Choice Kiwi Cuts 2021: Marlin’s Dreaming - ‘Trophies’

There’s just something so very “deep south” about the jangly lo-fi indie of Dunedin’s Marlin’s Dreaming. ‘Trophies’, off the band’s 2021 album, Hasten, is merely the latest spin on a form of intoxicating melodic guitar pop the region has long since been famous (infamous, un-famous) for. ‘Trophies’ is our final Choice Kiwi Cut for 2021.

(Choice Kiwi Cuts 2021 is a series of blogposts which seek to highlight the best tracks released by New Zealand artists over the course of the calendar year. Not necessarily the “best” in any commercial sense, but those which have proven to be the best additions to this blogger’s music collection)

Choice Kiwi Cuts 2021: Unknown Mortal Orchestra - 'That Life'

UMO’s ‘That Life’ was quite simply one of the earworms of 2021. Here’s what art-popper-extraordinaire Ruban Nielson said at the time of its mid-year release:

“I saw this painting by Hieronymus Bosch called The Garden of Earthly Delights and in the painting there was a mixture of crazy stuff going on, representing heaven, earth, and hell. When I was writing this song, “That Life,” I was imaging the same kind of “Where’s Waldo” (or “Where’s Wally” as we call it in New Zealand, Australia, and the UK) of contrasting scenes and multiple characters all engaged in that same perverse mixture of luxury, reverie, damnation, in the landscape of America. Somewhere on holiday under a vengeful sun.”

(Choice Kiwi Cuts 2021 is a series of blogposts which seek to highlight the best tracks released by New Zealand artists over the course of the calendar year. Not necessarily the “best” in any commercial sense, but those which have proven to be the best additions to this blogger’s music collection)

Choice Kiwi Cuts 2021: Chaos In The CBD & Mongo Skato - 'Brainstorm'

Raised in Auckland but now based primarily in the UK, touring and releasing music under the Chaos in the CBD moniker, production duo - and brothers - Ben and Louis Helliker-Hales have developed a solid global following in dance music circles across the past decade. There’s been a series of consistently top notch releases over that period and this year’s Brainstorm EP was no exception. The title track, which is a collaboration with another local artist Mongo Skato, oozes so much deep house warmth it was the most obvious choice cut on the release.

(Choice Kiwi Cuts 2021 is a series of blogposts which seek to highlight the best tracks released by New Zealand artists over the course of the calendar year. Not necessarily the “best” in any commercial sense, but those which have proven to be the best additions to this blogger’s music collection)

Choice Kiwi Cuts 2021: Anthonie Tonnon - 'Two Free Hands'

Anthonie Tonnon’s ‘Two Free Hands’ dates all the way back to 2017 but it was included on this year’s Leave Love Out of This album so it qualifies as a 2021 choice cut. Tonnon never ceases to amaze with his rare ability to write and produce perfectly crafted pop songs which frequently snub lyrical convention and musical formula. ‘Two Free Hands’ is just one such example, and Tonnon has made a career out of combining his instinct for the experimental and the avant garde with an uncanny knack for pure pop vibes. He is, without question, one of Aotearoa’s most underrated artists.

(Choice Kiwi Cuts 2021 is a series of blogposts which seek to highlight the best tracks released by New Zealand artists over the course of the calendar year. Not necessarily the “best” in any commercial sense, but those which have proven to be the best additions to this blogger’s music collection)

Choice Kiwi Cuts 2021: The Chills - 'Monolith'

During a year (and in a world) full of upheaval and uncertainty it’s sometimes reassuring to know that some things never change. Especially when that “thing” has been around for decades and involves the mercurial ability to produce clever, quirky, intimate pop music on a whim. Step forward Martin Phillipps and The Chills, with another understated pop masterclass in the form of 2021 album Scatterbrain. It probably won’t win any shiny gongs or be acclaimed as the band’s “best ever” in years to come (because it definitely isn’t that) but it still has enough personality and warmth to be considered yet another primo addition to the band’s ongoing legacy. ‘Monolith’ was the scene-setting album opener and one of my own favourites ...

(Choice Kiwi Cuts 2021 is a series of blogposts which seek to highlight the best tracks released by New Zealand artists over the course of the calendar year. Not necessarily the “best” in any commercial sense, but those which have proven to be the best additions to this blogger’s music collection)

Choice Kiwi Cuts 2021: Leisure - 'Flipside'

I’m not going to lie. I’m partial to the odd bit of 70s-style soft rock. Or yacht rock as it may sometimes be called. Just not too much of it. Small doses etc. I just don’t like to talk about it. Or write about it. In fact, I give a mate of mine some grief occasionally for admitting the exact same thing, whilst harbouring my own dirty little secret. It’s a nostalgia thing, a throwback to a 1970s childhood, when that sort of stuff dominated mainstream radio. When we had very little else other than mainstream radio. Which may or may not be my excuse for listening to a fair bit of Leisure over the past year or so … shamelessly lush, soft disco-infused tracks like ‘Take You Higher’, ‘Mesmerised’, and this Choice Cut, ‘Flipside’. All great slices of pure pop. All of which can be found on the Auckland band’s recently released Sunsetter album.

(Choice Kiwi Cuts 2021 is a series of blogposts which seek to highlight the best tracks released by New Zealand artists over the course of the calendar year. Not necessarily the “best” in any commercial sense, but those which have proven to be the best additions to this blogger’s music collection)

Choice Kiwi Cuts 2021: Lorde - 'Oceanic Feeling'

Lorde has always been a bit hit and miss for me. Mostly miss. Obviously, she’s hugely significant as a local artist simply because she hit it big internationally at a very young age and she’s now somehow managed to expand her fanbase well beyond its initial demographic. There’s no question that she’s talented and there’s something about her which suggests she’ll enjoy a relatively long career. Good for her. 

This year Lorde released her third full-length album, Solar Power, and although I couldn’t really have cared less about it, there was enough chatter around its release to arouse my curiosity, so I had a sneaky listen. My overall impression was that the album is very much her “summer of love” moment and a few tracks are quite derivative of the early 90s “baggy” period. 

Others will beg to differ, but I thought the vast majority of Solar Power was listenable but mostly unrelatable. Then I reached the album closer ‘Oceanic Feeling’ … what a relief. Relief partly because I’d reached the end of what was essentially an obligatory listen, but mostly relief because I’d finally found the unheralded album gem which made the previous hour’s effort all the more worthwhile. It was one of just a couple of tracks from Solar Power I downloaded and kept for playlist compilation purposes. 

‘Oceanic Feeling’ simply oozes “typical New Zealand summer family break” in ways I’ve never heard articulated in song before. The references to father, brother, fishing, food, and outdoor fun are clear and obvious, but more specifically, for me, the vibe of ‘Oceanic Feeling’ is all about my own sepia-tinged distant childhood memories of long hot carefree summer days at my Grandparents’ beach house or “bach” in Hawke’s Bay. Thank you for that, Lorde. 

(Choice Kiwi Cuts 2021 is a series of blogposts which seek to highlight the best tracks released by New Zealand artists over the course of the calendar year. Not necessarily the “best” in any commercial sense, but those which have proven to be the best additions to this blogger’s music collection)

Choice Kiwi Cuts 2021: Merk - 'Laps Around the Sun'

Auckland multi-instrumentalist Mark Perkins (ex-Fazerdaze, others) continues to gain a lot of global traction in his solo guise as Merk, and his latest album Infinite Youth was widely lauded in indie pop circles when released earlier this year. It was a release chock full of gentle existential insights into that age old conundrum of growing up / growing older, and how we’re all forced to deal with the inevitability of that (the alternative is not much chop, right?). ‘Laps Around the Sun’ is one such melancholic reflection, and it got a fair bit of ear time on my pod in 2021. It’s another one of those mellow choice cuts that won’t exactly have you throwing yourself around the mosh, but it does have a little bit of that earworm thing going on, and I think it offers a great snapshot of the album itself.

(Choice Kiwi Cuts 2021 is a series of blogposts which seek to highlight the best tracks released by New Zealand artists over the course of the calendar year. Not necessarily the “best” in any commercial sense, but those which have proven to be the best additions to this blogger’s music collection)

Choice Kiwi Cuts 2021: Vietnam - 'What Have I Done?'

From the Straight Outta Wainuiomata files. Also from the Most Unlikely Comeback of 2021 files. Early 80s post-punk veterans Vietnam returned this year with a new track called ‘What Have I Done?’ and the promise of a new album in early 2022. As comeback releases go, this one was right up my alley.

Founding member and bass guitarist Adrian Workman says of the track:

“‘What Have I Done?’ is about the experience of being in a destructive and co-dependent relationship, which is always destined to fail. The lyric contains a desperate plea for understanding and forgiveness, while at the same time projecting the hurt and anger that comes with the inability to take responsibility for your own behaviours and feelings. The desperation in the chorus lyric (and title of the song) is the inner voice of shame that drives the narrative.”

Download the track from the Vietnam Bandcamp page here

(Choice Kiwi Cuts 2021 is a series of blogposts which seek to highlight the best tracks released by New Zealand artists over the course of the calendar year. Not necessarily the “best” in any commercial sense, but those which have proven to be the best additions to this blogger’s music collection)

Choice Kiwi Cuts 2021: Repulsive Woman - 'Julia Knows Beauty'

With another year end approaching it seems timely to reconvene a regular everythingsgonegreen blog pre-festive tradition – the all-too-readily missed and/or often completely ignored practice of me sharing with you some of my thoughts and reckons on Aotearoa’s musical year. 

I’ve got to be honest, in my view, 2021 hasn’t been particularly epic for local music. At least not when it comes to album additions to my own collection. Over the past decade, “new” New Zealand-made music has always featured prominently among those additions, and it hasn’t been unusual for a number of homegrown albums to make my annual “most listened to” or best of year-end list. 

Unfortunately, I just can’t see that happening this year. But that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been some good stuff released during 2021 – it just means I didn’t pick up a physical or digital copy of it … Spotify doesn’t count. Over the next couple of months, I’ll be posting a series of clips or streams of those local tracks that did move me sufficiently in 2021 to earn a, um, highly coveted place on the, um, very prestigious everythingsgonegreen Choice Kiwi Cuts list. 

That list seldom features the most obvious stuff so if you’re a fan of Six60, L.A.B., or insert-popular-biggish-name-Kiwi-artist-here, you’re probably going to be disappointed. It goes without saying then, that the list does not profess to be anything close to a definitive summary of everything that happened on these shores during the year. I’ll reserve a place only for those tracks or artists I personally liked or enjoyed. 

Starting with … Repulsive Woman – ‘Julia Knows Beauty’ 

Repulsive Woman is the musical handle for former Astro Child, Millie Lovelock, whose 2019 album Relief won the Taite Music Prize for Best Independent Debut in 2020. Lovelock didn’t offer us too much in the form of new work in 2021, but this track, ‘Julia Knows Beauty’, was a stand-out cut on a Z Tapes ‘Summer 2021’ compilation I picked up. It’s a bit of a slow burner but one that really starts to reveal its charms after a few repeat plays and a little bit of patience. It isn’t going to rock your socks off, but beautifully crafted acoustic ballads rarely tend to do that, and the appeal lies elsewhere.