The latest Terrorball work, No Panzers No Peace, was released online earlier this month and it’s one of his best efforts yet. It's mostly the tried and trusted hybrid of electro-funk and disco, but in the form of tracks like ‘Goblins’ and closer ‘Daydream’, there are perhaps a few surprises on offer for those familiar with past Terrorball output. Not least for the way they deviate into a far more reflective or melancholic guitar-pop realm. Check it out by streaming or downloading below:

Album Review: Darren Watson - Getting Sober For The End Of The World (2020)

I’m not sure I want to be sober for the end of the world. I’m not even sure I want to be sober. But that’s one hell of an album title, and given everything else that’s been going on around us in 2020, you might be surprised to learn that Wellington bluesman Darren Watson had locked in that title for his latest album long before we were lumbered with any of this pre-apocalyptic global Covid-19 saga. 

It’s probably fair to say this album has been one of the more difficult releases of Watson’s long career. It’s been a bit of a process. From the initial Pledge Me rallying cry in November 2019, which heralded an “early to mid-2020” release date for Getting Sober For The End Of The World, through a prolonged lockdown period as tracks were recorded and mastered, right up until this week’s release date, Watson has been hard at work, piecing it all together without any real certainty of outcome or timing. And yet, somehow, despite all of those very real challenges, it arrived perfectly formed, fastidiously crafted, and bearing all of Watson’s trademark attention to detail. And, let’s face it, you’d need to be sober to make any of that happen, surely. Fair play.

I’ve already seen a few early reviews from learned scribes suggesting that Getting Sober is Watson’s best work yet. With just a few listens under my belt before writing this, I’m less keen to go that far … for now. After all, the bar was set awfully high after 2018’s Too Many Millionaires. 

What I will say is that this album adopts a very similar approach to Millionaires, which was a far more stripped back variation on blues and soul than a lot of his earlier work. What worked there, works well again. Watson’s ever-maturing voice and gat-work again take centre stage, but a few of the same players are back to help out, most notably - without really wanting to single anyone out - Terry Casey, who adds an harmonica masterclass to several (of the nine) tracks. 

Album centrepiece ‘Ernie Abbott’ is a stand-out. One of Watson’s best ever tracks. More than just a story about an unsolved murder, it’s a heartfelt, if forlorn, plea for justice. A sobering reminder of one of this country’s worst and more gutless acts of domestic terrorism. A fitting tribute to the every-day working class ordinary bloke who goes about his daily business barely noticed. There but for the grace of God etc … 

Watson’s penchant for including local covers continues – this time we get ‘Love That I Had’, penned by fellow Wellington musician Matt Hay. There’s also Robert Johnson’s ‘Preachin’ Blues (Up Jumped The Devil)’, which acts as an ideal album closer. My own favourite track so far, just for the little bit of grime added to the vocal mix, is ‘Broken’, which simply oozes authenticity and stylish execution. 

I’m a little gutted I’m going to miss Watson’s album promo gig at San Fran this week. Wrong day, wrong part of the world for me. I was all set for another Paekakariki date with Watson before the most recent round of Covid-19 restrictions somewhat prematurely put paid to that idea. Another night then, but in the meantime, I can raise a sneaky glass to Getting Sober For The End Of The World. 

You can pick up a copy of the album here.

Classic Album Review: Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells (1973/2009)

Although Mike Oldfield has released a copious amount of other work during his long career as an electronic music pioneer, it is the Tubular Bells album for which he will ultimately be remembered. 

What is really striking about listening to the 2009 remastered version of his 1973 classic album, aside from the obvious sense of fun and adventure that such a remastering project would offer in the wake of huge technological advances, is the range of extremes to be found in the music; some really dated and almost cringeworthy stuff (check out the horrible rock guitar) combined with the genuinely inspirational and futuristic electronic/synthetic sounds found at the very core of the twin pieces of work that make up the album (‘Part One’ and ‘Part Two’).

I’m probably at a disadvantage in that I’ve never listened to the original 1973 album in the raw and in full, but listening to the 2009 version you can easily imagine how revolutionary this album would have appeared upon its release. Oldfield was very much ahead of his time in many respects, and it is perhaps more than a little perplexing that he was unable to come up with a repeat dose of something similarly boundary pushing later in his career. 

I’m not sure I quite “get” what ‘Mike Oldfield’s Single’ or ‘Sailor’s Hornpipe’ are all about, or indeed why they’re here, but at least neither requires quite the same degree of patience and commitment that ‘Part One’ (at 26 minutes) or ‘Part Two’ (23+ minutes) demand of the listener. 

Tubular Bells has had multiple re-releases and has been reconfigured several times since the original landed on us back in 1973 - including Tubular Bells 2, 3, the Millennium Bell, Tubular Bells 2003, the Ultimate Bell, which includes a variety of formats including vinyl, DVD etc - and while it is rightfully considered a “classic” by those who know a thing or two about this stuff, a cynic might tend to become a little suspicious about Oldfield’s motives (or those of his label) over the course. Talk about overkill. 

Or maybe I need to up my chemical intake and just get with the programme.

Classic Album Review: Strawpeople - The Best Of 1990 > 2000 (2000)

I read something on social media very recently, possibly a post from Fiona McDonald, which suggested that local act Strawpeople were back in the groove. Back in the studio and on the verge of releasing new work. I really can’t be sure of the details, but it may be timely to reflect on Strawpeople’s musical legacy, in anticipation of more to come, and perhaps the best way to do that is to take a look at the collection which showcased their very best work.

Strawpeople - initially a partnership between Auckland-based DJ friends Paul Casserly and Mark Tierney - were one of New Zealand’s most commercially successful pop acts of the Nineties, and this compilation album features virtually all of the band’s biggest hits, albeit “hits” specific to the NZ charts. And when I say “band”, I really mean Casserly (mostly) and Tierney (up until 1996), along with vocalist Fiona McDonald (occasionally). Plus, whomever else they decided to work with on any given album; to say that studio line-up changes were frequent over the course of roughly half a dozen albums throughout the decade would be no exaggeration. 

Strawpeople did two things very well. The first was to produce a distinctly Kiwi blend of electronica and pop (which has dated just a little, admittedly) using an assortment of (primarily) women vocalists. The second was to take material from other artists and turn it into their own – see covers of The Church’s ‘Under The Milky Way’, John Hiatt’s ‘Have a Little Faith’, and to a less successful extent, The Cars’ ‘Drive’. And of course there was also ‘One Good Reason’, a lesser known track from local new wave stalwarts The Swingers, which provided the breakthrough hit for Strawpeople. All of those tracks feature on Best Of. 

The most well known Strawpeople album is probably 1994’s Broadcast, which spent a whole year on the NZ album charts - reaching No.3 - and it featured the aforementioned core trio of Casserly, Tierney, and McDonald. Broadcast therefore represents Strawpeople at something of a career peak, but in truth, the casual fan or the merely curious might be better served by picking up a copy of this compilation which basically gives you all you’ll need without any hint of filler. 

Best tracks: ‘Love Explodes’, ‘Dreamchild’, ‘Trick With A Knife’, ‘Sweet Disorder’, and ‘Taller Than God’.

Depeche Mode's Violator Box

Keen Depeche Mode fans will have been following the band’s very methodical and expansive 12-inch singles reissue series. I use the word “following”, because only the most cash-flush fans will be buying. There’s “keen” and then there’s “keen”. And then there’s another word beyond “keen” for those fans prepared to buy stuff they probably already own in one format or another. But you know … vinyl, nostalgia, collectors, and completists, there’s really no accounting for the lengths some fans will go to in order to scratch an itch.

Basically, each single from the band’s extensive archives forms part of a vinyl box set depending on which album the single originated from. So there’s a box set for Speak & Spell singles, a box set for A Broken Frame singles, and so on and so on. If you’re anything like me, you’ll have already recognised the need to be selective about what you buy, sans a lotto win or the desire to take out another mortgage. Which brings me nicely to the Violator box which arrived in July. 

Violator is without question the band’s finest moment. Depeche Mode’s masterpiece. I’d argue it all day. And have done so many times. The singles extracted from the album were ‘Personal Jesus’, ‘Enjoy The Silence’, ‘Policy of Truth’, and ‘World In My Eyes’. But the box contains ten 12-inch singles, because you don’t just get the four 12-inch versions and the associated b-sides, you get a whole bunch of remixed material as well … in this case, a total of 29 tracks and a full three hours of Depeche Mode (across the ten singles). 

There’s four different versions of ‘Personal Jesus’, SEVEN different versions of ‘Enjoy The Silence’ – including the 15-and-a-half-minute ‘The Quad: Final Mix’, which features a number of producers including Adrian Sherwood and Tim Simenon – four versions of ‘Policy of Truth’, and four mixes of ‘World In My Eyes’. Plus of course, those b-sides: a couple of mixes of ‘Dangerous’, and three versions of (‘World’ flip) ‘Happiest Girl’, plus many others.

Those adding additional studio fairy dust include Mute Records boss Daniel Miller (naturally), Flood, and Francois Kevorkian, to name only the most prolific among the many involved.

It begs the question – how much Depeche Mode is too much Depeche Mode? … I can’t answer that either, but if you have to be selective and have enough cash to splurge on just one box in the ongoing series, I’m fairly certain this is the one to grab.

You can have a look at what is available in the series (so far) by scrolling down on this link (click here) ... if you dare.

Here’s the ‘Dangerous’ Sensual Mix … ‘Dangerous’ being the original b-side to ‘Personal Jesus’ and an instant Mode classic in its own right:

Electronomicon Live

20 years ago this week, local electro-dub duo Pitch Black released Electronomicon, a follow-up album to the landmark Futureproof release of a few years earlier. To celebrate the anniversary, Pitch Black have released live versions of six tracks featuring on the album, issuing the set as a name-your-price download on Bandcamp. Here’s the blurb:

Just under 20 years ago, on the 7th September 2000 to be precise, our second album "Electronomicon" was released by Kog Transmissions in New Zealand. 

To celebrate this milestone we dug deep into our archives to find recordings of our live shows from the time. After listening to hours and hours and hours and hours of DAT tapes, we've selected a live version of each of the tracks from the album and are happy to present "Electronomicon Live" for your listening pleasure. 

Very sadly we couldn't find anything from the release tour with Shapeshifter, Salmonella Dub Soundsystem and DJ Automatic, which is a shame as it was one of our most enjoyable live experiences, being the first time that we had full creative control of the whole look and feel of each show. 

As we think the audio quality of the recordings we did find doesn't quite match up to those we found for "Futureproof Live", we've decided to make this collection available on a pay as you want basis. 

Later this month we'll be releasing "Electronomicon" on vinyl for the first time.