Monday, September 30, 2013

Can you tell me..?



I have this theory that there is no song in the known universe that the Roots could not cover and immediately make it 200% cooler. They may bust it one day, but I feel that day is a long way off....

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Lorde talks

Lorde. Photo: Fairfax/Charles Howells

Lorde has done hardly any local press here in New Zealand - she did her first interview with blogger Katherine Lowe back in January; her first and only press interview to date was with Stinky Jim in The Listener in March, and she's done only her second local press interview to coincide her album release, with Duncan Greive for Metro magazine. That story came out this week, read an excerpt of it here...

snip: "One August afternoon, I sat in on a meeting between Ella’s manager, Scott Maclachlan, his assistant Amy Goldsmith and Ella ... The pace of the meeting is brutal. In 15 minutes they cover an impending UK release, Ella’s ideas for the next music video, payment options for a remix and a standing invitation to a writing camp for the next Major Lazer album with Pharrell Williams and Diplo.

Just last year she emailed Maclachlan: “You asked me a while ago who my dream producer would be, and I think these days I’m leaning toward Diplo.” Now things have changed to the point where she can say breezily of the camp, “I thought it’d be cool to swing by for a day.”



Of course this tight control over her media exposure has led to a lot of talk, with some music critics attempting to call her out for the supposed hype, such as Simon Sweetman's attack on Lorde. [And then Sweetman's review got reviewed]

In Duncan's Metro piece, he asks Lorde if she's seen that review by Sweetman. She messages back from her Paris hotel room saying she has, but she's looking out her window at the Arc De Triomphe and that review makes her feel nothing. 

As the story suggests, she's got other things on her mind - the next single, writing for her next album, etc. Duncan's Metro piece also features an unfortunate gaff, suggesting Lorde is the first Kiwi to top the US charts since Crowded House. How bizarre.

So, the best thing written about Lorde this week? By Lorde. Published in today's Sunday Star Times' Sunday magazine.

excerpt: "Each day I'd take the train [to the studio]. The night-time rides were my chance to breathe, relax for a few minutes. Then I'd pull out my laptop and hit play on whatever we'd worked on that day. For a few seconds with a new song there's always this thudding amnesia, like it's not your work,and you get to listen with fresh ears to this thing that's still newly born.

"For months and months I took that night train and listened to my voice and the beats over and over, silvery, suspended. I'd grin like a creep from Kingsland to Grafton, face all moony under the white light. It's the best thing I've ever made...."

Read it in full here. And this is why we need better public transport in Auckland.

And it's strange watching how many people want to talk about Lorde in various online forums, she has this wonderfully polarising effect, like all great pop music. Right now it's important to be seen to have an opinion on her, even if you have no significant engagement with popular music in its current contemporary form. It's certainly not dull! Watch this girl make moves.

Oh yeah, and this: Lorde - "If I'd granted every sandwich chain and skincare brand and coming-of-age blockbuster use of my songs, I'd probably be a millionaire. But I'm extremely fussy. A while ago I watched a clip of Patti Smith (eternal queen of cool in my eyes) relay this thing William S Burroughs had said to her. He said, "Build a good name for yourself, because eventually that will become your currency."

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Peter Mac on BFM's Bright N Urlich, 9-11am playlist



James Brown - Funky drummer - DJ Muro remix
Ramsey Lewis Trio - In crowd
Chakachas - Jungle fever
The bang gang - Who said honkies aint got soul
Solange - Losing you
House party - Dangerous love inst
Scritti Politti - Absolut version
Nile Rodgers - Land of the good groove
The Clash - Magnificent dance
Bob Marley - Mr chatterbox
Marcia Griffiths - Feel like jumping
Esso trinidad steel band - I want you back
Ladi6 - Diamonds
Hallelujah Picassos - Rewind
Patea Maori Club - Poi-e - Peter Mac dicso drums edit
Maori Hifive -Poi poi twist
The Yoots - Pupu ake mai
Herbs - French letter dub
Fat Freddys Drop - Hope - Sonsine remix
Lee Scratch Perry - Jungle youth - Congo natty remix
Ragga twins - Ragga trip
Jose Feliciano - She's a woman
Spanky Wilson - Sunshine of your love
Bad brains - Return to heaven
DLT - Black panthers
Riot jazz brass band - Slinky
Feelstyle - Suamalie aint mad at you
Dub asylum - Ba ba boom

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Audioculture talk

Simon Grigg (L), Murray Cammick, outside site of punk club Zwines

This free talk is on at the Auckland Central Library in Lorne St,  Thursday 3 October, 6pm - 7.30pm. These fellas have music stories for days, bound to be entertaining....

Audioculture: A history of popular music in NZ
When: Thursday 3 October, 6pm - 7.30pm
Where: Central City Library, Whare Wananga Level 2

Join Simon Grigg and Murray Cammick as they discuss their ambitious plans for music website AudioCulture, which aims to document the history of New Zealand music culture.

Simon and Murray will speak about working with artists, historians and music industry people to tell the stories of nearly 100 years of New Zealand popular music, from the first vinyl recording in the 1920s to digital streaming. AudioCulture is an evolving, online celebration of New Zealand music. The site aims to highlight the people who have created the music, the scenes they shaped, and the audiences they played to.

Join us for a welcome glass of wine from 6pm before the talk begins at 6.30pm.

Speaker bios
Simon Grigg
is a New Zealand music businessman, writer, broadcaster, publisher, producer, DJ and archivist. He has owned record labels, night clubs and managed bands and has always been in the thick of the local music scene.

Murray Cammick
is a New Zealand popular music journalist, photographer and record label founder. He is best known for being the co-founder of Rip-It-Up and being editor when it was good.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Uptown cumbia ranking


Hat tip to Stinky Jim, this is well fruity cumbia remix bizz. Off the EP "Andrés Digital in a Reggae Cumbia Style Vol. 2"


Weller remixed



From Justin Robertson... "A remix for Paul Weller, never released. Enjoy" Don't mind if I do.

The Gourmet, 1954 AK nightlife



"Dutch immigrant Otto Groen opened the Gourmet restaurant in central Auckland in 1954. It was an exclusive establishment that catered for the wealthy. This is the interior of the Gourmet in the 1960s. The mural was painted by David Kennedy." The Gourmet was at the top of Shortland St.

Top image posted by Lynda Ford, 45 images posted by Larry Killip, at NZ bands, music scene FB

45 from The Gourmet


inside cover of 45

All Seeing Hand 2nd album coming


"Mechatronics is the second album by The All Seeing Hand, released on 12” vinyl, CD and digitally through a joint MUZAI Records/Tenzenmen venture across Australasia, out October 1st.

While the bands’ first album documented the band’s original incarnation as a turntable and drum duo Mechatronics presents the band in its new, three headed form.

On Mechatronics the drums and turntables are in-sync, interlocking, moving, and sounding, like huge cogs in a mechanical production line. Where once any human voice would be scratched samples from ethnic folk records, there is now a real living throat; singing! Rather than just contributing a looped texture the voice now tells an entire story and its rich-tone, gritty screams and percussive yelps drag the drum and turntable rhythm section up to the heavens.

The album was recorded at Scumbag College, a beaten up but much loved DIY studio, lurking under Wellington Airport. The album features contributions from Deane Hunter on guitar and previous live collaborators St Cosmos and Samin Son on vocals.

The album artwork is a fantastically detailed masterpiece from the twisted mind of Daily Secretion (a.k.a Hannah Salmon). In perfect visual analogy to the music, it combines the mechanical, the biological and the cosmic."

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Phoenix Foundation.... She's So Rad - Disco Remix



...and while we're talking about Wellington's Phoenix Foundation, another recent remix, from Jet Jaguar, both originals on their latest album Fandango.

Laneway 2014lineup

First lineup announcement for LANEWAY 2014...

CHVRCHES
Danny Brown
Daughter
Doprah
Earl Sweatshirt
Frightened Rabbit
Ghost Wave
Haim
Jamie xx
James Blake
Jagwar Ma
Kurt Vile
Lorde
Mount Kimbie
Parquet Courts
PCP Eagles
Rackets
Run The Jewels
Savages
The Jezabels
Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Vance Joy
Watercolours
XXYYXX
Youth Lagoon

St Jerome’s Laneway Festival is on Monday 27 January 2014 at Auckland’s Silo Park. Pre-sale starts 12pm Mon 30th Sept from http://visaentertainment.co.nz . General onsale Thurs 3rd Oct at 9am from ticketek & http://lanewayfestival.co.nz 

Chop chop

From Rappcats: "We’ve been hearing the sounds of Chop (formerly “Mr. Chop”) for some time – from his first EP on Now-Again, the retro-futuristic Lightworlds, to his work on DOOM’s Born Like This, to his reworkings of Pete Rock’s hip hop classics on For Pete’s Sake. He’s got a new album: Illuminate on Now-Again.

Chop’s studio is a temple to gear the likes of which is fetishized on message board posts by those who master your favorite musician’s album, and it’s located on a dirt road, abutting an estuary in Northern England.

Chop just loves him some crazy gear and some weird processes to make music: those processes lead to the types of tunes you hear in this mix – which draws from Illuminate, and previously unreleased Chop music. Featuring the usual lot of Chop collaborators, including The Heliocentrics Malcolm Catto."

Mighty Asterix, 92 interview


The return of the mighty
Stamp magazine,1992 [no author listed]

Catching up with the Mighty Asterix (who has just released his debut single) is not an easy task, currently based both here and in Australia and with no phone.

Like the cartoon, Asterix is small in stature but big in heart and vocally he is hard to beat. His involvement with music dates back to the late seventies, Parliament “before anybody had heard of them”, Earth Wind and Fire, Stevie Wonder “are some of the people that taught me to sing,” as he soldiered up and down the country with his family, one army camp to the next. “Guess what my dad does for a living.”

Around the end of that decade he discovered reggae and eventually Jah Rastafari and has never looked back.

Eventually moving to Auckland, and joining the Twelve Tribes of Israel. As a member he trained with the house band and other performers (Jules Issa, Tuffi Culture to name a few) four or five times a week.

Since going freelance he has been a regular performer throughout Auckland’s ever changing live scene, from Unity to the Rockers.

Due to the irregularity of live work in Auckland, Asterix has made the move to Sydney and is currently a regular [performer] in the Rave scene. “There are usually about four to six raves a month, with an average attendance of about 3000 people, but you have to watch yourself in Sydney, there are so many sharks in the scene. Things are starting to work out okay now, I have a regular live crew I’m working with and my record company is opening an office there, so things should be a little easier this time round.”

In town for the month of January to record an album and shoot a video for the single, Asterix is gone as this hits the streets, back to Sydney for another six weeks of live work. “The stuff we do in Auckland is completely different to the Sydney scene, over there it’s either white techno or roots music, you rarely see the two mixed up. We’re sort of somewhere in between.”

During this visit, he worked on a reggae single for Japanese release, which saw him toasting/singing in Japanese. “My job is to get the message out and it is a stepping stone process. NZ and Australia this year, and next year it will be time to take the next step”.




From Deepgrooves website, on the album Asterix started on for the label... "Early in 1992, a few months after the release of the first Deepgrooves compilation, we had the opportunity to actually get some artists into the studio when the LAB Studios was not being used. We promptly slotted in Jules Issa, The Mighty Asterix and The Riot Riddum Sound System.

This is where we discovered that Auckland had very few "producers / programmers" of the quality of Mr. Mark Tierney. Singers, Rappers, Deejays, vocalists and musicians yes, production people, well not really. Well certainly not the kind of producers we could afford. In fact it would take a good couple of years before we began to see what was really the first generation of local Apple Mac programmers come through.

Fresh out of SAE was a young engineer Mr. Chris Sinclair and a young programmer Mr. Andrew Morton, both keen as mustard to get some experience which was great because The Mighty Asterix was keen to record. Over quite a few months we compiled an albums worth of material, some early original tracks from Mr. Morton, some all ready recorded Deepgrooves tracks used in a digital dubplate style and some tracks recorded with the 12 Tribes band. "

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Ring The Alarm playlist, BaseFM, Sept 21



Walking on moonshine - Ray Mang edit
3 generations walking - Midnight bustling - Francois K dub
Fat Freddys Drop - Hope (1998 version)
Tommy McCook - Green mango
Alton Ellis - African descendents
The Wailers - Put it on
Delroy Wilson - Funky Broadway
Boozo Bajou - Under me sensi - Thievery corp remix
Vibes alive - Mantra
Mulatu - Yegelle tezeta
Peacemakers -Dont push your luck
Hannah Williams and the tastemakers - I'm a good woman
Myron and E with the Soul investigators -Do it do it disco
Gwen Guthrie - Seventh heaven (album version)
GazNevada - Special agent man - Discomofo edit
Lewis McCallum - the almanac feat Mara TK
Adi Dick - Escape from 5018
Strange parcels - Hearts desire
Lee Scratch perry - Jungle youth - Congo Natty remix
Junior Murvin and the upsetters - Roots train no 2
Junior Murvin - Give me your love
Curtis Mayfield - Future shock
Universal robot band - Dance and shake your tambourine
Michael Olatunji - Soul makossa
Crooklyn rampage - Crooklyn dodgers and Whitefield bros - Steely Chan mash
Wilson Pickett - Night owl

Friday, September 20, 2013

Retro nouveau: Toop on Prince, 1987

Arena, Summer, July August 1987

M U S I C retro nouveau

David Toop looks back to the present.  
Arena magazine, Summer 1987 July/August.

(Copyright belongs to David Toop, am posting for research purposes only. I found this fascinating riff on nostalgia while digging thru a friend's Arena/Face magazines, such brilliant design by Neville Brody. Check out some of  Toop's fantastic books, like Oceans of Sound, or Rap Attack No 3)

BUDDY RICH WAS PLAYING at Ronnie Scott's, GENESIS were at The Starlight in Crawley, JUDAS PRIEST were at The Temple in Wardour Street, THE VELVET UNDERGROUND were playing the South Parade Pier in Southsea and BLACK SABBATH'S Master Of Reality'' (issued this month on CD) was in the album charts. The mail order clothes were longline canvas zipper jackets or two-tone 'Budgie' shorties, scarlet and royal sailcloth flares, military coats supplied with buttons and flashes, starred scoop-neck tshirts, stars and stripes singlets and DIY knee-length fringed moccasins ''stand on paper and draw around bare feet."

A musician was advertising for work under the description, ''Tenor sax, coloured", and MILES DAVIS was quoted as saying, "I look through your paper and all I see are white guys." CHICORY TIP were getting panic reviews of the ''Is pop killing music?" slant and CLAIRE FISCHER, PRINCE'S arranger was demonstrating the 'revolutionary' Yamaha Ex-42 electronic organ, price $11,500, at a Hollywood nightclub.

The year, as they say when television undergoes a nostalgia flashback, was 197 l . The publication was the Melody Maker and within its pages Richard Williams wrote, ''There's more to the current Oldies Revival than mere generalised nostalgia. Something, it seems, is very wrong with the current scene."

These are familiar words in 1987, when reissues, revivals, nostalgia breakouts, authenticity manias, exotica fads and postmodern peerage are regularly, tritely diagnosed as symptoms of something lacking in popular music. In '71 the analysis was simple.

Pop had aspired to Art. It got what it wanted but it lost what it had. The steep ascent of progressive rock was the reason why obscure soul quartets like THE FASCINATIONS were having to abandon steady jobs in Detroit to service Britain's fickle devotion to lost causes and forgotten moments. The mainstream interest in The Fascinations and their Northern classic, ''Girls Are Out To Get You'' followed a now-familiar pattern. We didn't care for you yesterday and we'll shun you tomorrow but today we love you and you shall bow to our love. Back in Detroit at the beginning of 1972 it must have all seemed like an unsettling dream.

It is interesting to see how reasoned, how liberal and how conscientiously educational the music journalism of the period was. Of course, its cautious attacks on the new art rock had as little effect on public taste as today's tortured partisan rhetoric. Writers plunge themselves into a contradiction with their very first word on music since the best music deserves listening, dancing, sex, work or shopping and the worst deserves ignoring.

Musicians know this and so do the bulk of the consumers who prop up the leisure industries.Writers will always choose to deny and defy it.

Nevertheless, it was the Word that helped to consecrate the notion that popular music and its derivatives have significance in the world. British writers were slow to acknowledge rock lyrics as sacred texts or the rock lifestyle as a model for society. After all, the Melody Maker began as a danceband newspaper. It was a chronicler of entertainment, aimed originally at musicians.

It was perhaps the American paper, Rolling Stone, that fostered the change. It may be hard to credit it now - Rolling Stone with its complacent, indifferent leisure capitalism - but in its younger days the embrace of new journalism, the investigative features, the sprawling, indulgent fiction, the lifestyle and subculture pieces - anything from Radical Chic to New York disco, Shag Dancing and in Top-Popping in the Carolinas to California cult skateboarding or Low Riders and Angel Dust in the Los Angeles barrios - all of it was a sharp departure.

It also propated the rather absurd idea that rock music and life were somehow symbiotic. Rock had great meaning. If necessary, you would scrabble through a rock star's rubbish - not to find scraps of gossip to sell the tabloids but to go further in the search for that meaning. You lived your life according to the tenets of rock and its great moments.

What is perhaps obvious, with hindsight, is that a generation was created sunk in irredeemable nostalgia, sentimentality and illusion. You could change the world just by listening to a record and the record would probably be by VAN MORRISON. The depths of this illusion were apparent from in the early Seventies until the present. Pop music now is pleasure, leisure, fantasy, soundtracking. Perhaps only for the over-committed BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN fan is it life-creed rather than lifestyle. Writers, however, plough on as though pop music was the last barricade between salvation and perdition.

If pop music were really to make a break from its past back in the supposedly heady days of 1976/77 then this centralism of rock should have been the abandoned baby. The movement that Rolling Stone and the 'alternative' lifestyle had started was in full swing in Britain, however. If anything, punk exaggerated the swing. More commitment, more analysis, faster abandonment of cults and sub-cults, theories, heroes and villains .

White pop is always searching for roots. That is its neurotic burden. Whereas the crises in black pop stem from social changes within black society since the 1960s - integration or the lack of it - the crises in white pop stem from its lack of autonomous identity.

White pop began as a lot of rhythm and blues, a little bit of hillbilly, some 'square' quasi-symphonic arranging, some crooning, some jazz. It later took in folk - itself suffering an identity crisis - the classical legacy and the experimental tradition. It also took elements from ethnic cultures other than Afro- American. It has made a great commercial success out of this mix but in its periodic upheavals will always return to the Holy Grail quest for roots.

The best white pop of the present is saturated with retro fervour. THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN sing ''Kill Surf City'' on the flip side of their last single as if JAN AND DEAN were still a threat (perhaps aware that it was a Jan and Dean concert that caused the recent pop concert riots in China).

DWIGHT YOAKAM, on the other hand, dedicates his ''Hillbilly Deluxe" album to BUCK OWENs, the king of 1960s California honky tonk. As a role model, Buck Owens is perfect. In 1965 he placed a full-page advertisement in the American trade journals which claimed, amongst other things, ''I shall sing no song that is not a country song" and ''I refuse to be known as anything but a country singer."

This pledge against miscegenation and the dilution of purity by commercialism recurs in many different forms. Musicians currently talk about a return to rock values and the purging of black rhythmic sophistication - ignoring the fact that hard rock is derived from the blues rather than rockabilly. It is tempting also, to see GEORGE MARTIN'S remix of Beatles albums for compact disc as a means of eradicating the stains from white rock.

Martin, the Prince Philip of the record industry, likens the process to stripping and cleaning a car engine. ''They were not right for CD as they stood, '' - he says.

The only major, mainstream musician who is free of the genre restrictions, the ephemerally, the roots pursuit, is PRINCE. Like many others, he is a bricoleur - fooling around with ideas, referential constructs - but he has the self-security and originality to succeed with this treacherous formula.

"Sign 'O' The Times'' may be last month's album but it is still absorbing, mysterious, funny, sexy and infuriating. You can spend a week listening to the mixes - where's the bass? where's the hi-hat? what's the instrument? is that vocal speeded up? what's that sample? You can play spot the reference.

BRUCE? CURTIS? JONI? QUICKSILVER MESSBNGER SERVICE! Is that 'sitar' as in THE BEATLES or THE STYLISTICS or RAVI SHANKAR? You can listen to the lyrics, some of them beautiful, some of them daft, and marvel at his ability to actually sing half of them.

You can listen to the musicianship because Prince is a brilliant musician whether he's playing drums, guitar, Hammond organ, noise or the studio itself. You can listen to a track like ''It'' and wonder, with music technology being at its present fabulous stage of development, why there is not more music that sounds like this. You can marvel at his ability to write an endless stream of melodies and hooks. It seems without effort; throwaway even.

And that, in the end, is what makes PRINCE so impressive. He understands that pop is trash. Pop is plastic. And that, ironically, is what will make his music last in the future when all the strivers for significance have vanished into historical inconsequence.

Hallelujah Picassos live, Oct 26


Picasso core returns! This Labour weekend.

Auckland 90s reggae-dub-ska-thrash-punk outfit Hallelujah Picassos returned to the live stage in June this year, with a brief support slot for the mighty Drab Doo Riffs. After 12 years away from the live arena, they had a fun time jumping around like lunatics, and all reports from their fans at the gig were they still knew how to rip up a stage.

So, they’ve decided to put on their own show, this Labour weekend. Catch Hallelujah Picassos at the Kings Arms, Saturday October 26. With the fine musical accompaniment of Bloodbags, Loud Ghost, and DJs Stinky Jim and Peter Mac. Presented in association with our friends at 95BFM.

The band have a few special guests in store, Mr Darryn Harkness will be joining us again on the bass, and we will also be signing copies of our best-of CD Rewind The Hateman, which will be on sale at the gig.


Thursday, September 19, 2013

Boardwalk Empire OST remixed


Available on Serato's Whitelabel.net for Serato-heads, and one tune via Soundlcoud, see below...

"Boardwalk Empire presents 'Sounds of The Onyx', a promo-only music project celebrating the show’s upcoming fourth season and highlighting rare jazz recordings from the Prohibition Era, remixed by some of the best hip-hop/urban music producers of today.

"The remixes utilise vintage 1920s recordings, with the exception of Pete Rock who remixed one of the new tracks from the official soundtrack: a cover version of the classic composition “Sugarfoot Stomp” performed by Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks, who serve as the Boardwalk Empire house band. The Pete Rock remix is also available as a free download: Boardwalkempire – Vince-giordano-the-nighthawks..."

Tracklisting
Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks - Sugarfoot Stomp (Pete Rock Remix)
Eva Taylor & Clarence Williams’ Blue Five - “Red Hot Flo From Kokomo” (DJ Jazzy Jeff Remix)
Ethel Waters - “One Sweet Letter From You” (Om’Mas Keith Remix)
Lloyd Scott & His Orchestra - “Happy Hour Blues” (Shafiq Husayn Remix)
Jim Jackson - “Bootlegging Blues” (Jayceeoh & B-Sides Remix)
Charlie Johnson’s Paradise Ten Orchestra - "You Aint The One” (Tall Black Guy Remix)

Funky Mama - Ottobre: fuga dalla stazione centrale



"Funky Mama is the brainchild of Andrea del Vecchio (drums & percussion) and Attilio Errico Agnello (sax tenor). The idea of putting together an afro-funk band had been stirring in the minds of both musicians for some time, both born in Brindisi, a city in the southern region of Puglia, the "heel" of Italy.

Goodfellas & Willwork4funk are proud to introduce new Italian afro-funk band Funky Mama and the first single taken from their upcoming self-titled EP, out on October 21st."

Off The Radar: Jan 2014



Via Under The Radar, "January just got a whole lot busier with a new music festival heading our way. Called Off The Radar (no relation), it is being organised from Hamburg, Germany by the promoters of Fusion Festival and, according to their website, will be a 'non-commercial music and arts festival'. Happening just north of Auckland in Te Arai over two nights (Jan 31st -Feb 2nd), a few acts have been revealed but an official announcement with ticketing info and the like has yet to be made. Here is the lineup so far...

Daedelus (US), Night Gaunts, Orchestra Of Spheres, Sole (US), Astronautalis (US), BJ Morriszonkle (AUS), Sheep Dog & Wolf, Made By Chicken For Robots (AUS), Ting (AUS), Marcus Carp (GER), Trei, The Murderchord.

Evidence: Crate Diggers



Evidence (Dilated Peoples) tells a great story about meeting Kanye West and driving him round LA, introducing him to DJ AM who was selling some of his sneaker collection, and watching Kanye buy $10,000 worth of sneakers off AM, after Kanye phoned his accountant.

9.11.13 - King Britt



King Britt released this free song, dedicated to the lives lost on 9/11. "Never forget.Written today for today."

DJ Spell



Who is DJ Spell? He's from Wellington, he won the NZ Red Bull Thre3style competition in 2011, which saw him travel to the world finals in Canada. And he makes mean beats. Here's a handy intro to the fella...



Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Music Made With Buttons: Egadz



"For nearly ten years, LA's Erik Nava made, released, and hustled his art with little help from the “industry”. More than just a musician, Nava is a one-man creative force. On his own, Nava booked himself concerts, including national and international tours in Europe and Japan, ran his own record label Kid Without Radio, handled his own PR and publishing, and took care of all web design and animation, all while recording under his Egadz, Matterhorn, and Satellites monikers."

The guy has recently made his own video game (after building his own controller, see the video above), check this. it's pretty cool...

Daft vinyl comeback

Daft Punk like vinyl. Photo: Wax Poetics/ Nabil Elderkin with Warren Fu
This story has been getting a ton of coverage online... NME: Daft Punk's 'Random Access Memories' becomes Amazon's best selling vinyl album ever [well, since 1999]

Which is hardly surprising, since it has probably has had the biggest vinyl production run of any recent contemporary release, at a guess.

Engadget came up with this delightful headline... Amazon vinyl sales up 745 percent since 2008, 8-track mulling comeback. Shot, Engadget.

The Independent ran a vinyl comeback story recently (picked up here by the Weekend Herald last Saturday) which has the usual huge percentage rise, but gives them some much needed context with solid numbers, something often missing from these vinyl comeback puff pieces...


Independent: Why vinyl is Top of the Pops... thanks to Daft Punk, Bowie and Led Zeppelin


"... independent record shops, which account for 50 per cent of all vinyl sales, saw a 44 per cent increase in album sales in the first half of 2013.

Paul Firth, the head of music at Amazon.co.uk, said: "There's the obvious impact of one very big release this year – Daft Punk – but beyond that there's a general support for vinyl amongst the labels right now. Most big releases come with a vinyl edition now, which hasn't always been the case.......What's perhaps most incredible about vinyl sales is their outperformance of CDs. While sales of the format surged 15 per cent last year to reach their highest level since 2004, CD sales declined nearly 20 per cent.

It's the same in the US, where sales of the format rose 33.5 per cent in the first half of the year.
But despite the figures, vinyl is still a niche product. UK album vinyl sales last year were 389,000, compared to CD sales of 69.4 million. Amazon did not disclose specific sales numbers but Mr Firth indicates sales on the site are still in the thousands.

Mr Castaldo admits vinyl is still less than 2 per cent of all music sales, but adds: "The industry feels there could be very optimistic times."


And while we're on the vinyl comeback...I've run this previously, but here you go....

Attention media types: How to write the 'vinyl is making a comeback' story


1. Find a young person to say something 'cool' about vinyl.

2. Quote some statistic on the increase in vinyl sales with absolutely no context for what that means for overall sales for the music industry.

3. Find a local record shop with a crusty old owner who can talk about the joys of LPs and the tangible experience you don't get with MP3s. Also, get them to describe their clientele and how young they are these days.

4. Highlight that it's not just vintage vinyl that is undergoing a resurgence, but new vinyl is being released too, from 'modern artists' like Adele and Justin Beiber.

AND YOU'RE DONE. Nice way to cover 'a passing fad', as one acquaintance put it recently.....

Oh. And this: Whole Foods Markets Selling GMO-Free Vinyl Albums In Southern California.

Because HIPPIES.... ugh.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Mutazione / GazNevada edit



Discogs says Gav Nevada were an "Italian Synth-Pop group of the early 80's. Line-up was: Billy Blade (sax, keyboards, vocals), Andrew Nevada (vocals, electronics), Chainsaw Sally (bass), E. Robert Squibb (guitar) and Bat Matic (drums)."

GavNevada feature on a new compilation out now on Strut, called Mutazione: Italian Electronic & New Wave Underground 1980 - 1988, compiled by Alessio Natalizia of WALLS.

"Mutazione is a collection of reactionary underground electronic and new wave rarities from Italy, recorded during the tail end of the Anni di Piombo, the "Years Of Lead," a period of unprecedented political turmoil across the country. Compiled and curated by Alessio Natalizia of WALLS, the release sees the beginning of a new partnership between Strut Records and WALLS' own Ecstatic imprint.

For Mutazione, Natalizia digs deep to explore the full spectrum of sounds from this rich era of Italian music. Styles range from brooding new wave and post-punk to raw electronic pieces and claustrophobic, whispered vocal cuts. 

There are stories aplenty behind many of the tracks: Laxative Souls’ chilling "Niccolai" samples a telephone call made by infamous terrorist group Brigate Rosse to Aldo Moro’s colleague, explaining where he could find the politician’s body; Giovanotti Mondani Meccanici’s "Back And Forth" comes from a forward-thinking multi-media collective mixing music, computer graphics and art installations, and Doris Norton’s "Norton Apple Software" is culled from an all-electronic instrumental album sponsored by Apple during their early days in 1984..."

Free download of a tune off Mutazione, below

MUTAZIONE TRACKLIST: CD 1
1. Die Form – Are You Before
2. Neon – Informations of Death
3. Gaznevada – Going Underground
4. Carmody – Vulcani
5. Daniele Ciullini & De Rezke – Ancona Icone
6. 0010110000010011 (Cancer) – Naonian Style
7. Victrola – Maritime Tatami
8. 2+2=5 – Jacho’s Story
9. Laxative Souls – Niccolai
10. LA 1919 – Senza Tregua
11. Baciamibartali & Winter Light – Always Unique (Kill Myself 2)
12. Giovanotti Mondani Meccanici – Back and Forth
13. L’Ultimo Arcano – 1984-1985

MUTAZIONE TRACKLIST: CD 2
1. A.T.R.O.X. – Against The Odds
2. Doris Norton – Norton Apple Software
3. Kirlian Camera – Edges (Original version)
4. Spirocheta Pergoli – Romero’s Living Dead
5. La Bambola Del Dr. Caligari – Deep Skanner
6. Pale TV – The Livid Triptych
7. Rats – Please
8. Plath – I Am Strange Now
9. Tasaday – Crisalide
10. La Maison – Critical Situation
11. Suicide Dada – Waiting For September
12. The Tapes – Nervous Breakdown
13. Maurizio Bianchi - Auschwitz

Murray McNabb reissue


Via Graham Reid, who writes : "The late Murray McNabb was proud of these recordings (despite the financial cost) done in New York in 1990 and, in an interview just a month before his death he mentioned them as a high point in a long career.

He had gone to New York - the first and only time I believe -- and hooked up with bassist Ron McClure and drummer Adam Nussbaum whom he'd met when they'd toured in New Zealand with Dave Liebman's group....

.... The session lasted eight hours but the album only appeared on cassette at the time (if I remember correctly) so this long overdue CD reissue is very welcome. For those who are only familiar with McNabb's jazz fusion work in Space Case and Dr Tree -- or his astral flight elelctronics with Band R, Salon Kingsadore and other later projects -- this acoustic trio album captures him exploring the language of the piano trio jazz and some material here (the stately Anthem for example) sound like entries into a contemporary standards songbook.

The Sarang Bang label has a number of other McNabb projects in the works (the Band R album The End is the Beginning also currently reissued), including the release of his final recordings with drummer Gibson and the group Salon Kingsadore."

More: RIP Murray McNabb

Bella Kalolo - Got To Be Real

"Fresh from touring the USA with Aaradhna, J Boog and Katchafire, tireless soul sister Bella Kalolo celebrates the imminent release of her Time and Space EP (out Sept. 27th)  by announcing a 19-date Time and Space National Tour and offering fans a free download of her cover of Cheryl Lynn’s classic ‘Got To Be Real’.

Named Best Pacific Artist at the 2012 Pacific Music Awards, Bella Kalolo has been handpicked to work with and supported artists as diverse as Mos Def, Fat Freddy’s Drop, Dave Dobbyn, Hollie Smith and the NZSO. 

Her reputation as one of NZ’s most entertaining performers has earned her spots at Glastonbury, City Of London Festival and closer to home; Parachute Festival and the huge Waitangi Day celebrations at Flatbush, Manukau. 

Now, in association with Arts on Tour NZ, the gifted entertainer of Samoan, Tongan and Maori (Ngati Porou) descent is taking her band on tour to all corners of the country in support of her Time and Space EP." 



PLUS new single from the upcoming EP. Features Onehunga's finest - Spycc & INF

Monday, September 16, 2013

Radio, Radio - student radio doco coming soon

BFM's mag Book Of Bifim, cover by Chris Knox

Paul Casserly (tv director for Havoc, Eating Media Lunch etc, and musician as Strawpeople) is making a TV documentary on the history of student radio, see this Facebook page.

"Working title: Radio, Radio. A one hour documentary about alternative student radio in NZ, including 95BFM, Radio Active, RDU, Radio One, Control ...

We're casting the net wide as we research the doco. Particularly on the lookout for any video/film and photos. I'll also be posting stuff I come across along the way. The plan is to make a one hour doco for the Prime Rocks series so we will also be featuring plenty of local alternative music.

Contact Paul Casserly for Perendale Productions. paulcasserly@gmail.com

Greg Johnson doing a show in the mid 1980s. He also recorded an EP in the
station's production studio under the name of This Boy Rob.

Myele Manzanza worldwide



After getting limited release in New Zealand a while back, Myele's debut album has been picked up worldwide by UK label Barely Breaking Even [BBE], and it's out now.

"The driving rhythmical talent behind Electric Wire Hustle steps out from behind the drum kit to release his first solo album ‘One’.

At just 25 years old the musically prolific Myele Manzanza has not only held down the drums as part of New Zealand's Electric Wire Hustle for the past 5 years but has also drummed for many other NZ bands including Olmecha Supreme, Sheba Williams, The Recloose Live Band, The Jonathan Crayford Trio as well as for his father - Sam Manzanza’s Rhythm Africa Band & countless other musical projects.

In 2010 Myele was the only New Zealander selected to participate in the Red Bull Music Academy in London where he picked up a wealth of knowledge & skill from the many other participants from all over the world and expert lecturers such as Flying Lotus, Roots Manuva, Cluster, Moodyman, Dr Peter Zinovieff and DJ Zinc.

The rest of the year was spent living between Berlin & New York & touring with Electric Wire Hustle with laptop in hand. The fertile breeding ground of creativity of these cities provided the seeds of musical inspiration to put together his first album aptly titled ‘One’.

Created primarily in Wellington, New York and Berlin in kitchens, bedrooms, hotel rooms, parks, balconies and backstage ‘One’ draws on many influences and experiences. Rooted in Myele’s musical “first language” of rhythm, the album also expresses his voice as a musician and producer outside of being a drummer which was a key motivation for Myele. "This album was a challenge to myself to broaden my own musical identity as a musician.”

“Myele’s one of the freshest talents to come out of NZ in years - he’s got his own sound, concept and skills that can put him alongside anyone anywhere in the world. one sick, sick talent and I’m always excited to hear what’s coming next.” - Mark de Clive-Lowe (Mashibeats/Tru Thoughts)


Track listing
1.Neighbours Intro
2.Big Space feat. Mark de Clive-Lowe and Bella Kalolo
3.Absent feat. Bella Kalolo
4.Delay
5.Elvin's Brew feat. Mark de Clive-Lowe
6.City Of Atlantis feat. Charlie K and Ladi6
7.On The Move feat. Rachel Fraser (Funkommunity)
8.Everybody Isn't
9.7 Bar Thing feat. Mara TK (Electric wire hustle)
10.Me I Know Him feat. Sam Manzanza and Amenta

Welli wax flashback: Soul Mine



There's a fascinating post over at Everything's Gone Green by Mike Hollywood, recalling a record store called Soul Mine, that used to be in Kilburnie, Wellington. The shop lasted two decades, closing in 2006. Mike writes...

"When I moved to Wellington in 1986, my first two flats were in the eastern suburb of Hataitai, with my third in the heart of Newtown. All three “homes” (and I use the word loosely) were a mere stone’s throw from the satellite suburb of Kilbirnie, which is where I discovered one of the best little record shops I’ve ever had the pleasure of stumbling into.

The Soul Mine was owned and run by a guy called Tony Murdoch, who’d moved to Wellington and established the shop in 1985, having previously run Vibes in Gisborne. Murdoch was a musician in a band called Marching Orders and his knowledge of music was (and remains) second to none.

Murdoch was clearly passionate about what he was doing at the Soul Mine. The shop had a sense of family, and of community, as much for its location as for those who worked behind the counter over the years – a close knit team that often included Murdoch’s mum, Doreen (RIP). 

It was a fun place to visit … you could catch up, get some tips, and hear the latest stuff. Murdoch would put something new on and spend the next five minutes shimmying and grinning from behind the counter, supremely confident that you liked his choice as much as he did; this man loved his work, and his enthusiasm was hugely infectious. It never really felt like it was only ever about the sale...."

"I caught up with Murdoch recently and asked him to recall some of the guys who spent a lot of time in the shop during what was – remember – a time of massive change for the musical landscape; as dance music evolved, as funk morphed into house, and Hip hop exploded from a small niche scene into something resembling a massive global phenomenon … and in Wellington terms, the Soul Mine was very much at the heart of that:

Tony Murdoch (Soul Man in chief 1985-2006) …

“(There was) the Lyall Bay collective - cats like King Kapisi (Bill Urale), Ian Seumanu aka DJ Raw, who currently does the Rumpshaker old skool gigs, and runs the DJ school out at Whitireia. Plus Shaun Tamou, who is now based in Oz.

The Newtown collective - cats like Kerry 'Aki' Antipas, who’s still doing it week in week out, DJ Rocket V, the Wright brothers, Douglas Swervone Wright and Andrew Kerb 1 Wright, break dancers and graffiti artists of the highest order. True upholders to this day of Hip hop’s finest traditions!

And the Island Bay boyz - Rodrigo Pantaga aka Don Luchito, now hosting Radio Active FM breakfast show, Danny Mullholland aka DJ Mikki Dee, who has regular gigs round town and overseas.

Then of course there were inner city cats like Kosmo Fa'alogo, now in Sydney promoting Hip hop parties and shows. And Tony 'DJ TP' Pene who was kinda the godfather DJ at Exchequers back in the mid Eighties, now in Colorado USA, in IT, and still mixing it up.

From the Hutt, the legendary Rhys Bell aka DJ Rhys B, big on Active's Famous Wednesday Night Jam (with Mark Cubey) and still phunking it up. DJ Laina Tiata also from the Valley and yep, still mixing it up.

Then of course the next wave featured guys like Jason 'Jaz' Ford, hip hop DJ/upholder extraordinaire. Also Cian O'Donnell, an English DJ who worked for me for a few years in the Nineties, (who was) into rare groove/soulful house/and a lot of tasty mixes. He now owns Conch Records in Auckland. We used to import huge quantities of all that stuff from the UK.

We can't forget of course the one and only Jason 'Clinton Smiley' Harding who was also there at the beginning and who traversed all the scenes and genres in his usual impeccable style. Not forgetting Matthew Poppelwell and Liam Ryan (ex Active breakfast host) who among other gigs now alternate each week at Boogie Wonderland …”

That’s a potted history of two decades worth of Wellington nightlife right there, and your humble blogger is thinking that if a Wellington equivalent of Last Night A DJ Saved My Life is ever to be penned then Murdoch himself might be a resource well worth preserving (place a heritage order on that man, quick).

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Poets of Rhythm retrospective



"Before Daptone, there was Desco. Before Desco, there were The Poets of Rhythm.

Back in the '90s, a time when most of our ears were filled with the alternating din of angsty grunge and synthesized pseudo-soul, a couple of German kids unearthed a raw sound from our own back yard that we hadn't even remembered burying.

Though for a time they reveled in the borrowed nostalgia of bell-bottoms and fur coats, their style was always in spite of fashion, not because of it. They drew from the sound of old funk records, not as a mold, but as inspiration, understanding that sound would always be an origin of their music, but unlike many 'soul revivalists' to follow, they never settled for it as a destination.

As homage to the undeniably funky frontrunners of the modern soul movement, Daptone Records is proud to present the definitive collection of Poets tunes, respectfully curated by Daptone staff and the band themselves. Includes the previously unreleased track, "Path of Life."

Out October 1st. Pre-order it at: The Daptone Shop - 2xLP Gatefold / CD with 20-page Bookcase.



Saturday, September 14, 2013

Cool ruler

Ring The Alarm playlist, Sept 14



Salt - Hung up
Huey Piano Smith - Little liza jane
Wendy Rene - After laughter comes tears
Ramsey Lewis - Sun goddess - Karim dub
George Benson - Give me the night
Larry Graham - Sooner or later inst
Luther Vandross - She loves me back
Bobby Hughes Combination - Kerma elastica feat Karin Krogh
Colourbox - Baby I love you so - Radikal roots re-edit
Overproof sound system - Watch what you put inna - G Corp version
Herbs - French letter dub
Sunshine soundsysem - For the love of it - decks n fx remix
Beat conductor - Hottest dub
Skatalites - Beardsman ska
Toots and the Maytals - When I laugh
International observer - Spacetime dub
Ladi6 - Diamonds
Quantic soul orchestra - Raw ingredients - Nostalgia77 remix
High fidelity - Cream of beats - Metrophonics mix
A.A.B.B - Pick up the piece one by one
Rhythm heritage -Theme from SWAT
Brenda Russell vs Souleance - A little bit of love - Souleance re-edit
Jessy Lanza - Move closer
Kraftwerk  - Man machine
Beanfield - Tides feat Baijka - Carl Craig remix

Friday, September 13, 2013

Sooner or later



Simply gorgeous edit of Sooner or later by The Impressions (hat tip to Kirk James for the link). You'll need to click the download link and 'like' Karim's Facebook page, but totally worth it. And a few more from this Czech/Lebanese producer from Barcelona....



Oh, Lorde, it's The Neo-Kalashnikovs

Lorde and her homies the NKs out the back of the Devonport Folk Club. Not.

I was going to tell you all about the time way back when that I saw Lorde and The Neo-Kalashnikovs jam at the Devonport Folk Club, after a mean set on the spoons from Finn Andrews (later of The Veils). I think Lorde was probably about 11 or something. Except it never happened.

And then I got distracted by the internet, or more specifically the fun and games The Neo-Kalashnikovs provided over at The Corner after they got reviewed. And so here's some of the funny stuff that happened. Excerpts... read in full at The Corner.

via The NK’s Facebook:
Tall poppy syndrome much? Trust New Zealand lowlifes to start throwing knives at a young band who has done nothing but try and actually achieve something. Are you guys for real? ... The video budget was $200 the song took one take to record what the fuck do you expect???? Trust a bunch of NZ nobodies to dissect and hate on something that they don’t get cause they are to dumb, bunch of dodos! It’s called exposure I don’t care what you think of the song or the video!!!!

To judge a young self-signed band like they are supposed to be Fleetwood Mac with thousands of dollars behind them is just plain trippin. This is why all of our countries real musical success stories have been from NZ artists who have escaped this hellhole and it’s warped, conservative, snobby, judgemental, under achieving attitude that promotes the talentless and slams real achievers. And Nirvana would have done exactly what we have done cause they were smart and didn’t give a fuck....
Volita Pearl Bioletti of The Neo-Kalashnikovs https://www.facebook.com/TheNeoKalashnikovs

Christopher W
“The video budget was $200 the song took one take to record what the fuck do you expect????” Sounds like you’re not entirely happy with the finished product either.

Robyn
“I don’t care what you think of the song or the video!!!!” Right, I’m glad we got that sorted. Now everyone can go back to what they were doing.

Nerdy Frames
"... As someone mention, they didn’t ask for a penny from the Government to fund their video and most of their vids are DIY so for continuity sake that aesthetic remains.

Funny too cause if you know them personally and you know their background then you should give them props for giving the finger to NZ on Air and their awful watermark (seriously how do you remove that shit, its like a bad stain!)....

...Here is something else. Why are you not praising a band like The Neo Ks but rather (and I hate to utter this person’s name) focusing on Lorde as she is praised as the second coming of Christ? Why…cause she is signed to a major and with that has umpteen amounts of media at her disposal including that George FM idiot Nick D wrapped around her finger?"

Moss Bioletti
Official and Final Response from The Neos:
"... We had nothing now we got something and your made haters because all we did was use our brians, and have some self-belif. As for the Corner you guys need to get flung off cliff because people who judge music that only make terrible music themselves are not the people I wan’t to be judged by. So next time The Corner don’t be a little bitch and go behind my back and publish an interview you should have had my approval of, I should have you trumped up kids on defamation charges..."

And then it ended with a death threat.

Shane Warbrooke
"Hi Dudes! Just letting you know that the Neo Kalashnikovs threatened to have the Hells Angels kill me. I have a pretty rad screenshot of it. I believe they were upset because I asked for a link to all the sweet positive reviews they keep talking about."


More reading: 7 Excellent Tips On Dealing With Bad Music Reviews (Even Though They Don't Matter)

excerpt: ".... if you feel you can't ignore reviews and need some help dealing with the bad ones, you should check out Chris Singleton's excellent post "How to deal with a bad review."

Singleton shares 7 tips on dealing with bad reviews. Here are the tips but you should go the read the post cause he goes into more detail and knows what's up.

7 Excellent Tips On Dealing With Bad Music Reviews.....


1. Keep calm and don’t write letters to the publication

2. Remember that you can’t please all of the people all of the time

3. Accept that the critic might have a point

4. Put your stinking review in context

5. Remember that even a bad review can have some benefits

6. Don’t forget the other channels of music promo

7. Prove your critic wrong

Observer still international



Brand new from International Observer aka Tom Bailey, former NZ resident for a spell. Dubbed out niceness.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Cody ChestnuTT live in NZ



American soul troubadour Cody ChestnuTT will bring his unique blend of R'n'B and progressive soul to New Zealand in October.

"If you combined equal parts James Brown and Otis Redding, a splash of Hendrix and a dash of old time swagger, you might come close to figuring out what Cody ChestnuTT is made of." - Spinningplatters.com

Bodega, Wellington
Monday 21st October 2013, w/ guests to be announced

The Tuning Fork, Vector Arena
Tuesday 22nd October 2013, w/ special guest Tyra Hammond

Both shows R18. TICKETS ON SALE FRIDAY 13TH SEPTEMBER. www.ticketmaster.co.nz

"Cody ChestnuTT released his edgy, lo-fi solo debut The Headphone Masterpiece, to critical acclaim in 2002. The public also took notice when a track from the album was retooled by The Roots and released as "The Seed (2.0)", with ChestnuTT on vocals. (The song was nominated for two Moonman statuettes at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards.)

ChestnuTT's subsequent nomination for the prestigious Shortlist Music Prize and later appearance in Dave Chappelle's Block Party added to his growing cult-fame status. But then he dropped out of sight for a while, as he took time for a period of family-man retreat and reflection.

Thankfully for fans, last year saw him return in earnest to the music scene, with the release of Landing on a Hundred, made at the same studio in Memphis, Tennessee where the likes of Al Green, Buddy Guy and Ike & Tina Turner recorded many of their most career-defining works. 

The new album, whose title is slang for telling the whole truth, has been described by various critics as "a long overdue, welcome comeback", "easy-going vintage soul that rolls magnificently on the ear" and "a stunning, socially conscious soul album reminiscent of early 1970s classics like What's Going On."

Kim Dotcom announces music site Baboom

Daily Swarm reports "After resigning as director of Mega, Kim Dotcom claimed that he wanted to focus on other projects. Now, one of those projects in on the horizon: his new music service, Baboom [previously called Megabox]. He teased the upcoming platform to TorrentFreak, saying that, “artists never had more freedom, transparency and control.”

Dotcom has already secured several millions in funding for the project and there are currently 22 developers working on it. Unlike Mega, Baboom will be operated by a company owned by the Internet entrepreneur himself.

With Baboom, Dotcom strongly believes that he can revolutionize the music industry and give artists full control over their music again.

“I am really excited about Baboom. I can’t wait for artists to see what i have created for them. Their entire career can be managed on Baboom.”

Here’s a breakdown of the concept behind Baboom:

When it’s released Baboom will give the public access to free music, while compensating artists through advertising revenue. With this “free music” business model Dotcom believes he can decrease music piracy while giving artists proper compensation for their work.

In addition, Baboom is expected to have a paid version where music fans can pay for music and not be bothered by ads.

[Giving artists full control over their music sounds a lot like Bandcamp to me. Will be interesting to see if this service takes off.]

Silver Scroll finalists announced

The five finalists for 2013′s APRA Silver Scroll Award are:

- Bird in Hand, written by Anna Coddington, performed by Anna Coddington (Mushroom Music NZ Limited).

- Complicated Man, written by Cy Winstanley, performed by Tattletale Saints

- Royals, written by Ella Yelich-O’Connor and Joel Little, performed by Lorde (Control / EMI Music Publishing Australia Pty Ltd)

- Thames Soup, written by Luke Buda, Sam Scott, Thomas Callwood, Richie Singleton, Chris O’Connor, Conrad Wedde and William Ricketts, performed by The Phoenix Foundation (Native Tongue Music Publishing)

- Wake Up, written by Aaradhna Patel, Evan Short and Peter Wadams, performed by Aaradhna (Universal Music / Control / Kobalt Music Publishing).

The top five shortlist were compiled from votes by APRA members -  fellow songwriters - and came from a longlist featuring songs nominated for the award by the song's writers. 

The Awards ceremony will be held at Vector Arena (shifting from their usual Akld Town Hall venue) on Tuesday October 15 and will feature cover versions of the five Silver Scroll finalists as well as the APRA Maioha Award and SOUNZ Contemporary Award.

The finalists for the contemporary classical Sounz Award and te reo Maioha Award have also been announced.

Lightbox by Karlo Margetic, Timedance by Michael Norris and Triple Concerto by Chris Gendall are the three Sounz Award finalists.

E Te Iwi, by IWI, Ruaimoko performed by Maisey Rika, featuring Anika Moa, and Ngatapa Black's Te Ngakau Mamae are up for the Maioha Award.

Raggamuffin 2014 : Marley, Morgan...


Damian Marley & Morgan Heritage were announced for Raggamuffin Festival 2014 last night, along with Shaggy, Groundation, Rebel Souljahs, Tiki Taane, Sons of Zion, Three Houses Down, House of Shem, and more. Damian Marley has visited our shores before, last time with Nas, and I recall seeing his stunning show at the St James in the mid 2000s, that was incredible. Well worth catching.

Raggamuffin promoter Andrew McManus was in the news again recently, over some financial difficulties with his companies. See Promoter Andrew McManus’ Companies Facing Financial Collapse.

His most recent NZ show was supposed to be with Fleetwood Mac, but he lost that show to another promoter. He'd booked Fleetwood Mac to perform at the stadium in Dunedin, however, the show was subsequently scrapped when the band switched promoting companies to Live Nation Entertainment, leaving the Melbourne-based promoter out of pocket. (Source)

Forsyth Barr Stadium charged McManus a $50,000 cancellation fee, as per the contract. Outraged, McManus fired back telling The Otago  Daily Times the cancellation fee was “morally and professionally wrong” and that he planned to sue the venue for the same amount."

The fee was later reduced to $15,000, which McManus agreed to pay. "An olive branch was put to me, which I accepted to avoid long-term legal fees and so I can walk away from this," said McManus. (source)

Previously, in Sept 2011 McManus cancelled the Australian dates of Raggamuffin, and announced plans to double the capacity of the Rotorua venue, to 60,000.

In 2010, Andrew McManus Presents (NZ) Ltd became embroiled in a legal dispute with the reggae band Herbs. On the brink of a court date, the company went into liquidation. It owed $394,000 to creditors.

Abomination: Keeper of the Craft

Abomination

Straight outta Hawaii... some well-blunted beats...  "producer, Abomination (of Tree Dusk Muir and the Doomsday Mechanics Krew) releases the instrumental album titled, "Keeper of the Craft". Available as a free download through Abolano Records, it contains six instrumental versions of previous released songs. Influences of Jazz, World Music and Avant-Garde genres weave themselves into Abomination's carefully crafted drum patterns." Take a listen.


Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Jessy Lanza moves closer


Via Hyperdub... "The Jessy Lanza Album: 'Pull My Hair Back' has just been released in UK, EU, and is released in the rest of the world next week. Stream the album here at Pitchfork

“It’s easily among the best debut albums we’ve heard all year.” Resident Advisor

'You should expect (this) to dominate your bedroom dancing for the rest of this year'. Quietus

“The album is a masterful mix of electronic pop . . . cool, without being off-putting, and sensuous without being wanton, PMHB is a languorous listening experience that excels in the art of the tease, something fast becoming extinct on today’s in-your-face pop charts.” Vibe

'The latest and possibly greatest of the new ethereal soul girls' Guardian

Watch the Video for “Kathy Lee” (dir. Lee Skinner)

Download Jessy Lanza’s XLR8R Podcast here: XLR8R


Exclusive Download: Jessy's gorgeous, moody cover of Phyllis Nelson's Move Closer, listen below...

Black Market Brass


Via Wax Poetics, some afrobeat styles outta Minneapolis..

"While Secret Stash has been in the business for several years releasing a number of gems ranging from the soul of America to reggae takes on Miles Davis and acoustic Peruvian folk music, they are now focusing some effort on new music as well...

...One of their first new music releases is coming out this September courtesy of Black Market Brass. The band and label both hail from Minneapolis. Secret Stash, which has a very DIY approach to their label, often hosts record-release assembly parties where the local community is invited to come to their offices and assemble the records and album sleeves in return for pizza and beer. It was through several of these that Eric Foss, VP of Marketing and Sales for Secret Stash, met Mitch Sigurdson, one of the founding members of the band.

Sigurdson assembled some friends and local talent to play a variety of styles, often Ghanian highlife and funk. Per Foss, “I think it took a little while for them to realize that they play Afrobeat as well or better than most of the bands out there doing it today. I watched as they transitioned from playing spot-on covers of Fela and Tony Allen to writing their own material.”

This past April, the band headed to the studio to record some original material. In a single afternoon, they cut the two tracks heard on the upcoming 45." Free download below...

New Clash doco



The Clash: Audio Ammunition YouTube documentary includes unseen Joe Strummer interview footage - The Guardian.

".... We try to do at least one of these a quarter, although we don't always pull out all the stops for a mega production like this," says Tim Quirk, who as Google's head of global content programming, oversaw the project, which was a collaboration with the band and label Sony Music.

"We'd been talking to Sony for a long time about what we might do, but the moment a lightbulb went off over my head was when they told me they'd uncovered lots of unseen, unused interview footage with Joe Strummer," says Quirk.

"I thought 'oh, 15-20 minutes, that's fine, I can get 3-4 usable minutes out of that'. But it was hours and hours: more than two dozen DVDs..."

The unseen Strummer footage is culled from interviews done in 2000 for Don Letts' doco Westway to the world. Shame The Guardian used a photo of The Clash without Topper tho. Weird. EDIT they've changed the photo, was originally this one, with Pete Howard.