Saturday, May 31, 2014

Ring The Alarm playlist, May 31




Block 16 - Electrokution - Daniel Wang and Brennan Green mix
Neblina sound - Shuggabits riddim
Yabby You - Mash down
Richie Phoe - Heartical behaviour
Lightning head - Me and my princess
Resonators - Sweet love affair - Cyantific remix
Mantarays - Agave
Funky Nassau - Bahama soul stew - K Dope edit
King Errisson - Disco congo
Kashmere stage band - Superstrut
African brothers - Sakatumbe
Sina Bakare - Inu mimo
Nash Chase - Gimme a little sign
Brenton Wood - Oogum boogum
Jay Epae - Puti puti
Lord Echo - Molten lava
Ballistic bros - Prophecy reveal
Joint force - Nightmare dub
Massive music -Find my way - Kode9 remix
Kilodee - Yeah nah maybe (off Beardy Beats Vol 1, free on Bandcamp)
Fatback band -Wicky wacky
Collision - Run run run
Bohannon - Do the everybody get down
Brassroots - Good life
Joe Bataan - Mestizo dub
Rosalia de Souza - Canto de ossanha

NZ Music Month flashback: Che Fu

Friday, May 30, 2014

NZ Trading Company, straight outta... Memphis????



"What happens when two Māori, a Brit, and three Latin-Americans walk into a Chicago bar? They form a band, go to Memphis and record an album that mixes psychedelia with pop, jazz and rock. Then, the band promptly stops trading.

The New Zealand Trading Company album was released in the US in 1970, but only a few copies made it to New Zealand. On the back of the album the musicians stand beside the Mississippi River, resplendent in flared trousers and heavy sideburns. To get to Memphis, the members of the band took long, strange journeys. "

Via Audioculture, great piece of digging by Chris Bourke on this legendary US album with a NZ reference in the name, although the LP liner notes give away very little info to this mystery... 

"The back just lists the song titles, the composers, the producer, engineer and the address of the record company. The New Zealand Trading Company album came out on the Memphis label, a short-lived firm with its own studio down the road from the one in which Dusty Springfield sang of her preacher man and Elvis of suspicious minds. "




Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Daddy was a marathon runner....



Via Dangerous Minds (hat tip to Trevor)

"... It appears Joe Strummer was quite the athlete. The photo above is from the 1983 London Marathon, where Strummer ran for leukemia with a team from The Sun newspaper(???). He even purportedly finished with a time of four hours and 13 minutes! (I know that’s impressive because I Googled it.)

Strummer also claimed to have ran in the Paris Marathon, but there seems to be some doubt as to whether he was just pulling our leg. When ticket sales to support Combat Rock were faltering, he “disappeared” to Paris to up the publicity of the album.

Below is a clip from the documentary, Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten, where he casually mentions running the Paris Marathon, in passing. I tend to believe he ran it, but I also don’t fault anyone else for being skeptical—the man was known to stretch the truth. A journalist once asked about his training regimen and he balked until finally offering this questionable advice:
Okay, you want it, here it is: Drink 10 pints of beer the night before the race. Ya got that? And don’t run a single step at least four weeks before the race … But make sure you put a warning in this article, ‘Do not try this at home.’ I mean, it works for me and Hunter Thompson, but it might not work for others. I can only tell you what I do.
Maybe he didn’t think sports were too punk either? Don’t worry all you punk athlete kids out there, they can call you a jock, but they can’t take away your leather jacket! Keep running, I’ll be cheering you on from the couch!"


NZ Music Month flashback: DLT



Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Chris Knox

Chris Knox and yours truly

In 1995 I was a student doing a tv production course. At the end of the course we had to make a tv half hour documentary. I made mine about Chris Knox. Since then, Chris made numerous recordings, until he had a stroke in 2009. He's made a few sporadic musical appearances and recording appearances since then.

Tonight, AUT's Dave Yetton (ex JPSE, Stereobus) presented a screening, in association with the Film Archive, of Chris Knox-related material, called "Why Chris Knox is F***ing Brilliant!". There was some amazing live footage of Toy Love, lots of music videos Chris had made for Tall Dwarfs and his own solo songs, and in the middle was my documentary, "Chris Knox: Songs of you and me."

Now, I hadn't seen this in over a decade, so I was sitting there as it started hoping it hadn't dated, or, you know, didn't suck. It held up pretty well - I basically got out of the way and let Chris talk about his life and his work. The audience seemed to enjoy it.

After the screening Chris came over - did I mention Chris Knox was there too? Sitting on two rows behind me- anyway, he came over and he seemed genuinely pleased to see it again, so I was thrilled by that. It was quite an emotional night.

Thanks to everyone involved in putting it on. Great intro from Graeme Humpries (Able Tasmans, FNun alumni) too, who pointed out that he hated how people used to label Chris's work as low-fi - Graeme said it was really honest-fi.

Backgrounder on Chris Knox over at Audioculture

One of the music videos screened at the AUT event, love this clip, and the song....

Aaron Tokona - An Experience In Cosmic Horissism Part 5

An Experience In Cosmic Horissism Part 5

"A personal account of being who you are against all odds and having the courage to Walk that Line.
This little 2 week vacation in the jungle of discontent I've taken has been awesome and PHENOMENAL! When you decide to offer yourself up into the fire to be judged and abandoned for having the courage to speak your truth, it’s something you decide to do alone.

When i decided to speak out against the tyranny i felt i had the right to, i knew that it was a journey i would face alone. I am a Loud, Raucous, vivacious, and completely Outrageous artist guitar slinging mentally perturbed Maori guy and its taken 38 years of my life thus far to feel totally ok with what that mean’s and feel completely at peace with who i am. But being this way and accepting these things about oneself comes with many risks.

I come from a childhood of abandonment, I've served time inside a Drug rehabilitation centre and it’s not until you find yourself inside a mental institution on 24 hour suicide watch that you can ever feel what it truly feels like to be completely alone. At a time like that, when your in that kind of hole stripped down to your bare bone’s, the only thing that can save you from yourself is whatever you believe God to be.

For some it’s the Pope, for other’s its Krishna, for me it’s Music in the form of Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis. Ive been blessed to be able to have the medicine of music heal everything I've had to face in life, its my drug of choice these days and like any drug if i over intoxicate myself in it i might find myself in Music Rehab! a place they send you with No stereo’s, No guitars and No posters of Jimi Hendrix and Mile Davis to worship at the feet of, and certainly No other musician or artist type people who are all slightly bent in a tirade of ways!

The one thing I've had to learn from all these experience’s is to learn how to Behave. Its so Ironic to be discriminated against for being crazy because how can i be crazy when the world is crazy and we all live happily on planet crazy together? Letting Hitler get away with what he did was ‘crazy’ Letting Mugabe continue to get away with what he’s doing is ‘crazy’ and letting this guy Kim Dot Com come here and parade himself around like he’s an example of what it means to be successful and to aspire to, for me at least is ‘crazy’. But what do i no about being crazy? Well i’ll tell ya shall I ?………………………………….ok then.

Anyone that stands out from the world of mediocrity we all live in has always considered to be ‘crazy’. Michael Jackson was not an average human being, he was special and stood out like sore thumb on this planet not long after he arrived here. And how did our planet deal with him?

They called him ‘crazy’ by ridiculing him and finally accusing him a grown up kid himself for doing awful things to other kid’s. That must of broken his heart to bit’s, This world must of been a hell of a lonely place for MJ, He was far too good for this planet and left. Bless Him x.

Throughout the dawn of human existence there have always been people that have been ridiculed and burnt to the stake for speaking out about there crazy and benign views on the subject of the ‘truth’ and how they see it, and i guess the most astounding example of this is that fulla - ‘Jesus’

I mean Jesus Christ for the love of God how the hell can anyone think i’m crazy! But the thing is………..i know i’m crazy and I'm ok with that because i have learnt through many many lessons of painful experience's how to behave myself.

When i made my decision to be Loud, Raucous, vivacious, and completely Outrageous about this whole Kim Dot Com debacle i knew exactly what fire i was jumping into! and it wasn’t the fire of being liable for slanderous lies about my experience’s of working for my mate Kimmy!

It was the fire of discrimination that awaited me in the form of many judgemental assertions about the state of my mental stability. That was the hardest thing i knew i had to face before making the decision to precede forward with my truth about this guy. So with my heart on fire and my intent intact i fearlessly charged ahead, and i feel f**en choice about that.

I knew the things i expected to happen but i didn’t know the unexpected thing’s to occur of course and that was a surprise! there was only one thing that unexpectedly happened with all this stuff for me. None of my musician friends turned up, and the only one that did i did not expect it from at all (thanks neil x). I’d been in many passion fuelled debate’s with many NZ artist at various times about the subject of NZ politics or many subjects around things to care about in Aotearoa.

And none of these people turned up and i don't mean to comment in on any of this crap to do with KDC, none of these people turned up in the form of a txt an email or even a phone call, and that was F**ken disappointing for me indeed.

The only one’s that turned up was Gooch - Flash Panda and Whacupamoe - Iraia and tik. Of course they did x. Theres no fearlessness or anger in NZ music at the moment which probably explains why its all so fucken lame out there. The only one’s doing anything risky these days in NZ music is Tom Scott and The Nudge there musical kaupapa's are really mean. I told Tom Scott to go fuck himself the other day cause he did something that pissed me off! but thats ok i hope he goes and writes a song about that cause i am. Lame Lame Lame.

But alas………………Its time for me to sign off of this whole KFC……(spellcheck!) KDC buzz because its taking up to much of my emotional space and i’ve got a Family to love and care about, this ‘ahoribuzz’ album to finish and bills to pay! and besides i’m sure President Obama will take care of Kimmy soon enough!

Id like to thank my Wife and Daughter for caring about me for caring too much about what i care about, and to all those people (there were a lot of ya x) who randomly walked up to me on the street and hugged me and one person even wept to me about my taking a stand. Thank You this ‘ahoribuzz’ album will be for you xxx

I could not have done this without the love and support of two amazing and special people - Farr Canal and Jon Mells Love your Micks xxx

Breath in…………..ahhhhhhhhhhh. Fuck im glad thats over. Yo Jimi where u at……….. x"

Kaveri Special

Kaveri Special. Photo by Jerry Ylkanen

Some days I get some mad emails arriving with new music, like this one, about an afrobeat outfit from Finland. How wild is that? 

Kaveri Special dropped their debut album recently, and it's funky, groovy time. The band tell me "Our music pays tribute to classic African guitar music from the 70s and 80s, especially soukous and highlife. We did a C cassette master for the album to get some extra vintage feel and warmth into it."

Explosive and so joyful, an amazement for the ears. You need to hear this!!" - Paris DJs (FRA)
"A unique Afro Funk group from Finland - similar to some of the trippier African work reissued in recent years" - Dusty Groove (USA)
"Well recommended listening" - Eddy de Clercq, Soul Safari label and blog (NED)

Out now on digital/vinyl.


Monday, May 26, 2014

Youtube to indie labels: sign contract or get blocked

Via Digital Music News: "YouTube has already inked lucrative licensing deals with Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, and Sony Music Entertainment for the upcoming YouTube Music launch.

 But according to dozens of independent label groups now speaking out, YouTube has flatly refused to negotiate separate agreements with smaller rights owners, instead offering boilerplate agreements with far inferior terms.

Beyond that, YouTube has now threatened to block the content of any independent label that declines to sign their non-negotiable contracts."

WIN (Worldwide Independent Network) has put out a press release on this:

"WIN, the organisation that represents the interests of the global independent music community, has responded to news that YouTube intends to block the content of members who do not sign a new music streaming agreement describing it as ‘unnecessary and indefensible’

WIN was formed in 2006 to represent the global independent industry, which boasts the second largest global market share after Universal.

As reported by several news sources, YouTube is expected to launch a new music streaming service. The service has apparently negotiated separate agreements with the three major labels – Sony, Warner and Universal – but according to WIN’s trade association colleagues has yet to reach any substantive agreement.

At a time when independent music companies are increasing their global market share WIN has raised major concerns about YouTube’s recent policy of approaching independent labels directly with a template contract and an explicit threat that their content will be blocked on the platform if not signed.

According to WIN members, the contracts currently on offer to independent labels from YouTube are on highly unfavourable, and non-negotiable terms, and undervalue existing rates in the marketplace from existing music streaming partners such as Spotify, Rdio, Deezer and others.

The release includes quotes from member groups around the world, including NZ...

Scott Muir – Deputy Chair of Independent Music, New Zealand
“It is regrettable and unacceptable that YouTube tends to abuse its dominant position as a digital channel to impose unfair conditions on independent labels. Further, the threat of blocking or removing their content would have the negative effect of preventing consumers from enjoying a substantial part of the whole music catalogue.”

NZ Music Month flashback: Nathan Haines




K-Conjog - Dasein album out now



Latest release from this Italian artist, out now on US label Abandon Building. Free download, off the album Dasein.

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Ring The Alarm playlist, May 24



10" vinyl excursion...
Adrian Sherwood - Zero zero one
Rhythm and sound feat Shalom - We been troddin
Cornell Campbell - Your star/dub
Boot - Wlecome to England
Kenny Knots - Good sensi
Mere mortalz feat U-Brown - Dis a boom
Scrappy - Off the lead
Simon Bogle and Ghetto Priest - Dry bone - Groove corp remix
Sabres of Paradise -Wilmot's last skank
Michael Prophet - Been talking
Johnny Clarke - Crazy baldhead
Mungos hifi feat Soom T - Did you really know
King Tubby - Bag a wire - Avatars of dub remix
VV Brown - Crying blood - Andrew Weatherall remix


Mr Scruff feat Robert Owens - He don't
Elder Statesman - Montreaux sunrise
Mark de Clive Lowe - Ghaziya
Lewis McCallum feat Francis Kora - First date
Ladi6 - Diamonds
Quantic feat Alice Russell - You will return
Ikebe shakedown -The viking
Roy Ayers -We live in Brooklyn, baby
Reuben Bell - Superjock
Eddy Senay - Cameo
Labelle - Moon shadow
Mongo Santamaria - I can't get next to you
Pete Rodriguez - I like it like that
Ray Barretto - O elephante - Shhh remix
East side symphony - Hot pants road


Thursday, May 22, 2014

Trinity Roots, Bongmaster and Rhombus in Dub, live! Lucky you, Wellie.



"Now the greatest secret gig in Wellington since Prince played at Meow - we have an announcement to make & you're invited. Doors 8pm - be there & get the inside on the next biggest news since Trinity Roots & Bongmaster decided to play with Rhombus in Dub at the JAM! At James Cabaret, May 22, ticket info here.

Bongmaster
Bongmaster are always a treat playing an improvised set of dubby funk that's guaranteed to get yer butt waggling. Their live acts are far too rare an occurance possibly because of the logistical problems of organising the 15 odd people that make up Bongmaster. [Members include Aaron Tokona of A Hori Buzz/Cairo Knife Fight, Dallas and Iain Gordon of Fat Freddys Drop]

/07:00PM VIP doors/
/08:00PM GA doors/
/08:15PM Rhombus in DUB> 09:15PM//
/09:15PM TRINITY ROOTS >10:45PM//
/11:00PM BONGMASTER >>
/12:30AM FIN//

Splore Fest goes annual

Splore 2014 Image by Burgs Eye Photos©

Splore has been happening every two years, and apparently the most common request they get after each festival is "Why don't you make it a yearly event?" So, they have.

From Splore's PR: "Splore will be returning for 2015. Scheduled for February 20-22, this will be the first time the full three day festival has ventured to an annual frequency. Tickets will go on sale through iticket.co.nz on 2 June 2014.

Festival director, John Minty, says “Our research shows us that 83% of our audience want to come every year and from an operational point of view, it is much easier to keep the festival ticking over annually – it’s a win all around for everyone”.

The festival content will continue its long tradition of remaining fresh, inspirational and eclectic over five stages with an array of genres including performance, art and music. This year Splore expanded the zone in the camping area that is situated within the Red Bull Art of Camping zone, which was a huge success.

Splore’s founder and creative director Amanda Wright has decided to pass the baton of festival director to John Minty and will step into a peripheral advisory role for 2015. “I’ve founded Splore and have been integrally involved since its inception in 1998. Its time for me to pursue new opportunities so John is taking the reins as festival director from now on”.

With constant comments on social media about this year’s Splore being the best Splore event yet, festival director John Minty is confident of another successful event for 2015."

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Urban Pacifika profiled/reviewed, 99

Urban Pacifika crew. Photo: Gary Brandon / Real Groove, 1999
Urban Pacifika crew. Photo: Gary Brandon/Real Groove

Family ties: Urban Pacifika

By Stephen Jewell, Real Groove, Issue 72, June 1999, p22-23

Philip Fuemana formed Urban Pacifika Records in 1996 out of a determined desire to place their own musical destinies in their own hands. Fuemana assembled four groups, Moizna, Lost Tribe, AKA Brown, and Dei Hamo, who between them cover the full spectrum of black music from R&B to hiphop. Now three years and several successful singles down the track, Urban Pacifika is about to release its debut album, Pioneers of a Pacifikan Frontier, a compilation featuring contributions from all four acts,  plus Fuemana himself.

"Urban Pacifika is an extension of what we've been doing for a decade," Fuemana tells me when I meet him at the headquarters of Urban Pacifika 's distributing label, BMG Records. "Different styles but all in the same Polynesian genre, island drums etc. Urban Pacifika  came about mostly because of control. We did Proud, [then] a Christmas album, but we had no creative control  Instead of doing a song, walking away and leaving someone else to finish off, I said 'No. We'll start and finish it.' Out there right now, there's a lot of hiphop and R&B artists, but most of those guys have to go to producers and someone else has the rights to their songs. With us, we record, write, arrange and produce. We own everything. We're up here [at BMG] not as their artists but as a part of the company. That's a big difference."

Urban Pacifika spent some time finding its feet, but with Pioneers... about to drop, you get the impression that Fuemana and his crew have finally arrived. "We took nearly a year shaking off the old ways of thinking,"admits Fuemana. "Thinking it's all about artistic credibility, but that aint got nothing to do with it. You come to the deal with your cultural soul intact and they want what you bought. We're not changing anything, we're doing what we love. We love being on the radio, being on Mai and bFM. We didn't contrive all that, but that's what our aim has always been, getting out to the people."

However, the popularity of Lost Tribe, whose track B.U.N.G.A has spent months on bFM's Top 10, certainly came as a pleasant surprise. "In South Auckland, bFM is an unknown entity," explains Fuemana.

"The amount of music on the station that we're into is really small because we are R&B, and R&B is conceived as dumb cousin music. It's seen lyrically as pretty naive but people don't realise that in R&B there's very little to the lyric, it's more about the feel. R&B judges a song by the feel, how it's produced, the vocal execution. It's only now being accepted for what it is. With our groups, AKA Brown and Moizna, they're representing R&B for this country. Showing that it can be thought out and original and still have our flavour."

Hiphop may be flourishing in Aotearoa currently, but most attention has thus far focussed on central city rappers, while South Auckland has been neglected. However the tide may be about to turn. "We've just done our own thing, stayed in Otara and done our music,"asserts Fuemana. "We don't come to many gigs in the city. It's crossed over nicely. Now everybody's coming down to our patch to see us."

Otara is now going from strength to strength as various music and art schools have recently opened their doors in the suburb. "The reason they're in Otara is because we created a vibe in Otara,"declares Fuemana. "Otara is the birth capital of the music. Ermehn, Ardijah, Moana and the Moahunters... we all come from Otara. This little town that had no rec centre or swimming pool for ages, no parks, no toilets, because it was made very quickly to house all of us [Polynesian] that got kicked out of Parnell."[Fuemana's family grew up in Parnell, before shifting to Otara - their father worked on the docks.]

Needless to say, Urban Pacifika won't be moving uptown in a hurry. "We're very loyal to Otara because our success is down to determination triumphing over adversity," states Fuemana. "But look at the wider picture, Otara is very separate. There is a real stigma with South and West Auckland through gangsta rap. That's why I signed Moizna, being a West Auckland band, because [UPR] being all South Auckland would be too much. As a New Zealand label, hopefully we will become wider. not just South Auckland."

 UPR boldly announced its intentions late last year with 'One', a joint single between the four acts, which also paid fitting homage to New Zealand popular music history, with its cleverly crafted Split Enz sample [Note it was replayed not sampled]. "We wanted to put out a single and have the groups involved,"recalls Fuemana. "I really liked the original 'One Step Ahead' and its bassline. We didn't want to use any more overseas sampling. 'One' was perfect for us because my philosophy is that there can only be one and it'll be us. I contacted Mushroom and they sent a demo to Neil Finn in London and he said 'Go hard, man.'I thought he'd take 50% but he took 10%. Fair enough."





UPR also collaborated with Dave Dobbyn on an R&B style mix of the latter's track 'Beside You', which began life as a special live performance at last  year's APRA awards, but will now be included on Pioneers... and as a b-side on Dobbyn's next single.

"When I gave [the UPR crew] the song they were like 'Man, it's a pretty hard song. It's got too many lyrics,' but I was like 'We'll do it'."

Moizna have so far been the most prolific Urban Pacifika act, releasing two successful singles, 'Keep On Moving', and 'Just Another Day'. The quartet have their roots in talent quests, getting together for a nationwide competition before being discovered by Fuemana at the Street Songquest. "Phil really liked our performance and rang us a few weeks afterwards to ask us to do a spot at a pool party he was holding,"recalls Alesha Siosiua.

The four members of Moizna, Alesha and sister Isabelle, Rita Tuiala and Maureen Taumatiene, grew up in Avondale and Henderson, areas that Alesha points out, have been as ignored as South Auckland. "There's a lot of talent but it's hidden,"she reasons. "There's a lot of underground groups playing in garages but it doesn't go any further than that. A lot of it is about being scared about being judged by your peers. The fear that people will take it the wrong way, that they'll not like it. It's all about shyness and having the confidence to stand up."

For Siosiua, UPR's supportive atmosphere is one of the best things about being in the collective. "UPR is like a family, a clique,"she declares. "If [the other acts] help us, then we'll help them. We push each other along. No one's above anyone else. We're all moving together. UPR is a real tight knit group."

Following hot on the heels of Moizna is Lost Tribe, whose debut single 'Summer In The Winter' went top 20 in 1997. Lost Tribe typify the UPR multicultural ethic, as the five strong group, Danny 'Brother D' Leaosavaii, Sontan Pale, Johnny 'Jester' Sagala, Jim 'DJ Fingas' Makai, and Kendall 'KD' Takai, draws members from almost all the Pacific islands. "We like the idea that there was two Samoans, a Niuean and a Tongan,"says Takai. "When I joined, they all asked 'What are you?' and I said 'I'm Raro' and they 're like 'Hey, that's all the islands!'"

South Auckland hiphop may not yet have received the props it deserves, but that could change with the release of Pioneers... and Lost Tribe's debut album, due out later this year.

"There's a negative to the positive," reasons Takai. " It's not so bad. I'd rather walk around South Auckland streets at night than somewhere in Remuera! But that's what hiphop's about. It can be a channel. We got our issues that we touch upon. Polynesian suicide, rape. We're trying to depict the life of an Islander from the day he's born to when he croaks. We see it through our own eyes. Even though South Auckland has a label, we try and bring the opposite label to it too. People in South Auckland have got just as much to say as people in central Auckland."

What goes without saying though is that hiphop in New Zealand is stronger than it's ever been. " If it's us, Ermehn, King Kaps or Che, somewhere along the line, we pick up on the same issues but we express them in different ways," says Takai. "We give it up to those guys. We support them and try to come up with our own stuff. Ten years ago the hiphop industry in New Zealand wasn't very big, but it's grown."

Dei Hamo, alias Sane Sagala, also produces hiphop but his tunes possess a lighter touch compared to Lost Tribe's sound of the streets. "I'm more relaxed, more partyish," he suggests. Sagala is a bit of an old hand, with over a decade's experience on the New Zealand hiphop scene. "I got hit by the first wave of breakdancing that came to New Zealand in the mid 80s," he recalls. "Through that, I started my own rap group around 1987. At the time bFM were holding rap competitions and my group entered the first one."

Sagala first hooked up with Fuemana on 1994's Proud tour and signed with Urban Pacifika upon its formation. And, just like Moizna and Lost Tribe, he values the collective's camaraderie above all else. "Outside of the record label, we're all friends, which is important. We're always at each other's houses, we go out clubbing together. Plus, me, Phil and John [Chong Nee of AKA Brown] do all the production as well."

On top of his production duties, Chong Nee, along with Sam Feo II, make up AKA Brown, whose single 'Something I Need' immediately preceded Pioneers of a Pacifikan Frontier. Chong Nee also helped produce Che Fu's 2 B Spacfic and was once a member of Raw Meat For The Balcony, the industrial band from whom Kog Transmissions was created. " We all have our own different styles," says Chong Nee, of UPR. "The others mix up R&B and hiphop but our sound is strictly R&B."

That diversity of sound should prove the key to UPR's national, and indeed international success. " UPR is an extension of our love of all Polynesian people worldwide," concludes Fuemana. " We are the only Polynesian-owned record company. There's nothing in the States or the Islands. They're all owned by someone else. It's my goal to have our own films, our own print, to tell our stories. I don't give a shit if no one buys it because someone will. My family and their friends will buy it.

"How did Pauly [Fuemana, OMC] become a millionaire? How did Phil get his company? We started UPR in 1996 and since then we've been to the Music Awards, done everything we dreamed about. Now we just want to get overseas. We got our own nightclub which is packed every other night, we got our own gridiron team, which has got 50 members. All from one idea."






Real Groove, June 1999, album reviews, p26....
Urban Pacifika - Pioneers of a Pacifikan Frontier, reviewed by Kerry Buchanan

" Better recognise... Southside... out of the darkness, justice bought to your speakers..." It's been a long time coming. Both this fine album and the importance of forging the Pacifikan frontier, where Brown power is, as brother James Brown said, 'loud and proud.'

Let's check that for a while. Polynesian culture in Aotearoa has had to be adaptive (listen to Lost Tribe's 'Summer in the Winter' for the poetic politics) but not submissive. To attempt to assimilate with white middle class thought is not a good thing - you lose so much, your soul becomes rootless. Same with music. The Pacifikan frontier represents links with black American styles, funk, soul slow jam and hiphop. Once again, adaptive not submissive. It's an expansion of a musical heritage that has meaning and feeling to us. It's got nothing to do with mindless copycat actions, but a forging of a new attitude, a new style and bringing out a culture of Polynesian creativity.

Pioneers of a Pacifikan Frontier is a celebration of all that. It's easy to praise the hiphop elements: the social commentary of  'One', ' Hark', '5 B.U.N.G.A' or the party styles of Dei Hamo, who rocks on 'Whirlrocker' (great guitar riff and funky flow from the man himself) and drops fantastic rhymes on  'Hamostyle'. But when it comes to the slow jams, that's when it becomes problematic; most can accept the hardcore, but the softcore, that's a different matter.

See, that's what makes Pioneers... so important. The slow jams are the shit. 'Something I Need' from AKA Brown is my favourite song this year; great vocals in the R&B tradition and beautiful sentiments. Same with 'Baby We Can Do It', that uses an interpolation of the SOS Band and builds a fine song. Moizna are wistful on ' Summer Goodbye' (love that 'I was so young.. you were so outta your head' stuff), indeed all of their cuts deserve major success. 'Keep On Moving' is pure R&B perfection in my eyes.

The kicker here is the duet between AKA Brown and Dave Dobbyn on 'Beside You'. A coming together of differing iconographies that place R&B to the forefront, a transformation of what could be simply another pop song, into a finely structured vocal gem. The use of contemporary R&B styles, with its funk, soul and spatial diversity is superb. Dobbyn doesn't lose anything, but gains so much in this revelation of a song. Lovely.

At the Snoop Dogg concert, Urban Pacifika were truly spectacular; shout outs to the South Auckland area code, the integration of styles and the forthright and joyous nature of it all just gelled for me. Now, with this mighty release, their future is secure and with that our own is also assured. You're just damn stupid if you don't become a part of it.

Real Groove june 1999, Urban Pacifika, photo by Gary Brandon
photo: Gary Brandon


Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Forgotten New Zealand synth-pop gems

NZ Herald blogger (and ex Rip It Up editor) Leonie Hayden has written a cool piece for NZ Music Month, titled 'Five forgotten New Zealand synth-pop gems'. The list includes The Knobz - Culture, Alastair Riddell - Zero, The Fanatics - Models, The Deadly Deaths - Bury It, and Over The Atlantic - Loveless Devotion.

One of my fave NZ forgotten synth gems is this killer 1984 electro tune from Auckland, by Snap... musician Tom Ludvigson (Trip to the Moon) was one of the players on this session, read him talking about it here.. Tom says...

“Recalling the session, recorded to 24track tape at Harlequin Studios, a few things stick out:
  • The musicality of the “Triangle” production team of Graeme Gash, Paul Streekstra and Noel Connolly;
  • The experimental the-studio-as-an-instrument approach;
  • The trial-and-error art of overdubbing Polysix arpeggiator lines in sync with the track without the benefit of hard sync: first tweak the arpeggiator tempo knob until it sounds right, then trigger it exactly on time, every time. It worked with repeated drop-ins…;
  • Borrowing a just-released Oberheim OB-X polysynth to do state-of-the-art sounding overdubs for the extended dance mix;
  • Four of us jamming the extended dance mix at the 24-track console, eight hands together tweaking sliders and delay buttons for a dubby atmospheric mix.”



And then there's Car Crash Set, as a mate reminded me...



And IQU, featuring Betty-Anne and Ryan Monga of Ardijah... also a 1984 release...

Tied To The Tracks exhibition



I was lucky enough to attend the launch for this great exhibition last night, and witnessed Shona Laing and then John Hanlon sing a few songs each, it was choice. Apparently Jordan Luck was spotted with his John Hanlon LPs, getting them signed. I went back down today and took some photos. This exhibition is on til the end of May, at Tyler St Garage, in Britomart.



Via Audioculture: "As of Tuesday morning some 150 classic New Zealand album covers are on the walls of the Tyler Street Garage in Auckland's Britomart, and they will stay up until May 31.

It's called Tied To The Tracks, after a Shona Laing album that has been unavailable for some 34 years and NEVER on digital - until now.

Why? To celebrate the digital rerelease of some 200 unavailable New Zealand albums, many of which have been out of print for decades - that's why. Some go back to 1960 and they span the decades thereafter.



Over the past two years or more, Recorded Music New Zealand has worked with record labels to remaster and reissue these records, putting them up on iTunes and Spotify. We're also embedding all of them in our profiles on AudioCulture.

An amazing visual feast, if you are in Auckland and have an interest in our musical past, it's a must do."

The full list of albums reissued to date (there are many more to come), you can check the titles here: http://www.promusic.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Digital-Reissue-List-16-May.pdf

SEE: The art of the Kiwi album cover by Russell Brown, at Audioculture



The bottom LP was recorded on location, at a club called the Hi Diddle Griddle, at 507 K Rd.

Yabby You - Deeper Roots 2 coming


Via acclaimed reggae reissue Pressure Sounds: " Deeper Roots Part 2 takes up the mantle of exploring Yabby You’s extensive back catalogue and is packed with previously unreleased mixes of one of the most maverick of Jamaican producers.

Yabby You began his musical career in the early 1970s just as a new wave of Jamaican artists and producers were starting to dominate the local music scene. Vivian Jackson aka known as Yabby You was born in Kingston in 1946. One of 7 children he had originally earned a living working in a foundry that made Dutch Cooking pots. When he was 17 he had become seriously ill with malnutrition and then developed severe arthritis. Following this he has made a living out of picking racehorse winners.

Eventually he moved into making and releasing his own records. From the very beginning his music stood outside of the mainstream of reggae music. Thematically it was subtly different from the rasta infused sound that was holding sway in the Kingston ghetto at this time.

Always a maverick his music was contentious and passionate and caused a great deal of debate amongst the musical fraternity.

Deeper Roots Part 2 focuses on the more instrumental and dub infused productions of Yabby You and has many exclusive mixes. Some of the tracks were given directly to Pressure Sounds by Yabby and some have come from exclusive dubplates.

Sipping I & I Chalice is an overlooked gem that was only ever previously released on 45. Thirty pieces of Silver is for the most part reduced to a thundering instrumental, powerful and perfect for sound systems.

The sleevenotes are by Pete Holdsworth and focus on his own personal experiences of dealing with Yabby from the mid 1990s. Photographs are by Pekka Vuorinen.

Deeper Roots part 2 has 16 tracks spread over 4 sides of vinyl. Over 50 minutes worth of music and most of it exclusive to Pressure Sounds. Out 2nd June."

NZ Music Month flashback: 3 The Hard Way



Best known for the first nz hiphop single ever to hit number one - Hiphop Holiday - here's a later single from the crew.

Monday, May 19, 2014

Reality Chant - Fire I Blaze




Straight outta Chch, check this hotness - free DL too.. "Reality Chant Productions is proud to announce the release of Fire I Blaze (Judgement Fi Babylon Riddim) out May 16th 2014.

This project has been four years in the making and features reggae artists from all over the globe including Louie Culture, Raggadon, Deadly Hunta, Hi Kee Feat. Luciano & Brigadier Jerry, Cookie The Herbalist, Jah Red Lion & Anbless Nabi, Pato B & Stikki Tantafari plus huge remixes from Dub Terminator & Max RubADub."

Dharma Punks comic returns!



The Dharma Punks is a fantastic comic - I remember collecting when it came out, it's a great slice of Auckland life. A Kickstarter campaign has raised money to reissue it in graphic novel form, and now they're aiming for some bigger goals, take a look...

"Now that we've reached our initial goal we've decided on some cool stretch goals which if reached means we can make Dharma Punks - The Collected Edition an even cooler book than initially planned... fancier print job, more copies printed and even more bonus pages." 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1512313603/the-dharma-punks-graphic-novel?ref=home_location




The Dharma Punks, by Ant Sang

The Dharma Punks is set in Auckland in the mid-nineties. It’s the story of Chopstick, a punk who is part of an anarchist plot to blow up ‘Bobo’s’, a multi-national fast-food restaurant. Unable to move forward with his life after the death of a good friend, and struggling to reconcile his spiritual path with his political actions, Chopstick’s journey is a meditation on life, love, friendship and blowing things up.

Serialised in eight parts the comic was a success, eventually selling out of its print runs and now difficult to find for love or money.

The comic features many of Auckland’s inner-city land marks (Grafton Bridge, Alleluya Café) and bands of the era including Love’s Ugly Children.

In 2013, eleven years after its initial release, Ant was approached by the founders of Earth’s End Publishing and started to plan for the re-release of his fugitive classic in a single volume.


Ant’s top five punk rock tunes

*Black Spade Picasso Core – Hallelujah Picassos
*Real World – Husker Du
*Target – Fugazi
*100% - Sonic Youth
*Weep Woman Weep – Sticky Filth

An Experience In Cosmic Narcissism Part 3 - Mine and Rihanna’s Whakapapa

Via Aaron Tokona on Facebook, part 3 of 8 parts... he posted this with a photo of himself and Rihanna...

An Experience In Cosmic Narcissism Part 3- Mine and Rihanna’s Whakapapa

A personal account of working for ‘THE PHENOMENAL’
KIM.DOT.COM.ORG.NET.THE WORLD.THEUNIVERSE.AND.EVERYONE.IN.IT.co.nz

My Father Clifford Hirini Tokona and My Mother Pani Heniwai Herangi means i come from two line’s of proud and staunchly robust genealogy or what Maori proudly refer to as ‘Whakapapa’. On my dad’s side Tokona i hail from a Bay of Plenty known by the local radio station as BOP or referred to by my iwi (tribe) Ngai Te Rangi as Tauranga Moana. 

On my mum’s side i hail from what is referred to as a ‘Kingitanga’ movement established as a way to form a line of communication to the in coming movement we now refer to as colonisation. This proud iwi that makes me the kiwi i am today is known as Tainui or Ngati Maniapoto. All of this makes up the man i am today. As a child i grew up on both sides of my family’s, and both sides of my awesome and really hardcase whanau’s were really musical, and my cuzzie's Ria Hall and Tiki Taane are an awesome testament to that x

Life was tough for my Mum and Dad because they hailed from a generation before them that had to suffer some of the abuse of what the integration of colonisation and the threat to form a proud nation meant, which was my Grand parents on both side’s suffered the humiliation of being strapped on the hand’s just for speaking in the language of there native tongues Te Reo Maori. 

And even though that was sad and awful what was worst is what my parents had to endure which was a whole generation without its native tongue to speak proudly and feel proud about itself. This generation got lost and forgot who they were and where it’s strong and bountiful people came from. 

It’s so terribly sad and desperate what losing that kind of identity does to people because when you don't know who you are, where you come from and how strong and proud this can make you feel about yourself its easy to feel anger and resentment, blame and disempowered about this and easy to lose yourself in the mire of self abuse with help in the form of Drugs or Alcohol and lost in a life of Jail time. Or find yourself on the dole or the DPB, and the statistics are a testament to that…………………

In the mean time I'm running around with a madman in the form of a swiss german fulla who calls himself KIM DOT COM and actually within the deluded reality of this crazy Megalomanic character i was actually having lot’s of fun and getting very well paid for it in the process! 

Around this time i was writing another song that i was happy and keen to deliver having been signed by Warner Music again. I had delivered the first of my contractual commitments to the team at Warner Music in NZ of a song i wrote called ‘Sugar’ and through this whole time working with KDC was hearing in my hori brain the birth of another song which would be about an experience of working for a crazy narcissistic slave master. 

This song would go on to be called ‘Providence’. I rang my cuzzie Tiki for some help with the production of my song and flew into Tamaki Makaurau and picked up by cuzzie Tik and headed out to his studio in a beautiful place of a beautiful man that earn’s a living applying Moko’s with Ink to various body parts of keen and willing participants that gratefully pay ‘the bro’ for his artistic passion and trust him dearly with their skin!

Upon arrival it was awesome to see the bro rushing towards us at a frantic pace raving about the news that us 3 Maoris had a mission ahead of us that night to go to Rihanna’s gig at vector arena and to meet her and her entourage because this reining raving pop princess required a tattoo from what she considered one of the best tattoo artists in the world and she was bloody right about that indeed. 

Us 3 proud Maori men arrived at vector arena this night and upon entry into the building i was very grateful at that moment that i was not my bro Tiki Taane! As we proceeded to navigate our way to our seats the cuzzie Tik got on with the job of being who he was as he posed with many many of his adoring fan’s for pictures, and as the cuz just got on with his job of being just so F*&^cken Awesome at beautifully and gracefully taking pictures with the many fan’s who love him, i thought to myself ‘What a pain in the mick, i hope i never have to do that buzz’!!! 

We found our seats and enjoyed Rihanna’s little gig! I thought to myself ‘this girl can really sing. Awesome’. After the gig we were escorted backstage and preceded to wait a few hour’s for the sis to get her shit together. We were then shown into her backstage quarter’s where she greeted us with a hug and kiss and we had many laugh’s hanging out backstage for a couple hours with this very beautiful hardworking reining raving pop princess and her entourage. 

We arrived back at ‘the bro’s’ place and retired immediately and was up a few hours later and Tik and i started working on my next ‘ahoribuzz’ tune Providence.

Rihanna and her entourage turned up many hours later than agreed to which i thought was fine as she can do whatever she want’s she’s a pop-star! But our bro was by then pretty pissed off at the lack of respect shown and i supported him on that indeed. I don’t think Rihanna ever thought she’d ever hang out with 2 smiley and 1 pissed off set of Maoris ever! 

But Tik and i got on with the job of supporting our bro as he got on with his job of giving the sis a tattoo she wanted and would go on to later tattoo over because she decided to arrive many hours late and didn’t give herself the time to think about the choice’s she made of applying ink forever to her reining raving pop-star skin. I liked Rihanna she was choice and i felt she deserved what she worked so hard for and what she was really good at. And she probably thought that about me too because the bro played her heaps of my music via You Tube and when i entered the room at one stage between working with Tiki on my song in his studio, she looked at me and said “Your a Rock-Star” and to this i said to her “Cheers babe, thats quite funny coming from you!”

After many hours of pain and torture Rihanna went through to tattoo herself in the traditional ways of our Tipuna . Her and here entourage were about to depart. I had one little private moment with Rihanna which for me i thought was endearing as i looked into her pop-star eyes to bid her farewell. I gave her a kiss and a hug looked at her and said “Look after yourself out there sis” and she looked at me and said “You too Rock-Star!” 

I think people like Rihanna or her aunt Beyonce or our Lorde for that matter all have one thing in common. They all exist in the eye of an ever evolving storm, and within that storm these people sit calmly in the eye of it looking around them at a cyclone in the form of a circus, and from that place its probably quite easy to see who’s aware and apart of the kaos and who see’s the circus for what it is. 

And as Tiki and i left our bro and entered into a circus at Roundhead Studios that night to continue work on the album of a Narcissistic madman! It was easy for me to see between the lines of what is real and what is not.

And what does my Whakapapa have to do with Rihanna’s ? Well nothing except Rihanna comes from an little place called Bridgetown on a little Island called Barbados and from a people that too had it’s challenge’s with the in coming inevitability of Colonisation.

My Great Great aunt Princess Te Puea Herangi use to have a great big stick! And with her stick she would whack anyone around her that spoke in the Queen’s English and would say “Shut up and speak Te Reo Maori” Another relation of mine The Great Dame Whina Cooper would sometimes say to her many Mokopuna’s and wot not, “If you wanna get rid of Pakeha, Marry one” 

These two great women understood the inevitability ahead of a proud and great race of Maori people. Get on with the formation of the long long white cloud before us. ‘E tipu e rea mo nga ra o tou Ao…’ Grow and thrive as a child of your time…" 

Kiwi albums reissued, exhibited


Via Audioculture: "Here's a rather awesome New Zealand Music Month event. As of Tuesday morning some 150 classic New Zealand album covers are on the walls of the Tyler Street Garage in Auckland's Britomart, and they will stay up until May 31.

It's called Tied To The Tracks, after a Shona Laing album that has been unavailable for some 34 years and NEVER on digital - until now.

Why? To celebrate the digital rerelease of some 200 unavailable New Zealand albums, many of which have been out of print for decades - that's why. Some go back to 1960 and they span the decades thereafter.

Over the past two years or more, Recorded Music New Zealand has worked with record labels to remaster and reissue these records, putting them up on iTunes and Spotify. We're also embedding all of them in our profiles on AudioCulture.

An amazing visual feast, if you are in Auckland and have an interest in our musical past, it's a must do."

NZ Herald reports "Around 500 albums from across the popular music spectrum will be digitised by the time the project is finished, said Chris Caddick, board chair of Recorded Music New Zealand. "We have so many talented artists throughout New Zealand's music history who for a long time have been in no mans land because they were available only on a physical recording", Caddick said.

Hats off to Chris Caddick and co for working on getting these albums back out, in digital form.

New Dubmatix album



"In Dub celebrates 10 years of Dubmatix. Since the debut release of "Champion Sound Clash" in 2004, Dubmatix has released 6 “official” CD releases, many digital albums, EPs and remixes. In Dub returns to his roots and passion for Dub and all of it’s possibilities.

It includes a few tracks only available on a couple compilations several years back, but never officially included on a Dubmatix release. A couple were free downloads but have since been re-worked into fresh updated versions of their former selves and of coarse, many new tracks.

From heavy bass-driven stepper tunes such as Dub Steppa, Into Battle Dub to the equally heavy but roots dub focused Galactical Dub, Magnetic Dub, 007 Dub to the future or electro-sound of Circus Maximus Dub, 16 Stone Dub and Mad Massa Gana Dub – no matter your dub preference, each has been crafted to take you, the listener, on a journey of dub exploration."

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Ring The Alarm playlist, May 17



Beat conductor - Hottest dub
Sly N Robbie - Superthruster
Joe Ariwa - Adventures in araraquara
Leroy Smart - Jah is my light
The Jamaicans - Ba ba boom
Ninjaman and Flourgon - Zig it up
Benny Tones feat Mara TK - Firefly
Tubbs - T's groove
Lord Echo - Thinking of you
Elder Statesman - Montreaux sunrise
Soul II Soul - Back to life/Jazzie's groove
D'Angelo - Chicken grease
Angie Stone - Wish I didnt miss you
Misun - July - Cousin Cole and Nacey edit
Beanfield feat Baijka - Tides - Carl Craig remix
Little dragon - Killing me
Fat Freddys Drop - Flashback - Jazzanova mashed bag remix
Johnny Hammond - Shifting gears
Mark de Clive Lowe - Ghaziya (listening party for his new album 'Church'  at Conch Records May 22, 6pm, free)
Neblina sound - Shuggabits riddim dub
Herbs - Meteli
Wrongtom meets Deemus J -Wa do dance
Mad Lion - Girlzz
Wally Badarou - Chief inspector (precinct 13)
Ebonee Webb - Something about you
Universal robot band - Dance and shake your tambourine


NZ Music Month flashback: Emma Paki

Friday, May 16, 2014

Darondo reworked




"Via Ubiquity: "With Darondo’s sudden and unexpected passing last year, the world truly lost a singular and unique talent. “Didn’t I” was undoubtedly his most beloved and well-known song making the rounds in Soul collectors’ circles for some time and reaching a much wider audience with numerous placements on TV and movies including the iconic show “Breaking Bad.” Three producers from across the globe have paid him homage by adding their touches and flavor to the classic tune."

Tracklist
01. Didn’t I (GUTS remix)
02. Didn’t I (Florent F rework)
03. Didn’t I (Dave Allison rework)
04. Didn’t I (original)

Digital out now, vinyl mid-June
ORDER UBIQUITY SHOP / Bandcamp / iTunes / Amazon

Naomi Shelton, new album out soon



Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens with their second album Cold World, out July 29 on Daptone Records. Get the newest 45 "Sinner" b/w "Everybody Knows"

Daptone says "With Gabriel (Bosco Mann) Roth at the helm, Naomi and company went into the studio Summer 2013, and cut onto tape what can only be described as bonafide Soul Excitement of the highest order!

 At the heart of it, Cold World is a Soul record but the cross section of sub-genres the album weaves through makes it difficult to label it plainly as such. There are tracks like ‘Sinner’, ‘Heaven Is Mine’, and ‘Humble Me’ that capture the group’s penchant for Soul grooves, seasoned with Naomi’s tough vocal delivery, and the Queens melodic interplay, which captures perhaps better than any of the other tracks, 

NSGQ’s live show. Then there’s some hard funk by way of ‘Bound for the Promised Land’, ‘Cold World’, and ‘Thank You Lord’ - the percolating church rave-up of ‘Get Up, Child’, the country heavy ‘One Day’, and ‘I Earned Mine’, and the bouncing rumba of ‘Everybody Knows.' 

 This album is a menagerie of Soul music at its finest, untied by the strong message-laden lyrics. Trust us, the wait was worth it."

Upcoming Tour Dates
May 24 Brooklyn, NY @ Jalopy Theatre and School of Music TICKETS
June 25 Ottawa, ON @ Ottawa Jazz Festival TICKETS
July 12 Rochester, NY @ Big Rib BBQ Festival TICKETS
July 19 Cahors, France @ Cahors Blues Festival TICKETS
July 20 Antibes, France @ Jazz A Juan TICKETS
August 8th-10th Regina, Canada TICKETS

Thursday, May 15, 2014

New Quantic biz out now



Via TruThoughts: "After much anticipation, the already highly acclaimed album 'Magnetica' by Quantic, has finally been released worldwide, excluding the Americas who unfortunately have to hold on until 10th June - but can pre-order now.

 ‘Magnetica’ sees Quantic revisiting his electronic roots, blending cutting-edge and distinctive production with elements of folk, reggae, soul, highlife, cumbia and more.

Other featured guests on the album include Alice Russell, Shinehead, Nidia Gongora, Dereb The Ambassador, Thalma De Freitas and Anibal Velásquez; illuminating the sounds, styles and languages of Ethiopia, Jamaica, Brazil, the UK and beyond.

 The album can now be streamed publicly here, (excluding The Americas)...." but TruThoughts won't let me embed it, ugh...

Quantic says of the new album that "When I play music, whatever and wherever, I am celebrating it, not rebranding that music as my own. This is not mash-up, where it's just loops and sampling.

On this album I can say: 'Look, there are 12 people playing on this song, I've tracked down the right percussionist and it's an original composition. But I don't really buy the purist, Pete Seeger, Dylan-goes-electric debate about what is authentic. Everything is authentic. Folklore today is kids listening to mobile phones on the bus, or making beats with their PlayStations."

Neblina Sound - Wickedness!



Cool bleepy electro reggae n beats outta Spain... name your price...  "The sixth reference from Neblina Sound arrives. Called "Wicked Dubs", contains five tracks produced by Fekim and influenced by electronic dub and d'n'b and the jungle classic sounds. The culture of Jamaican riddims continues to inspire this Barcelona producer and the Ep is an example of this."

Aaron Tokona on Kim Dotcom, PT II

Aaron Tokona has posted pt II this morning. Following on from Part I, read that here...

"Good morning Aotearoa i hope everyone slept soundly, ready for the day ahead and is wide AWAKE. Its been a harrowing week thus far for me indeed and again i would like to thank all of your messages of Love and Support for taking up the flame against this Megalomanic who currently is enjoying his democratic rights to piss all over the country my Tipuna discovered and that we now all get to Love as brothers and sister together.

I would like to publicly apologise to the media of our country, because yelling at people to hurry up and and use there privileged positions to help this hori cause of mine is not the way to make friends in life and i apologise for my silly little outburst the other day. Because the freedom of speech i have is the same freedom of speech the media also have, and the freedom's we take for granted at times deserve Respect and Gratitude in the spirit of all of the democratic rights we all cherish together. 

I would also like to Publicly apologise to Mikee Tucker. Because aside from whatever my personal challenges have been with Mikee, Mikee Tucker and Loop Recordings Aot(ear)oa has made a lifetimes contribution to Kiwi Music and a lot of the artists on his label are my friends whom i love dearly. And besides that. Mikee is doing exactly what i did. He is working to support a family and there is nothing wrong with everything that is right about that.

In case anyone out there is confused about what i am doing here. i would like to emphatically and compassionately say this.

There is a very real opportunity that a man i worked for has the very real potential to take part in the decision's to run my country. And if you think my observation of this is ludicrous well then how the hell did the 'Internet Party' manage to get this far? There was a massive demographic of young people that did not vote last time round! and that is there freedom of choice to enjoy. 

But in a current political environment that offers very little choices to all of us presently. Who do you think these young people might possibly vote for now? Kim Dot Com quite clearly speaks directly to this demographic, and so now suddenly there is a choice for this demographic to possibly vote for. And for the Love of everything that any one in our country believes in. I have to stand up and say that 'THIS CANNOT HAPPEN'.

So i present to you all here an account of an experience i had with KDC.And I will put my hand on the bible or any holy book of truth in any house of law to say that - I swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me God.

and on a side note. I got a txt yesterday from a friend (and i have a lot of very cool friends) that apparently my name has popped up on the 9th floor of parliament and someone there has referred to me me as a "whale oil feeder" and thank god for that!

PLEASE SHARE THIS AROUND GUYS. LETS MAKE THE TRUTH AS VIRAL AS WE CAN.


An Experience In Cosmic Narcissism Part 2

A personal account of working for ‘THE PHENOMENAL’
KIM.DOT.COM.ORG.NET.THE WORLD.THEUNIVERSE.AND.EVERYONE.IN.IT.co.nz


That first day on planet.com was AWESOME AMAZING and PHENOMENAL to say the least. There was a lot of hype in the studio that night and by the time i got back to the hotel i was in that classic state that most muso types struggle with as the night felt like it took the night off and the next day was fast approaching. I was physically, emotionally and very mentally exhausted and yet wide awake or otherwise in a state i often refer to as ‘wired and tired’. 

Like most kiwis at the time I was a fan of Kim’s because he was the guy who had shaken the foundations of the National Government, the police, the FBI and presumably the Whitehouse after the botched raid of a mansion he rents and lucky for us was not allowed to purchase. But most of all i was personally a KDC fan because this was the guy that managed to single handedly freak the living hell out of our present prime minister the Right Honourable John Key and his sidekick buddy the Left Honourable John Banks.

In one foul swoop Kim’s Dot managed to Com-pletely wipe those smugly smiles right off of their smug little faces, which was an honourable little moment for us to all enjoy, even if it only lasted a few days. I liked and admired Kim Dot-Com because he seemed a beacon of hope, a modern-day post-Nazi, German Robin Techno-Hood. 

God knows what Euro-Sumo wrester could be his Friar Tuck in the mega-movie of the mega-star of international internet gluttony. Except Robin Hood robed from the rich and gave to the poor, he didn't rod everyone then give the money to himself to create a deluded reality of opulence and gluttony to then re- package and re-sell to all of us as an example of the sole goal of life otherwise known in the western world as - Success!

I noticed very early on in the piece how the construct of KimDot’s universe seemed to be missing some very vital elements in it to keep it all ticking along but i still couldn't work out what that was because my ego was wholly lost in the adulation of my new best friend and current employers appreciation towards my skill’s and upon KDC arrival to the studio that day i was embraced heartily and felt very welcomed into my new found family that would start to feel like a cult of some kind sooner then i could have expected. 

This left me in a state of feeling very eager to please the man that sat at the head of the table of the universe he controlled and maintained who is known to most as Kim Dot Com but known unto himself as G.O.D. So receiving the embrace from a benevolent King Canute who once controlled five per cent of all Internet traffic world-wide.You can only imagine how this made me feel, which was quite obviously ………………….. PHENOMENAL.

So i guess like any other average healthy human homosapien man ape, i was pretty wrapped up in all that ego crap, and very happy at the fact that the fan in me found a fan in him. The feeling that maybe he was the Sheriff of Nottingham dressed up as Friar Tuck. Made me feel like i was always auditioning for a part in some kind of Mega Movie or living in a reality show when the film crew turned up at 1-2am in the morning! 

And all of a sudden i had my Blue sunny’s on, and a scarf wrapped around my head in case my hori brain happened to explode everywhere, because outta know-where at an ungodly hour in the ‘am’ i found myself shooting a music video in Studio ‘A’ to the music i contributed to in the previous many hours before with one of the other american songwriters on the team with a full film crew who were obviously ready and waiting for GOD to ring them all into the studio somewhere between 1-2 ‘AM’ in the morning.

This was now feeling quite bizarre to me. But it was more bizarre at the fact that i seemed to be the only one present that noticed the bizarreness of the current moment. I had to re-check that i was still in Aotearoa because for a minute there i thought i might be on the set of The Hobbit! and besides………I don't remember signing up for a music video, but i gathered myself and got on with whatever i think i signed up for with the only thought that was helping me at this time of the morning. And that was i was getting very well remunerated for apart in someone’s Mega reality show, and with the thought of my family at home and my committed responsibilities to contribute to the things i love, i got on with the circus show unfolding in front of me.

End of Part 2."

NZ Music Month flashback: Urban Disturbance



First band from Mr Zane Lowe, alongside Oli Green and Rob Salmon. 1993 styles.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Clinton Smiley's vinyl up for sale

Clinton Smiley. Photo: Conch Facebook event

Via Conch Records... "On Saturday 17 May from 3pm, friends and family of Jason Harding a.k.a Clinton Smiley invite you to Conch Records to play some of Clinton’s records, with the option to buy a part of his legendary collection too. Money raised will be donated to the trust fund set up for Jason’s children, Alex & Taika. Whether you know him or whether you don't, come down & spend the afternoon with us.

Clinton Smiley was (and always will be) one of the very early crop of local DJs & music connoisseurs in the modern sense. Clinton Smiley hosted the legendary ‘At Home’ on Radio Active on Thursday nights, followed by ‘The Floor’ in later years. 

He held residencies at Clares, The Sub Club, Naked Angel, Mas-if, the legendary Juice night, Edward Street Cafe, Tatou, La Luna, The Matterhorn, and finally Trash at Good Luck. 

He played support for a swag of internationals DJs, including Sasha and Paul Oakenfold. Towards the end of his long career he’d begun playing overseas, with gigs in Japan’s Kansai district and at London’s Southside Soul. Clinton was (and still is) a likeable rogue with intelligence to burn & he didn’t suffer fools gladly. This came across in his sets as well as in person. 

Clinton Smiley’s last set was November 23, 2006 on The Floor, the Radio Active show he founded in 2000. The next day, November 24, 2006, he suffered a brain aneurysm. This caused a debilitating stroke, a week and a half later. Jason Harding currently resides in a nursing home in Porirua.

www.audioculture.co.nz/people/jason-harding

Soulfest NZ lineup announced!



Maxwell, D'Angelo, Common, Angie Stone, Mos Def, Anthony Hamilton, Musiq Soulchild, more to be announced.

Press release: "I|E|G and Ginnen Group in association with George FM and Mai FM, are thrilled to announce Soulfest, New Zealand’s first ever Neo-Soul, Jazz and Hip-Hop Festival.

This unique Music and Cultural Festival is a celebration of some of the world’s finest contemporary Neo-Soul, Jazz and Hip-Hop Artists.

Auckland’s iconic Western Springs Stadium will host this event in a specially configured ‘limited capacity’ location contained within the bottom speedway area of the grounds.

The 7 spectacular international artists have an astounding combined tally of 52 Grammy Nominations amongst themselves. Maxwell, D’Angelo, Anthony Hamilton and Angie Stone will all be

visiting New Zealand for the very first time, and will be joined by Common, Mos Def and Musiq Soulchild, plus a selection of some of New Zealand’s finest talent, still to be announced.

Over 10 live acts and DJ’s will feature throughout the 10-hour day.

Soulfest will also feature an expansive array of great “Soul Food”, and an excellent selection of wines, beers, spirits, great coffee and non-alcoholic options aplenty.

Soulfest will be a unique opportunity to see and hear some of the world’s finest artists in a cool, relaxed and friendly atmosphere.

VIP tickets will feature an exclusive front of stage area for a very limited capacity with access to the VIP bar, where VIP foodoutlets and VIP toilets are all on offer for the ticket purchaser.

SOULFEST NZ DATE AND TICKET DETAILS
Sunday Oct 26th (Labour Weekend) – Western Springs Stadium, Auckland
12pm-10pm

TICKETS ON SALE from www.ticketmaster.co.nz or call 0800 111 999 / 09 970 9700

Limited Early Bird Pre Sale tickets to Ticketmaster members on sale Tuesday 3rd June from 9am
Limited General Public Early Bird tickets on sale Thursday 5th June from 9am

EARLY BIRD TICKET PRICES
Limited VIP Early Bird Tickets - $149 plus fees and charges
Limited General Admission Early Bird Tickets - $99 plus fees and charges

GENERAL PUBLIC ON SALE TICKET PRICES
VIP Tickets $179 plus fees and charges
General Admission $129 plus fees and charges
Limited VIP Side of Stage Experiences from $299 plus fees

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Ak Council wants all clubs to close at 3am, no dancing til dawn

Via stuff.co.nz: "Auckland residents will have their say on a proposed crackdown on bar hours and alcohol sales across the city.

The Auckland Council overwhelmingly approved for public consultation on the controversial policy to close pubs and clubs at 3am in the city and Ponsonby, and 1am everywhere else ...

... Under the far-reaching alcohol proposal, bars would not be able to sell shooters, shots or many cocktails after midnight throughout most of the city and not after 1am in city and Ponsonby bars.

There would also be a cap on the number of off-licences operating in some Auckland areas. This could deny new supermarkets permission to sell alcohol in some suburbs. It is not just supermarket shoppers who could be affected by the proposed rules.

More than 100 DJs have set up a group, Dance Till Dawn, to protest against earlier closing times.

Auckland DJ Rob Warner, who is heading the group, said clubbers tended to be aged 30 and were are not to blame for booze-fuelled crime.

"The average club-goer is music motivated. They're not motivated by alcohol," he said. "We see a different scene from what the police report."

Closing clubs earlier would turn off international acts since clubbers would refuse to pay cover charges just to be sent home at 3am, he said.

The proposed local alcohol policy comes after new national 4am closing time for bars was introduced in December 2013.

Local council policies can override the national hours but Wellington's proposed 5am closing is being appealed by police and health authorities.

Auckland councillors voted 20-1 to support the proposal going out for public consultation. Following consultation, the council is expected to report back on recommendations by November. Any changes are unlikely to take effect this year.

NZ Music Month flashback: Upper Hutt Posse

Yeabsley Bros vs Lord Echo newie




7" and Digital out May 13, 2014. Pre-Order the 7" and get instant download of this song :bastardjazz.bandcamp.com/album/montre…pine-express

Bastard Jazz say "After the dynamo sophomore release that was 2013's "Curiosities", New Zealand's Lord Echo returns to Brooklyn's Bastard Jazz label, this time producing Kiwi trio The Elder Statesman comprised of twin brothers and Wellington fixtures Christopher (piano) and Daniel (double bass) Yeabsley with Lord Echo himself on percussion and drums.

On the "A" side, Montreux Sunrise is mellow meander through a laidback early 70s souljazz vibes, while "Trans Alpine Express" picks things up on the B side with a deep, spiritual piano groove, upfront doublebass, and Echo's percussion perfectly in the pocket."

ADDED: via Wax Poetics, free download of the A side, below...

Monday, May 12, 2014

Aaron Tokona on Kim Dotcom, PT I

Aaron Tokona in the studio with Kim Dotcom. Photo belongs to Aaron Tokona


Earlier today, guitarist Aaron Tokona (A Hori Buzz/Cairo Knife Fight) published a long rant on his Facebook page taking aim at Kim Dotcom, who he worked for as a hired hand on Dotcom's album, Good Times. 

Seems Aaron didn't have such a good time, as he alludes to in this first posting, one of several he's promised. Reprinted below in full, with Aaron's permission. 

He also notes that a TV3 political reporter had been in touch and she'd asked him to substantiate his claims, which he says he can... 

An Experience In Cosmic Narcissism Part 1:

A personal account of working for ‘THE PHENOMENAL’
KIM.DOT.COM.ORG.NET.THE.WORLD.THEUNIVERSE.AND.EVERYONE.IN.IT.co.nz

"A little while ago I got a phone call from a good friend whom I recently lost but remain hopeful to someday regain. My friend asked me if I’d come play my guitar on the Kim Dot Com album which by that time had been in production for around 2 years. I was half expecting that call as Neil Finns Roundhead Studio’s is a place I’d been working out of for 4-5 years and everyone there felt like family to me and because of this the place had become my music Marae. It felt safe for me to simply be a self obsessed artist type forever in search of the magic stuff in the form of music that engages people in the area of the heart.

Roundhead had been abuzzed with the presence of what was described as something of a sage like phenomenon and at the time most kiwis believed this myth and so did I a tiny weeny bit, because everyone loves a good David and Goliath story. The media was obsessed with all of it so much so that it missed the obvious fact which was we the public were all getting sick to death of the circus it had all become.

I have been in the Music Industry for most of my little life and have met a lot of very famous and successful musicians, actors, politicians and narcissistic personality types so nothing really fazes me very much these days because unfortunately for the world we lost Hendrix many years ago and if he was still walking the earth that would be the only possible thing that could ever Faze, Blaze or completely Haze me all the way out!

so if your standard is set that high everyone else you ever meet just becomes a mere mortal really. But i never judge the cover of any book i haven't yet read so i was simply very grateful to be asked to play, and to be paid very well, to bring my skill’s that i had honed over many years on the dole (thank you aunty Helen) for someone’s Album. 

Ironically the day before walking into the KimDot sessions i was apart of a beautiful charity event with my awesome and amazing muso mates my sis Anika Moa my bro Tiki and we were there giving our music in support of our beautiful friend Ella Rose towards her contribution to the awesome work of the Global Poverty Project a foundation dedicated to eradicating extreme poverty in the world in one generation. 

So you can imagine what it might have been like for me to walk out of that situation and straight into an environment of extreme gluttony! They were polar opposites, and if you know me you can only imagine how funny moving between those extreme states could have been for me.

Upon my arrival at Roundhead Studio’s for the first day on the KimDot sessions it was immediately clear to me that the vibration and feeling of the place was very low which was confirmed when i walked into studio 'A' and energetically introduced myself to the 3 hotshot afro american producer’s sitting in the back staring into the abyss of there laptop’s looking bored, uninspired and very much in need of a break from being exceptionally well paid for the privilege of being someone’s slave. 

This was very sad to me as they obviously came from a Whakapapa (Genealogy) of a civilisation that abolished all these things and more in the the Pursuit of Happiness and the great American Dream. There was little life-force in the place and i got all this in the first 5 minutes and i still hadn’t yet formally met ‘the guy’. 

As he walked into the room the first thing he said to me was “I hear you make magic with strings”! I just about lost my shit and burst into fits of uncontrollable laughter but i didn’t, i just shook his hand and at that moment i felt very skinny as Kim is a very BIG little guy that speaks in a very commanding way, so as i began setting up my gear to begin my musical contribution's to his God awful music i remember very clearly thinking to myself only one thing. 

Which was that i was going to completely annihilate these guys in the one way i know i can, and that was through the music that came out of me through my guitar, and with that i did a mental Haka, imagined i was Buck Shelford wearing my All Black gear and then preceded to waste all of them.

The game didn’t win on that first day in the studio i did. Suddenly the american hotshot producer guys woke up and started whistling and hooting at me in that annoying american way they do, and i became what would later be referred to me as - ‘Kim’s Favourite’ which just made me want to vomit. I was only meant to be there for 2-3 days top’s but as it turned out I had a long and painful 2 month’s ahead of me of some of the most bizzar experiences in human psychosis I've had thus far.

End of Part 1."

ADDED 13 May 2014: Fairfax's Vicki Anderson has this story 'Racist Day' fun with Kim Dotcom, as featured on the front page of The Press today...

excerpt... "... Christchurch musician Aaron Tokona, who played guitar on Dotcom's album, said [Dotcom] took part in "racist day" during the recording of his album last year at Auckland's Roundhead Studios.

"On racist day you were allowed to speak freely, make racist jokes and it was OK apparently," Tokona said yesterday.

"He could be called an evil Nazi and given the Hitler salute and he would call people ‘his little n......'."

Dotcom also had two gollywog dolls made for the American producers, including the musical director of the Black Eyed Peas, Printz Board, who worked on the album, Tokona said.

"He decided to play a prank so had two gollywog dolls made in their likeness and left them in the studio. A video was made of their reactions to walking into the studio and finding the gollywogs," Tokona said.

In a statement released to The Press by the Internet Party, Kim Dotcom said: "There was never any personal offence meant nor taken. It actually went to show that race wasn't an issue for any of us."

The statement also included comment from Roundhead Studios' sound engineer, Neil Baldock.

Baldock said that during the recording, artists working on the album would occasionally "trash talk" each other as a way of blowing off steam.

"This was something that had been brought to the studio by the African-American members of an international recording act working on the album, who said it was a tradition they had started some years previously to blow off steam during long and sometimes stressful periods in the recording studio.

"Everyone in the studio would rib each other on subjects normally considered taboo. These were never personal attacks and there was no malice. It was all closed-door fun."

Baldock described it as a "jokey" banter session.

"When the producer of an international band came to work on Good Times in our studio a couple of years ago, he told us that for years when the group toured the world they had a jokey kind of banter session," Baldock said.

"It was just a crazy, fun thing, and we joined in. It would go on for no more than five or 10 minutes during recording sessions that lasted hours and hours, so it was no big deal.

"Whatever minority group or nationality might have been in the room was fair game and everyone dished it out equally. Nobody got offended. They got me for being white and freckled. Kim didn't actually know about it, but was in the studio one day and joined in. He copped it over his weight. He was there for a few sessions, then it kind of died out."

Tokona said he decided to talk about his experiences with Dotcom after receiving an email.

"Tom Scott of HomeBrew, with the help of musicians around New Zealand, was organising a series of concerts up and down the country called Vote, to get people motivated to take part in the election," Tokona said.

"But Kim Dotcom has directly stolen this idea and is doing the same thing."

Aaron Tokona posted the above story on his Facebook page, adding "Well this part of my story was actually going to be Part 3 of my 8 part account of working for Kim's Dot. But as i sit here getting Part 2 into shape Part 3 made the Paper! And now the truth i was going to speak out about AMAZINGLY has been substantiated by KIM DOT COM and his little n......ers themselves. WAKEY WAKEY Aotearoa this is the 'guy' that currently has the potential to run our country if we let it happen and...............THIS CANNOT HAPPEN............ PLEASE......... FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING YOU BELIEVE IN AND CARE ABOUT.....................................WAKE UP."

ADDED May 13 - Russell Brown at Public Address has also been following this story, read his piece here. He notes that "... Neil Baldock has left Roundhead not entirely happily and now works for Dotcom’s forthcoming Baboom music business in LA. Also: his statement was signed off by Printz Board, indicating he agrees with the account given by Baldock ... if (as I have been told) the same story was being saved up for later release by Whaleoil, it being broken now may be a small mercy..."

Russell has since added the following: "Edit: Neil Baldock left Roundhead on good terms in July last year and is currently overseas for a few months exploring his options. Information I was given earlier that he left after conflict and is working for Dotcom’s Baboom music service was incorrect on both counts and I’d like to apologise to Neil for its publication."

ADDED May 15 - Part II is now out, here.