Home Alone/Spring

It’s been more than two years since the release of the last label compilation – Autumn, which I looked at here – but Wellington’s Home Alone Music is back, with another sampler album on the Bandcamp platform. This time it’s called Spring, and again it’s a name-your-price release.

There’s some pretty good stuff here – check out the work of Shenandoah Davis, Grawlixes, Lake South, French For Rabbits, and Secret Knives, in particular. If you like what you hear, give the artist some love, buy something, or attend their next gig …

Find Home Alone on Facebook (here).

The Return of Secret Knives ...

I blogged about Secret Knives (aka Ash Smith) as far back as 2013, when I wanted to share an impressive album and a remix EP being given away on the artist’s Bandcamp page. In truth, I knew very little about Smith, other than the fact that he was based in Wellington, a bass player, and clearly something of a perfectionist - the hallmark of both the EP and the album (‘Affection’) being a rare attention to detail in terms of arrangement, production, and polish.

For at least three of the next four years, the mysterious Mr Smith (and Secret Knives) somehow conspired to drop right off the everythingsgonegreen radar - until this week, when I noticed he was about to undertake a 12-date nationwide tour alongside French for Rabbits, as part of that band’s album-promoting ‘The Weight of Melted Snow’ New Zealand tour. The Wellington gig will take place at San Fran on 1 April, but I was even more thrilled to see (what will surely be) a far more intimate set booked for my local, at the Raumati Social Club, on 31 March.

As if that isn’t enough to be getting excited about, there’s also new content from Secret Knives on Bandcamp - offered as a free download - in the form of a five track EP, My Capriccio, which features Smith’s reconfiguration and reworking of tunes by Shocking Pinks, The Mint Chicks, Yumi Zouma, and Glass Vaults. As well as the title track, which is a Secret Knives original, and perhaps the best track of a thoroughly captivating set.

File under: shoegaze, electro, and carefully crafted pop.

Stream or download below:

The Secret Life of Secret Knives

I feel like I really ought to hand back my ‘Wellington Music Scene Gold Card’.

Affection

When a cool-as-f*ck work colleague sent me an email link to the Bandcamp page of an outfit called Secret Knives, she casually noted they were a Wellington band, or quite possibly just one guy masquerading as a fully-fledged band. I’d never heard of Secret Knives. And as someone who fancies himself as a quiet authority on a lot of “local product” I was suitably intrigued, if a little shame faced and feeling sadly out of touch.

 

I followed the link and was more than a little surprised by what it revealed. Two great “free” downloads – one of an album called Affection from 2010, and a second, even better, four track EP called Black Hole (2012), which contains remix versions of a couple of key tracks found on Affection.

 

The other surprise is that Secret Knives – a band, not just main man Ash Smith – are hardly an unknown quantity. Well, at least for those-in-the-know! Live gigs have been irregular but usually pretty high profile (Camp A Low Hum and various festival/tour/support slots in recent years, including some overseas trekking).

Black Hole EP

So how come these guys have managed to stay beneath the (wonky) radar for quite so long? … anyway, better late than never and we’re here now, I guess.

Affection is a good listen. It’s mostly guitar-based pop with a psychedelic tinge, a bit shoegazey, and there’s not really a bad moment throughout its 11 tracks. Rather, there’s a lot to savour, with the highlights being ‘Black Hole’ (clip below), ‘The Northwest States’, ‘Elegy/Dreamdisco’, and the title track.

Better still is last year’s EP, Black Hole, with its reworking of ‘Black Hole’ (Glass Vaults Remix) and a truly sublime take on ‘The Shining’ (Signer Remix).

Get the downloads here:

 

Affection (2010)

 

Black Hole EP (2012)