Albums of 2015

Yes, yes. I know. We’re practically a tenth of the way through 2016 already and everythingsgonegreen is still living in the past. Even more than it usually does. Still wrapping up the formalities of bidding 2015 a fairly fond farewell. And other “F” words. But being late is nothing unusual for this blog. To be fair, I would have published this a fortnight ago, but my AA meeting went on longer than planned, and the barman wouldn’t let me leave.

And so these are the albums that made the most impact on me throughout 2015. Not “the best albums”, not the most popular or critically acclaimed, but the albums that were significant to my world. The music I played the most, I guess is the best criteria to use. I make no apologies for the local bias. The only prerequisite for an album’s inclusion was that I had to have my own copy of it in one form or another. Spotify and streaming mean nothing to me.

10. Blur – The Magic Whip

Damon Albarn has his moments, and I think The Magic Whip is one of his better ones. I really didn’t need any more Blur, and Modern Life Is Rubbish was always going to be enough for me, but this turned out to be a lovely unexpected bonus, and a real grower as the year progressed. My original review can be found here.

9. Adrian Sherwood – At The Controls Volume 1 1979 – 1984

It probably goes against all of the unwritten rules of music blogging to include a sneaky retro-compilation on these sorts of year-end lists. But everythingsgonegreen despises rules, especially those pesky unwritten ones, so here it is, another superb set of tunes from ace producer Adrian Sherwood. I loved this, and I dribble from the mouth a wee bit when pondering just how deep the yet-to-be-released On-U Sound archives might run. Despite being a huge fan of the label and of the Eighties, I was gobsmacked to discover a couple of bands here that I’d never even heard of before. And then there was the primo Shriekback track I knew nothing at all about. We’re nothing if not current and cutting edge up here at everythingsgonegreen towers … or the tree hut at the bottom of the backyard as it’s otherwise known. Shame – with some mitigating circumstances – on the hapless JB Hi Fi guy who didn’t know this album even existed. My original review can be found here.

8. Fat Freddy’s Drop – Bays

It's no secret that everythingsgonegreen is a massive fan of local dub/reggae/funk crossover merchants Fat Freddy's Drop. But even I baulked at the option of paying something close to $150 for two tickets to the band's recent NYE (2015/2016) gig at Petone beach. It was effectively a homecoming or hometown gig, but nothing about that price was especially festive or neighbourly, and it was all a little too rich for yours truly. Less disappointing and even less prohibitive was the $24.99 I'd already forked out for a copy of Bays, the band's rather excellent fifth album from earlier in 2015. All of the regular Fat Freddy's touchstones are present and accounted for on Bays – bass, horns, drops, laid back grooves, and songs about food. You mostly know what you're going to get with these guys. Some (local) critics will doubtlessly argue that's a bad thing, but I reckon the intense progressive electro vibes found on 'Razor' and 'Novak' actually do represent something quite different here. Of course it won’t be enough to satisfy those naysayers, nor the bandwagon-hoppers who continue to tag the band with the lazy and tiresome "barbecue reggae" label. But who really cares about unimaginative worn-out labels? Beyond wanting to give one or two regular grizzlers a poke in the eye with a particularly sharp stick, the band obviously couldn’t care less.

7. Belle and Sebastian – Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance

We live in a topsy-turvy world. A world where everything we once believed is now in danger of being turned completely on its head at any given moment. For proof of such a claim, look no further than Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance. A rare and barely imagined two-headed beastie; a disco-pop album made by long-time kings of bedsit twee, Belle and Sebastian. An album that challenges all of the things I thought I knew about Stuart Murdoch and his stalwart gang of Scottish indie pop perfectionists. Two decades into their journey, album number nine feels like something quite special for the band. It’s clever stuff, charmingly existential, as ever, while shamelessly strutting its way across the dancefloor with its arse hanging out. Always a good look. And I don’t know if Belle and Sebastian have peaked inside the Top 10 of the ‘fishal UK album charts all that often, but Girls In Peacetime did exactly that, by hook over crook, all part of the plan, as espoused on notional centrepiece ‘The Everlasting Muse’ … “a subtle gift to modern rock, she says ‘be popular, play pop’ … and you will win my love”. I’ve had a fractured relationship with Belle and Sebastian over the years, but who doesn’t love a happy ending?

6. Mel Parsons – Drylands

Mel Parsons is a huge talent. As a musician, as a vocalist, and as a songwriter. Drylands represents exhibit A, and is, from all accounts, her best work yet. It’s also an album that just gets better with each and every listen. My original review can be found here. 

5. New Order – Music Complete

When it first arrived, I never expected Music Complete to wind up on any year-end lists. But then, when it comes to New Order in context of 2015, I really had no expectations at all. Why would I? The band has nothing left to prove, and this barely anticipated late addition to an already astounding musical legacy was the band's best full length work since 1989's Technique. And if you think that's merely a case of blatant fanboy hyperbole (which it partly might be) then it's still a long way short of Mojo magazine's rating of New Order as its 2015 band of the year. Yes, really. My original review can be found here.

4. She's So Rad – Tango

Tango was such a long time in coming that by the time it arrived I'd already heard most of it in one form or another. But that did nothing to dampen my enjoyment of it. Circles, the band's 2011 debut, largely flew under my radar, and to some extent a steady drip-feed diet of this stuff has given Tango an impetus the first album probably lacked. Main Rad dude, Jeremy Toy, wears his musical influences on his sleeve for all to see, and Tango is an exercise in blending a strong Eighties synthpop aesthetic with copious helpings of early Nineties shoegaze. And who doesn’t love a little bit of both of those things? But it’s not all retro-centric, with David Dallas’ straight-outta-Auckland hip hop cameo on ‘Say The Word’ taking things to another place entirely. Best bits: ‘Levels’, ‘Cool It’, ‘Confetti’, and ‘Sewn Up Sunshine’.

3. Yoko-Zuna – This Place Here

When I spoke to Cam Duncan, this album’s producer, early last month, he talked a little bit about how music fans can *feel* music before they actually *hear* it. That was all a bit flowery and “out there” for a mere layman and pragmatist like me, but I think I partly knew what he was trying to get at. For me, This Place Here conjures up widescreen cinematic imagery the very instant I do hear it, so I suppose that’s close enough. It’s probably just the sax and the wider jazzy feel, but I’m reminded of that scene in Scorcese’s Taxi Driver, where there’s a downpour and a narrative/voiceover describing how the rains arrive to cleanse the streets of all the gunk and grime. All of mankind’s sins are washed away, as if the drenching was all part of some great masterplan (Travis: “someday a real rain will come and wash all the scum off the streets”). It’s Seventies New York at twilight, dusky downtown streets, and film noir black and white imagery. Only it isn’t really New York. This Place Here is a trip. It’s an album conceived on the streets of urban Auckland, on Grafton Road, on Queen Street, and on K Road. In the small clubs and jam-bars in the side streets off the main drag. And that voiceover? … it comes in the form of multiple narratives from some of the best hip hop exponents those streets have to offer – from David Dallas to Team Dynamite, Spycc, and others. In more simple terms, the album was a mature, multi-collaborative, and perfectly formed mix of hip hop, RnB, and jazz. With a super-sized “just jamming with mates” feel right at its core. My original review can be found here.

2. The Phoenix Foundation – Give Up Your Dreams

I reckon The Phoenix Foundation might just about be the best band in New Zealand right now. And I'm not saying that just because they're regular neighbourhood guys from just down the road; the band's output across more than a decade speaks for itself, and album number six, Give Up Your Dreams, is arguably the best work yet. With its capacity for musical surprises and a more than generous sprinkling of lyrical brilliance, it certainly appeals as the band's most consistent full-length effort. From the psych-rock of opener 'Mountain' to the electro-pop textures and harmonies of closer 'Myth', and everything in between, The Phoenix Foundation effortlessly conjure up a masterclass in state-of-the-art pop on GUYD. While it’s tempting to single out the bouncy hooks of 'Bob Lennon John Dylan', or the title track itself as highpoints, no single track really stands out ahead of the rest, and it’s the sheer variety on offer that ultimately leaves the longest lasting impression. A career high for the band.

1. Of Monsters And Men – Beneath The Skin

I’m not sure whether I should feel guilt pangs for loving Of Monsters And Men as much as I do. But, just quietly, sometimes I do feel that way. I have form for this sort of thing. Back in 2012, the band’s excellent debut, My Head Is An Animal, also featured highly (number 2) on the blog’s end-of-year album wrap. There’s just something so damned irresistible about Of Monsters And Men. Is it still too soon to call them Iceland’s best pop export since Bjork’s imperious Sugarcubes? There’s a strong argument to be made there, it has to be said. If the debut was all about embracing childlike magic and feelgood triggers, and I think it was, then 2015’s Beneath The Skin is a far more adult and grown-up affair. As an album it’s altogether an earthier, more grounded, inward-looking work. But being a little darker lyrically, and unafraid to broach some of life’s more existential questions, just means the band’s music is all the broader in appeal this time out. Thankfully, none of the quirk or charm of previous work was lost in the process of giving this stuff a more introspective or serious hue. For the absence of any doubt, check out ‘Crystals’, ‘Empire’, ‘I of the Storm’, and ‘Wolves Without Teeth’. Guilty pleasures be damned, I can’t wait for album number three already.

Honourable mentions:

The Orb’s Moonbuilding 2703 AD, a four-track epic spanning some 52 minutes, making it rather reminiscent of the now archaic Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld. Without being quite as good as that particular masterpiece.

Leftfield’s Alternative Light Source, which was effectively Neil Barnes and a whole list of collaborators making Leftfield’s first set of new and original material this century. I especially enjoyed the contribution of James Williamson (Sleaford Mods) on the mildly amusing but nonetheless slightly disturbing ‘Head and Shoulders’.

St Germain’s “comeback” work St Germain, a self-titled third album for French producer Ludovic Navarre. While this one was not quite in the same league as its predecessor, Tourist (2000), I thought it was a wonderful exercise in exploring the concept of rhythm, specifically as it relates to Africa and naturally, the blues. Put like that, it might also have been about the meaning of life …

Oxford band Foals released What Went Down mid-year and for a long time it was a stick-on certainty to make this list. But as the year wore on, the more I listened to it, the more bored I became. A decent collection of songs, just lacking one special element … even if I’m not entirely sure what that element was. I preferred 2013’s Holy Fire, but still love Foals, and this one possibly suffered from me becoming overly familiar with it a little too quickly.

Finally, Jamie xx’s In Colour was hailed everywhere else, and while I liked the vast majority of it, the stuff I didn’t like – and I include the big “hit” ‘I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times)’ in that – really put me off. When he’s good, he’s great. When he’s not, he’s … well, not. In Colour was, for me, despite all of the bouquets, a patchwork album. But still worthy of an honourable mention.

Biggest disappointment of 2015: The Pop Group’s Citizen Zombie. A 35-year wait. For that? Really? I expected more from Mark Stewart. Because I know what he’s really capable of. But then, that’s easy for me to say. I’m not a once angry young man who has grown old. I’m a once happy (and extremely handsome!) young man who has grown angry.

Was there also a Prince album I could get my knickers knotted over? I think there might have been. It’ll be the one in the recycle bin.

Best reissue: Paul Hardcastle’s 30th anniversary edition of ‘19’. You probably knew that was coming. So many different versions, so many of them truly epic. Seemingly more relevant today than it was back in 1985.

Best live album: The abbreviated version of Live at Carnegie Hall from Ryan Adams (not the sprawling three-album set), which set me up nicely for seeing Adams live at Wellington’s Opera House in July. It was my first time seeing him and he was truly impressive.

Best gig: I’m tempted to say Ryan Adams, but Fleetwood Mac in Auckland was pretty special. The swirling wind and monsoon conditions made it difficult at times, but boy oh boy did it up the drama quotient tenfold. I’ll never forget Stevie Nicks taking ‘Gold Dust Woman’ somewhere very special indeed, just as the heavens opened one last time. It was a thoroughly mental but very memorable 24-hour blast getting up there and back.

Just quickly, another thing on Fleetwood Mac: I couldn’t include the three-disc Rumours deluxe box in the best reissues because it was released as far back as 2013. But it was new to me this year and quite special in its own right. Aside from the additional disc of alternative takes and demos, there’s live tracks from the band’s 1977 World tour – which somehow seemed especially poignant and timely.

So that more or less wraps things up, and puts 2015 where it belongs – in a big fuck-off box. And ties the bow. I’m reaching up and placing it on the shelf beside the others right now. Thanks for reading. You had the easy bit. I think.

 

Fresh Cuts for NZ Musician December 2015/January 2016

The December/January issue of NZ Musician hit the streets this week, and as per usual I managed to sneak a couple of album reviews past the quality control radar of the magazine’s editorial staff …

B2KDA: Rising

Officially, Rising is album number four from the collective previously known as Batucada Sound Machine, or BSM. But it’s also a first for the group while wearing a shiny new B2KDA badge. Such is the fluid nature of this ever-evolving 10-piece-plus ensemble, it’s quite remarkable how many of these tunes stay faithful to the modus operandi and work of all previous BSM line-ups. And that’s a good thing – a proven formula that works. If B2KDA does manage to set out its own stall under the new guise, then pure unadulterated funk remains very much at its heart – see tunes like the single, Can’t Give You (What You’re Asking For), and The Greatest Step. There’s also a crossover into bass and brass-heavy dub territories, with king-size slabs of electro (I’m A Physicist), ska (Same Old Thing), and world music flavours (Por La Noche). Such is the diversity on offer, Rising appeals as being almost completely borderless in its widescreen vision, a hybrid of international sounds blending together in the name of a funky dance party. Which is hardly surprising given that the album was recorded and pieced together at five or six different locations across the globe, places as far flung and diverse as Berlin, Singapore, Dunedin, and umm, Blockhouse Bay. The finishing touches were added in the studio of Sola Rosa’s Andrew Spraggon, with the end result being a light and breezy album crammed full of fresh summery vibes.

http://www.nzmusician.co.nz/index.php/ps_pagename/album/pi_albumid/2612

Host Club: Gymkhana EP

If the tunes found on this debut EP are anything to go by, then Host Club look set for a big future. Coming to us straight out of Western Springs High School, as recent regional Rockquest finalists and yet veterans of Auckland’s vibrant all-ages scene, Host Club’s most immediate and obvious point of difference is the very distinctive baritone of lead vocalist Finn Dalbeth. It’s a voice that defies his teenage years, underpinned by the type of energetic and quirky indie rock more readily associated with a much older generation. As such, this music should appeal not only to the band’s own demographic, but also to those of us raised on the eccentricities and foibles of ’80s pop. Gymkhana was recorded and mixed by Karl Apao of Soundkard Productions. While each of the four tracks here offer up something slightly different, it’s the brooding tension and heavy vibe found on Miscellania, the closer and single, that showcases the Auckland four-piece at its very best. Whisper it, lest we place a hex, but these guys might deserve some watching.

http://www.nzmusician.co.nz/index.php/ps_pagename/album/pi_albumid/2621

Home Alone/Autumn

Home Alone is a Wellington-based label, and Autumn is a collection of b-sides, rarities, and live songs from local artists released earlier this year. I’ve been meaning to share the link to the name-your-price download for quite a while now.

I think I probably downloaded the digital album sometime back in late May or June, when it was released, and many of the tracks on it have subsequently gone on to become firm favourites of mine as the year has progressed.

None of the songs are particularly bold, brassy, poppy, or “in-your-face great”, but at its best some of this music is quite beautiful – crafted, delicate, fragile, and defined by its simplicity. I reckon you’ll need to have a listen to grasp exactly what I mean.

It isn’t quite perfect – there are a couple of tracks here that don’t really work for me – but I’d say 70% of it is top drawer in terms of 2015 local product.

Highlights include the tunes from Lake South, French For Rabbits, and Eb & Sparrow.

Check it out …

Fresh Cuts for NZ Musician October/November 2015

I had a couple of album reviews included in the latest edition of NZ Musician magazine (see below). I’m pretty certain the Yoko-Zuna album is among the very best things – local or international – I’ve heard all year, and I’ll be very surprised if we don’t end up hearing a lot more from these super-talented young Aucklanders.

 

Yoko-Zuna: This Place Here

One of the best things about the jazz and hip hop genres is the capacity each has for embracing the concept of collaboration. The nature of hip hop in particular – with its emphasis on sampling and production – makes it ripe for a cross pollination of musical ideas, and many of the genre’s seminal moments have been born from this pick and mix approach. And so it is with ‘This Place Here’, the debut release from Auckland four-piece Yoko-Zuna. It’s an album which features lyrical/vocal star turns from local luminaries such as David Dallas, Spycc, Team Dynamite, Bailey Wiley, Melodownz from Third3ye and Goodshirt’s Rodney Fisher. Throw in a variety of instrumentation from the group’s core members – keys/synth, sax, flute – plus terrific recording and mastering from Cam Duncan, and the result is a wonderfully eclectic mix across the album’s nine tracks. So much so, it feels plain wrong to file this hybrid concoction exclusively under the hip hop banner. The album’s roots are deeply embedded in the genre, there’s no question about that, but above ground, given the air and room to breathe, these soul and jazz-infused tunes take on a life of their own; boundaries are breached, horizons are expanded and ultimately ‘This Place Here’ is guaranteed a much wider reach than might have been expected. One or two tracks appeal as glorious half-formed ideas that could perhaps be developed further, but there are no duds. The RnB-styled One’s Cycle, topped with a delicious soul-drenched Bailey Wiley vocal, is a sumptuous stand out.

http://www.nzmusician.co.nz/index.php/ps_pagename/album/pi_albumid/2569

Greg Fleming And The Working Poor: Stranger In My Own Hometown

Fleming’s second outing with The Working Poor, and alongside the evident irony, the road-worn Auckland songsmith has perfected the art of what might be called working man’s blues rock. An edgy country-tinged blues rock, with a gruff lived-in vocal to both die for and rally behind. The sort of voice you might get if you crossed Dylan with Knopfler, or Petty, or Waits, or any combination thereof. Produced by the band’s drummer Wayne Bell, Fleming’s vocals sit atop beautifully crafted compositions and songs about things that matter. Songs about important things like bad politics, cruel cities, and matters of the heart – not necessarily in that order. Songs like Corporate Hill, Night Country Blues, the lovely piano ballad Autumn Auckland, and the intimate Heart’s a Wreck. But more than that, more than the voice, more than those lyrics, what really makes ‘Stranger in My Own Hometown’ work is the sense that each member of the six-piece band knows exactly what their job is, and as a unit they execute it to perfection. And you can’t really ask for much more than that.

http://www.nzmusician.co.nz/index.php/pi_pageid/10/pi_albumid/2588

Album Review: New Order - Music Complete (2015)

The majority of online reviews so far have been positive, but comments on my social media feed over the past fortnight would suggest the early reaction to Music Complete has been rather mixed. I’ve seen it called “a return to form”, and I’ve seen it described as “shit”. As ever with these things, I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

I'm not even sure what we should realistically expect from a New Order album in 2015. I certainly don't think we should be looking for anything too revolutionary or progressive, or anything game-changing. My own starting point for Music Complete was an appreciative "wow, great, more New Order after all this time"... which is not to say I wasn’t really looking forward to it.

Music Complete is the band’s tenth full-length studio album, and the first set of brand new material in ten years. It’s the band’s first album as a five-piece, and the first album without Peter Hook. Not that any of those things stand out as being overly obvious when listening to it, and the album has a comforting “old” New Order vibe all the way through. Which is just how I like it.

If anything, the album feels heavily front-loaded. Virtually all of the real gems arrive within the first 35 minutes – from opener and advance single ‘Restless’, through a half dozen tunes to the Iggy Pop-voiced ‘Stray Dog’, the band doesn’t miss a beat. The Tom Rowlands-produced ‘Singularity’, the bouncy disco of ‘Plastic’, and the unrepentant pop of ‘Tutti Frutti’ (clip below) are all as good as anything the post-Technique New Order has done.

From there, things taper off a little, quickly moving from the sublime to the ordinary, before the truly awful ‘Superheated’ – a regrettable Brandon Flowers collaboration – closes the album on a massively cheesy note. The only real dud here, ‘Superheated’ might better have been called ‘Overcooked’, in deference to the type of music the vocalist’s own band usually coughs up.

The other collaborations work well enough; Iggy’s cameo appearance is an unexpected bonus, Chemical Brother Rowlands offers a deft hand as co-producer on a couple of tracks, while vocals from La Roux, Denise Johnson, and Dawn Zee all add texture on tunes where Barney might otherwise lack the requisite vocal chops.

Old Order, not unlike New Order

Mostly though, this is archetypal New Order, classic guitar lines blended with driving high-bpm electronica/techno. Hook’s absence isn’t obvious, and I no longer buy the idea – as I once did – that if you don’t have Hook, you don’t have New Order. Tom Chapman proves to be a more than adequate replacement here. And naturally the whole thing is stylishly packaged up in a fetching Peter Saville sleeve design.

I’m not sure Music Complete is the ubiquitous “return to form” if form is assessed by 1981-1989 standards, but neither is it “shit”. If pressed to place Music Complete into some sort of historical context, where Power Corruption and Lies or Technique sit at a notional summit, where Movement is the black sheep, and Brotherhood a dark horse, this album is a mid-ranking effort, something akin to a Republic or a Low Life. It’s better than any of the other post millennium releases, but not quite a masterpiece in its own right. Which, when you stop to think about it from a 2015 perspective, is still a rather marvellous thing to be.

A week or so ago The Guardian’s Miranda Sawyer wrote a great interview piece about the band’s return (click here).

 

Album Review: AHoriBuzz - Into The Sunshine (2015)

AHoriBuzz is the “solo” project of prodigiously-talented guitarist Aaron Tokona. You may (or may not) be familiar with Tokona’s work with bands like Weta, Cairo Knife Fight, and Fly My Pretties. If you’re a fan of New Zealand music, you’ll surely at least be aware of his reputation as one of this country’s hardest working and most in-demand session musicians.

So while Tokona has featured on many local albums across the past decade and a half (at least), his own releases under the AHoriBuzz moniker have tended to be rather more spasmodic, if not few and far between. The recent release of Into The Sunshine goes some way towards addressing that, collecting as it does all of the “singles” released over the past couple of years or so and putting them in one place.

The album consists of five tunes, but ten tracks, with Tokona offering up five original versions and five revamped takes on the same tunes … so, for example, we get ‘Turnaround’, plus the Joe Revell remix of ‘Turnaround’, we get ‘Glitter in the Gutter’, plus the Rhombus remix of ‘Glitter in the Gutter’ etc etc.

There’s contributions from Anika Moa and Anna Coddington on the rejigged title track, Ben King and Jason Peters feature on ‘Sugar’, while the remixing skills of Dick ‘Magik’ Johnson turn the alternate ‘Providence’ into a real highlight.

Ultimately, Into The Sunshine clocks in at something close to 70 minutes, and I reckon it’s likely to be the funkiest hour-and-a-bit you’ll hear all year. You’d have to be a little bit dead inside if these tunes don’t make your knees quiver and buckle just a little. Make no mistake, this is dirty funk and psychedelic disco with a distinctly Aotearoa spin on it.

Or dancefloor music with an unmistakable “hori buzz” about it … as Tokona himself would surely have it. Not pub or club dancefloors necessarily – makeshift or impromptu backyard dancefloors; decks, garages, kitchens (at parties) and the like. Something close to home. Chur.

The Return of Rhian Sheehan ...

Wellington composer Rhian Sheehan is a massive talent. I was drawn to his work more than a decade ago now after hearing his stunning debut album Paradigm Shift (2001) and its equally gorgeous follow-up Tiny Blue Biosphere (2004). Each of those releases raised the bar for the local “electronica” scene, and Sheehan looked to have a secure future as a producer of spacey club-orientated dance music should that be the path he chose to take.

Only it wasn’t, Sheehan’s horizons were much broader than that rather fickle fast-paced (and often superficial) scene, and in the years since he’s gone on to compose and produce work of a much more classical bent – electronic and orchestral soundscapes which mark him as an ideal “go to” guy for soundtrack work. He is, to all intents and purposes, one of those artists who has become impossible to pigeonhole.

Earlier this week Sheehan released a brand new live album (via Bandcamp) featuring music from gigs at the Wellington Opera House dating back to 2010 and 2013. Most of it being material from his popular Standing In Silence (2009) and Stories From Elsewhere (2013) albums.  For reasons best known to Sheehan himself, he’s released it on a “name your price” basis, so get in there and grab it and pay what you like. If you are unfamiliar with Sheehan’s work, this is an ideal starting point, and is highly recommended.

Album Review: Various/Sherwood at the Controls Volume 1 1979-1984 (2015)

I’m a sucker for Adrian Sherwood and/or On-U Sound archive compilation albums. There’s been a few over the years, and I’ve purchased – at one time or another, in some form or another – pretty much all of them. Give or take. I particularly loved the Pay It All Back series of the late Eighties and Nineties and that full set still takes pride of place in my CD collection – I also had vinyl versions of the first couple of albums but was ultimately only able to complete the set on CD. I can’t imagine there would be too many collectors out there privileged enough to have the job lot on vinyl, but I’m happy to be proven wrong and wonder if any such collector would be up for a sneaky marriage proposal. You know where to find me (you lucky thing!). 

The thing about Sherwood and his remarkable label, of course, is the producer’s uncanny ability to work with – and transform the work of – artists of all colour, creed, gender, and genre. Something amply demonstrated on Sherwood at the Controls, which digs deep into those treasured archives to present a snapshot of some of his best work from the label's formative 1979 to 1984 period.

Sherwood at the Controls features 14 tracks from that era, with hard-edged post-punk from the likes of The Fall (‘Middle Mass’) and The Slits (‘Man Next Door’) sitting comfortably alongside the dub and roots flavours of the late Prince Far I (‘Nuclear Weapon’), Singers & Players (‘Reaching The Bad Man’), and perennial On-U favourite African Head Charge (‘In A Trap’).

Somewhere in the middle of those very compatible extremes we find Shriekback (‘Mistah Linn He Dead’), Mark Stewart’s Maffia (‘Learning to Cope with Cowardice’ – the “flexi” version), and another frequent collaborator in the form of Annie Anxiety (aka Little Annie) with the near unclassifiable ‘Third Gear Kills’.

Then there’s the stuff that I’m less familiar with – even as an ardent Sherwood fan – from the where-are-they-now files of Medium Medium (‘Hungry, So Angry’) which opens proceedings, to Maximum Joy with ‘Let It Take You There’, Nadjma with ‘Some Day My Caliph Will Come’, and a track from the wonderfully named (in an Eighties context) Gardening By Moonlight, who offer us ‘Strange Clues’, yet little clue as to who they might actually be. There’s also a notable contribution from well-known music journalist Vivien Goldman (‘Private Armies Dub’) which closes the album.

Which just leaves us with my own choice cut from the album, Voice of Authority’s ‘Running (Feeling Wild)’, a slightly dated yet nonetheless absorbing slab of electro funk which features Congo Ashanti Roy.

"no kittens were harmed during the making of" ... etc

There’s always a danger that these types of archive/compilation releases can come across as being disjointed or lacking in flow, but while Sherwood explores all manner of styles on At The Controls, it all blends together well and the listening experience is seldom less than riveting.

I guess I should also offer the disclaimer that I’m a massive fan of the producer and the label, so this review may be slightly coloured by that fact; Sherwood could probably be convicted of kitten molestation and I’d still not be fazed about expressing my undying love for his work. That’s just the way it is. And hey, the kitten was just as likely asking for it anyway.

As if that isn’t enough, as if being a historically significant collection with a plethora of rare and under-the-radar material isn’t enough, the very best thing about Sherwood at the Controls is the bit that reads “Volume 1” … you know what that means don’t you?

Album Review: Celt Islam - Murshid (2015)

Murshid (Arabic: مرشد‎) is Arabic for "guide" or "teacher", derived from the root r-sh-d, with the basic meaning of having integrity, being sensible, mature. Particularly in Sufism it refers to a Spiritual Guide.

Murshid is also title of the latest album/EP release from prolific Sufi dub specialist Celt Islam, featuring nine tracks across 50-odd minutes, and once again it's a masterclass in fusing Eastern/World elements with state-of-the-art psy-dub and trippy electro vibes.

Some of this stuff has appeared - in one form or another - on earlier releases but highlights here include the drum and bass/jungle flavours of 'The Blessed Gathering', and the re-tread 'This Is A Sign' which features a Danman vocal over what was 'Sinking Sand Dub' off the Irfan EP from earlier this year. There’s also an Analogue Fakir remix of ‘Dervish’ featuring regular collaborator Inder Goldfinger. All great stuff.

But don't take my word for it, check it out on the Earth City Recordz Bandcamp page.

Album Review: Blur - The Magic Whip (2015)

I've never been a big Damon Albarn fan. I think I was probably a convert to Blur's Modern Life is Rubbish album for a brief time in the Nineties, I enjoyed the first Gorillaz album, and I've admired some of Albarn's production work. But that's not really a huge amount to hang a hat on over the course of more than two decades, and I've generally found his forays into afrobeat and other "solo" and side projects rather ordinary. Nevertheless, a brand new Blur album is still a relatively newsworthy event, so I thought I'd take a sneaky peek at what the 2015 version of the band has to offer.

Conceived and recorded in Hong Kong, The Magic Whip is Blur's first studio album since Think Tank in 2003, and the band's eighth overall. The album presents such a hybrid mix of the many different styles that kept the band's music so fresh and vital all those years ago, some pundits have dared to call it a "return to form" ... though after more than a decade away, it's perhaps a little harsh to suggest the band had "lost form". It's more likely they'd simply lost phone numbers.

Even after such a long period apart, the album is immediately identifiable as being a Blur album – with prototype Blur eccentricity and unpredictably right at its heart. The string-laden opener 'Lonesome Street' instantly reminds us that one of Blur's best loved party tricks is the one that invokes a keen sense of nostalgia, and it’s an ideal way to kick things off. With the rocky guitar stabs of first single ‘Go Out’ we’re then reminded of just how important Graham Coxon is to the chemistry of the band. Coxon's skills had largely been rendered superfluous to requirements during the recording of Think Tank, so his return here is a welcome development. ‘Go Out’ is classic Blur in that brooding, yearning for something, kind of way.

There's some pretty good stuff all the way through. From the beautiful simplicity of the acoustic ‘Ice Cream Man’, which is probably the album’s highpoint (for me), to the gentle psychedelia of ‘Ghost Ship’, the Asian flavours of ‘Pyongyang’, and the simple formula pop of ‘Ong Ong’, it’s almost as though they’ve never been away. In keeping with some of Albarn’s more recent work, there’s afrobeat textures on ‘There Are Too Many of Us’, and an electro-funk feel to closer ‘Mirrorball’. The Magic Whip is a veritable feast in terms of musical diversity.

Having said all of that, the album is also something of a sleeper or slow burner, and it took quite a few listens for me to fully get my head around it. I picked up my copy of The Magic Whip as far back as April or May, so this review has been a long time coming. Rather like the album itself.

Album Review(s): Ryan Adams - Ryan Adams (2014) & Live at Carnegie Hall (2015)

Not my new car, but close

I’ve got a new car. It’s black*, compact, very sporty, and it’s all mine – as opposed to being the “family car”. It feels a little bit like the middle-aged male equivalent of the “little black dress”. I mention this mainly because it also has quite easily the best car audio system I’ve ever had the pleasure of using on any regular basis, and it’s changed the way I’ve been listening to music over the past couple of weeks. I’m in love with it, and I’ve been driving it as much as possible. Every day, even. I feel like I’ve finally arrived in the 21^st century, yet for all of its other-worldly-state-of-the-art-ness, that car audio has also seen me take a step back in time; back to CDs and (whisper it) mainstream radio. For whatever reason, music on disc just sounds so much fuller and crunchier than that found on my rather extensive – and admittedly far more convenient/transportable – collection of mp3s. In the past week, I’ve even gone out and purchased a couple of brand new CDs specifically for the car audio experience. I know, right? Who does that these days?

The first of these was the recent Ryan Adams album, (Ten Songs) Live at Carnegie Hall. I picked this one up because next week I’m attending a Ryan Adams gig here in Wellington and I wanted to get a feel for what Adams is like on stage. The Live at Carnegie Hall album features music from two New York gigs in November 2014 so it’s all very recent and I saw it as being quite relevant to what we can expect on this current tour. I’m really pleased I have this one on CD (as opposed to other forms) because it really does sound immaculate – crisp and lush – and it’s a genuine keeper. (note: I’m not saying all CDs sound this good *generally*). The second CD purchase earlier this week was the much hyped Jamie xx’s ‘In Colour’, but I’ll cover that off in another post.

I’m a relative latecomer to the music of Ryan Adams. I’ve had a copy of his acclaimed self-titled 2014 album for a while now, and I’ve listened to that a fair bit, but I’ve got nothing from his vast back catalogue, not Heartbreaker or Gold, and not a thing from the Whiskeytown or Cardinals eras. For many years I only vaguely knew his music. I saw Adams – perhaps incorrectly – as something of a flagbearer for Americana, and I always felt he was far too prolific in terms of output to have any sort of quality control filter in place – I mean, there was something like 13 albums and seven EPs in a dozen years 2000-2011 …

Nope, for me, Adams was just another one of those artists “other people” raved about. But that 2014 “comeback” album, after a three-year hiatus, changed all of that. So ahead of next week’s gig I thought I’d offer a short review of that album, and something similar for Live at Carnegie Hall. I’ll just as likely have a review of his Wellington gig in a couple of weeks. You might say I’m now a fan, but let’s wait and see.

Ryan Adams – Ryan Adams (2014)

Hearing ‘Trouble’ (the third single off this album) more or less instantly changed the way I felt about Ryan Adams. Or at least it led me to this album, which ultimately had that effect. Here was an authentic slice of unpretentious rock n roll music packaged up in a sumptuous sonic burst lasting less than four minutes. Yet, with the benefit of freshly-acquired hindsight, ‘Trouble’ probably isn’t even the best tune on the album. That mantle surely rests with the superb (Grammy-nominated) opener ‘Gimme Something Good’, which sets things up nicely for what follows – an almost perfect blend of mid-tempo guitar-driven 70s-tinged rock, and a collection of slower softer jams. In the former category we have tunes like ‘Am I Safe’ and ‘Trouble’ itself, while the latter description covers off songs like second single ‘My Wrecking Ball’ and the more plaintive ‘Shadows’, both of which succeed in bringing Adams’ singer-songwriting skills into sharper focus. Adams co-produces with renowned multi-instrumentalist Mike Viola, and the album features cameo appearances from ex-wife Mandy Moore (vocals) and Johnny Depp (guitar). This album has been slow burner for me, and it’s really only over the past few months that I’ve started to appreciate just how good it is.

Ryan Adams – Live at Carnegie Hall (2015)

When I say I purchased Live at Carnegie Hall on CD (above), what I actually mean is I picked up the short 10-track version of a much larger set. Not the actual 40-plus-track, 200-plus-minute, six-LP box set. So I’m reviewing the abbreviated form here, not that massive career-spanning overview (life’s too short). This version covers snippets from the two nights at Carnegie Hall in November 2014, just five tracks from each night (ten in total). Nonetheless there is a nice mix of the old and new on offer – three tracks from the recent 2014 album (as reviewed above), three tracks from 2001’s Gold, two from “solo” debut Heartbreaker (2000), and two “brand new”/previously unreleased songs which present a slightly more folky or pastoral version of Adams. All of these songs are stripped back acoustic versions, all are quite lovely, and all benefit from pristine production. The sound is so clean and pure in places you could probably hear a guitar pick drop. Heartbreaker’s ‘Oh My Sweet Carolina’ and Gold’s ‘Nobody Girl’ immediately draw the listener in and work as an ideal one-two to kick things off. But the highlight here for me is probably ‘My Wrecking Ball’ off last year’s effort. There’s also some great between-songs dialogue from Adams, some self-deprecation about the depressing nature of some of his music, and some hilarious stuff about weed smoking. Quite aside from his talents as a singer-songwriter-musician, Adams comes across as quite the entertainer. This is a great sampler, and I can only hope next week’s performance comes close to the sense of anticipation created when listening to this. Though, to be fair, I suspect the upcoming Wellington gig will feature a full band.   

*My much suppressed inner-goth has always coveted a jet black car, which probably stems from being a teenage Knightrider fan.

Album Review: The Pop Group - Citizen Zombie (2015)

What happens to old punks when they grow up?

Well, if The Gospel According to The Pop Group’s Mark Stewart is to be believed, growing older just means they merely become more passionate and more focused about what they’re doing. And if the music on The Pop Group’s latest offering - the 2015 album Citizen Zombie - is any indication, Old Father Time has done little to dampen or dilute Stewart's all-encompassing sense of rage at the world.

Citizen Zombie is the band’s first studio album for 35 years.

I’ll stop there. And pause for a moment.

35 years! ... Citizen Zombie is The Pop Group’s first set of original “songs” since the acclaimed For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder? helped establish a much copied post-punk template way back in 1980.

Ah, 1980: Jimmy Carter was still President of the USA, Margaret Thatcher’s reign of terror in the UK (ahem) had only just started, while mainstream pop culture fiends on both sides of the Atlantic still tended to favour bell-bottoms and platforms over bondage pants and Doc Martens (but not for long). If it hadn’t been for an American boycott of the Moscow Olympics that year, Bruce Jenner (aka Caitlyn) would just as likely have retained his title of “the world’s greatest athlete”. In short, it was a bloody lifetime ago.

The music of The Pop Group (and Stewart in his solo incarnation) has always been a difficult and “challenging” listen, or at the very least something of an acquired taste. Citizen Zombie is no exception.

As a listening experience the album is more than a little unsettling. Not only in terms of subject matter, but also due to the hybrid of styles on offer. And yes, while attempts to “unsettle” or disturb have often accounted for big chunks of The Pop Group's modus operandi, I’m not convinced the music disturbs in quite the way it’s supposed to. It just feels a little too messy and disjointed; take four parts warped electro, three parts industrial grind, two parts agit-funk, before adding a sprinkling of disco fairy dust. Stir vigorously to boil.

Quite a recipe … if you wish to cook up an "acquired taste".

The targets on Citizen Zombie are many and varied. Consumerism, greed, big business, big brother, war, mass media, destruction of the planet, etc. It would take tens of thousands of words to break down and analyse each of these, but Stewart's grievances are all pretty valid, it has to be said. So I'll spare you that part. Be assured, he's passionate and focused, and his delivery remains as abrasive as ever. That part is not in dispute.

On one hand I can very much understand and even appreciate the sentiment behind many of these tunes, yet on the other hand, the album quickly becomes quite hard work, which rather defeats its purpose, because I’m already quite sure I'll not be rushing back to it anytime soon.

Well, not unless I’m armed and ready to fend off the men in white coats when they come knocking at my door.

Highlight: Um, er, perhaps ‘Nations’, if only for the straightforward, less scratchy, spoken word approach. There’s not a lot else here for me I’m afraid.

Fresh Cuts for NZ Musician June/July 2015

The latest issue of NZ Musician hit the streets this week, and the June/July issue is the first for a while where I haven’t contributed a feature. But I did manage to review the Carb on Carb debut album for the magazine, and had a couple of other reviews published online ...

This Pale Fire – Dusk EP

There’s almost something endearingly old-school about the music of This Pale Fire. For all of the production wizardry and new-school sheen found on this debut EP release there’s a real sense that the halcyon singer/songwriter days of yore sit right at the heart of these Corban Koschak-penned compositions. Or at the very least it’s a crossover of sorts; a stripped back old-school acoustic vibe blending effortlessly with varying degrees of post-millennium, post-pubescent angst. Released digitally in late 2014, the EP also stands as the final work to come out of Auckland’s now defunct Studio 203, where it was immaculately produced by Nikhil Mokkapati. As studio farewells go, it’s a great way to sign off. As opening gambits and introductions go, it’s something quite special. Dusk comprises six tracks – seven if you include Cymbol 303’s remix of the sublime 'Unfamiliar' – each one a beautifully realised indie pop gem. For the most part, the words, voice and acoustic guitar of Koschak are the key elements, but it’s when the band – Kyle Wetton (electric guitars and bass), Nick Douch (drums), and Josh Steyn-Ross (keys) – comes to life, that we discover Koschak’s finely-honed pop instincts at their most effective. The haunting break up post-mortem 'Stormy Weather' is perhaps the prime example of that, but the track that really exposes Koschak as a pop composer of rare talent is 'Unfamiliar', which builds from its acoustic base with the layering of cello and keys on top of a heart-wrenching set of lyrics, before it peaks and fades out with an air of thoroughly exhausted resignation. This is delicate, brittle, heartfelt stuff, and a quite startling debut.

http://www.nzmusician.co.nz/index.php/ps_pagename/album/pi_albumid/2521

Carb on Carb – Carb on Carb

Whatever else there is to love about Carb on Carb’s self-titled debut album, there’s something refreshing and uncomplicated about cramming 10 energetic indie pop tunes into a set lasting little more than 27 minutes. Like some kind of reverse-White Stripes chameleon, with a distinctly Kiwi twist in the tail, the Auckland-based duo of Nicole Gaffney (guitar/vocals) and James Stuteley (drums/vocals) have been making music as Carb on Carb since 2011. After a couple of earlier EP releases and the hugely challenging experience of touring across Asia, this first full album was recorded and produced by James Goldsmith at Munki Studios and The Blue Room in Wellington, before being mastered in Chicago by Carl Saff. It’s maybe no coincidence then that the album is brimming with strong ’90s US college radio reference points. The music comes across as being a little chaotic and ramshackle in parts, and the album’s main themes veer towards the personal – with perennials like relationships, growing up, girl power, and life in Auckland, all appearing in metaphorical bold type across the lyric sheet. More generally, Carb on Carb somehow manage to merge an inherent sense of DIY fun with a slightly darker edge, and the duo’s wider indie aesthetic is never better realised than with Gaffney’s cover art, which complements everything they manage to achieve sonically. A short, sharp, thoroughly invigorating set of songs packaged up with big lashings of down-to-earth charm.

http://www.nzmusician.co.nz/index.php/ps_pagename/album/pi_albumid/2508

The Dinner Bell Theory – Home-Kill EP

Quite aside from it being some sort of conditioned reflex response thing that a few of my intellectual superiors (fruitlessly) went to great lengths to try to explain to me, The Dinner Bell Theory is also the name of Colin Selby’s Auckland-based musical project. And, according to the CD inlay of his latest release, Selby’s support cast includes "heaps of cool people". Not the least of those is vocalist and main partner in crime Laka Selby, whose dulcet tones set things off nicely across the six self-produced tracks. A few of these tunes have had prior exposure on platforms like The Audience and Reverbnation, but that sense of familiarity does little to dilute the impact of hearing them all as a complete set. The formula according to Selby is simple yet effective; clever and mostly light-hearted lyrics are framed by country-infused power pop tunes, with a certain carefree swagger throughout. From the opening chords of the rousing starter 'There’ll Come A Time', right on through to the surf-rock referencing closer 'Zombie Song (Corporate Anthem)', the Home-Kill EP fair bristles with tight catchy hooks and self-assured energy. And even if this release achieves nothing else, it presents a compelling argument for The Dinner Bell Theory as a must-see live proposition.

http://www.nzmusician.co.nz/index.php/ps_pagename/album/pi_albumid/2525

… And None Of Them Received A Hero’s Welcome

The 30^th anniversary of Paul Hardcastle’s seminal electro single ‘19’ was celebrated last month with the release of a pretty special deluxe edition. The package comes in the form of 14 tracks, and it includes remasters of the single’s original three mixes - ‘Extended’, ‘Destruction’, and ‘The Final Story’ - plus eleven newer and/or brand new remix versions.

A year-defining tune, in 1985 ‘19’ reached No.1 in at least a dozen countries. It topped the local (NZ) charts for four weeks. As an anti-war statement it did much to expose the perils of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to a wider public who otherwise wouldn’t have had much of a clue. It was also a standalone groundbreaking piece of music; something akin to the full horror of Apocolypse Now gate-crashing the global pop charts, its bleak “futility of war” documentary narrative given extra weight by the cut and paste feel of the sample-based electro underpinning it.

14 versions of one track may seem like an awful lot of very little, but a cross pollination of styles means that very little often goes an awfully long way. It’s a no-skip deal, from unrepentantly hard-edged electro remixes, to softer more reflective mixes like the very soulful ‘Inner Changes’ remix. The best thing here is the sublime ‘Nua’ remix, which mashes up Hardcastle’s work with Marvin Gaye’s 1971 anti-war anthem ‘What’s Going On’. The spit and polish job applied to the ever popular ‘Destruction Mix’ is another obvious highlight, while perhaps the biggest curiosity in the set is Hardcastle’s earliest home-produced demo version.

 

Despite having had a long career as a musician and producer, as a master of all things “chill”, and a big-selling purveyor of smooth jazz albums, Hardcastle hasn’t always been given enough credit for just how much of a game-changer ‘19’ was. While it’s never been talked about in the hushed tones of a ‘Blue Monday’, or a ‘Planet Rock’, or given chops for its wider sonic influence, ‘19’ remains an important artefact for innovative sample-based music simply because of the worldwide reach it achieved at the time.

The samples on ‘19’ are taken from an ABC television documentary called Vietnam Requiem, which was narrated by one Peter Thomas, who eventually received his fair share of the track’s royalties. I doubt the same can be said for the returned Vietnam vets whose interview dialogue was sequenced out of context. It’s great to see that proceeds from the sale of this latest release have been pledged to PTSD charity Talking2Minds.

Get your deluxe version of ‘19’ (click here)

Here’s that Marvin Gaye mash …

 

Earth City Rockers ...

I need to draw your attention to a couple of new releases on the Earth City Recordz imprint.  

The first is a mini-album called Freeze, which comes from Sufi dub specialist Celt Islam. It features six older but previously unreleased electro B-Boy-styled tracks, all of which go some way to documenting the musical journey traversed by this remarkable artist over the course of the past decade. As such, Freeze represents something quite different from past Celt Islam releases, and I think that probably makes this release even more essential for fans. However, if you’re a complete newbie to the music of Celt Islam – and no regular everythingsgonegreen reader should be (assuming I still have my regular reader) – then Freeze itself might not be the best place to start due to the fact that it’s relatively raw and experimental. It works best as an archive document, something that amply demonstrates a starting point and the path taken to get to the level he operates at nowadays. I couldn’t help but notice a comment on social media from the humble artist himself (speaking about the title track on the new release): “here is something I did many moons ago … I am not the world’s best turntablist but hey I give it a good go.”

You can pick up a copy of Freeze from the Earth City Recordz bandcamp page (click here).

Celt Islam is of course Manchester-based Muhammad Abdullah Hamzah, and one of his other musical projects is the Psy-dub/electronic venturing Analogue Fakir, which also has a brand new mini-album (seven tracks) available on Earth City Recordz (click here) called Liquid Dunya. Some of this stuff really does defy labelling, so I’ll defer to Earth City’s own description of what’s on offer … “a fusion of western and middle eastern influences combined with a futurist Islamic dub attitude … open the doors of your mind to Electro Sufism.”

I think that might just about cover it.