Choice Kiwi Cuts 2020: Buffalo Bunny - 2 Meters

I had intended to post the final 2020 Choice Kiwi Cut on New Years Eve. But, you know, NYE and the best laid plans etc. The next few days are a write-off, naturally, and before you know it, it’s the fourth of January already. Probably just me. Anyway, that tenth and final choice is a low key pearler from the Wellington-based duo Buffalo Bunny (Victoria Singh and Jamie Scott Palmer), who served us the prescient and slightly subversive ‘2 Meters’ slap bang in the middle of our nationwide (soon to be global) lockdown. It just seems to encapsulate the unease of moment perfectly … “be kind to one another” …

Choice Kiwi Cuts 2020: Avantdale Bowling Club - Money Is All That We Fight About

‘Money Is All That We Fight About’ is brand new, but given that I haven’t really written anything about the exceptional Avantdale Bowling Club debut album of a few years back, I figure this one deserves inclusion. Tom Scott can scarcely do anything wrong, and the music of Avantdale Bowling Club continues to set the high bar where all local hip hop is concerned. And Scott somehow makes it all look so effortless. I’m unable to source a YouTube clip for this, so here’s the Bandcamp link:

Choice Kiwi Cuts 2020: Pitch Black - A Doubtful Sound (Adrian Sherwood Dub Mix)

There was no official new album release for Pitch Black in 2020, but as ever, there was a bunch of “new” stuff to keep fans satisfied. The duo celebrated the 20^th anniversary of their Electronomicon album with a remastering and a long overdue vinyl release. That reissue was accompanied by an album of live cuts from the era, released digitally on Bandcamp as Electronomicon Live (and as a name-your-price). And of course there was the now obligatory remix project, with last year’s album Third Light getting the makeover treatment to morph into The Light Within. That release contained remixes by the likes of International Observer, Dubsalon, SUBSET, and Bodie, amongst others, but I’m going to select Adrian Sherwood’s dub mix of ‘A Doubtful Sound’ as my choice Kiwi cut:

Choice Kiwi Cuts 2020: Marlin's Dreaming - Sink or Swim

Dunedin alt-pop band Marlin’s Dreaming have become firm blog favourites in recent times, with their polished pop hooks and wider cross-genre appeal providing the band with plenty of traction both here in Aotearoa and overseas. Lifted from the band’s second album, Quotidian, the single ‘Sink or Swim’ got a lot of ear-time on my pod through the middle part of the year.

Choice Kiwi Cuts 2020: The Leers - Nightcall

I'm going to take the "cover" route for this one … but what a cover. A decade ago French retro/electro/synthwave dude Kavinsky - also see Daft Punk, Lovefoxxx - released a single that featured on the movie Drive called ‘Nightcall’. All vocoder and gleaming synthpop goodness, it quickly took on a life of its own and became firmly established as a post-millennium classic of its genre, much-loved and all but untouchable … so you’d think it would be something of a risk for a psych-pop band from Aotearoa to take it on and put their own spin on it, right? Step forward The Leers, who did exactly that, including it as the closer on the recent The Only Way Out Is In release. The band breathe new life into the tune, dressing it up in entirely new threads, and I think Matt Bidois’ emotive vocal take is exceptional. Strictly pop.

 

Choice Kiwi Cuts 2020: Mystery Waitress - Bedhead

Wellington songwriter/vocalist Tessa Dillon combined with Olivia Campion and James Morgan as Mystery Waitress to release an album called Nest back in September. Introspective, melodic pop of varying shades, there is a lot to love about the band’s sound, and the strangely beguiling ‘Bedhead’ was my pick of a pretty decent bunch.

Choice Kiwi Cuts 2020: Murmur Tooth - Memory

Right at the start of the year, the Berlin-based Kiwi artist Murmur Tooth (aka Leah Hinton) released a very special album called A Fault in This Machine. Equal portions weird and wonderful, it felt deeply personal and defied any attempt at genre classification. I could have selected any of its tracks for this choice cuts series, but I’ve opted for the first single lifted from it, ‘Memory’:

Choice Kiwi Cuts 2020: The Beths - I'm Not Getting Excited

Just quietly, I chuckled when I saw The Beths had claimed ‘best alternative act’ at the NZ Music Awards, because I’d placed them firmly in the straight-up “pop” realm. That award was one of three gongs the band won on the night. ‘I’m Not Getting Excited’ was the energetic opener to the band’s second album, Jump Rope Gazers.

Choice Kiwi Cuts 2020: Nadia Reid - Get the Devil Out of Me

Nadia Reid’s Out of my Province was another album that got multiple plays during my autumn lockdown. An album that needed time before revealing all of its hidden gems, one of which was the Silver Scroll-nominated ‘Get the Devil Out of Me’, which addressed mental health, self-harm, and other existential dilemmas ... 

Choice Kiwi Cuts 2020: Dead Little Penny - Honeycomb

Every year, around this time, as we hurtle towards the mayhem that is the December/New Year festive period, it is tradition for the blog to start taking stock of all of the musical bits and bobs that helped to define your blogger’s year. To reflect, to rate, to rank, and to celebrate. 

I’ll have a “best of 2020” (albums, EPs, gigs etc) blogpost for you sometime next month, but for the past couple of years I’ve always kicked the year-end process off by posting a series of clips from local (Aotearoa/New Zealand) artists which made the biggest impression on me throughout the year. Ten of them. See 2018 (here), and 2019 (here). 

To commence EGG’s countdown of this year’s Choice Kiwi Cuts, I’m going to start with a tune which initially surfaced as far back as 2018, but one that appeared on a late 2019 album I couldn’t stop listening to during the March to May lockdown period – Dead Little Penny’s Urge Surfing. Album opener ‘Honeycomb’ set the tone nicely for an album chock full of fuzzy shoegaze treats.